Hold the Press (Accountable)!
September 29, 2020 | By Angela Vega
On a day in mid-June this past summer, I opened Instagram to find in between my feed’s daily cycle of comprehensive educational resources and donation posts compiled by young, sharp and agitated users––rightfully and responsibly angered by a wave of instances pointing to our country’s institutional police violence targeting the black community––were several weak white-on-black images from multimillion and billion dollar global brands and their PR directors expressing vague solidarity and tone-deaf apologies to the black community (despite leading histories of workplace discrimination, workers’ rights violations and numerous bogus, empty promises).
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Widely popular sustainable fashion brand Reformation’s revenue of $150 million in 2019 produced them a single white-on-black image reading “I’ve failed” in response to numerous accusations of fostering a workplace in which employees of color were systematically overlooked for advancement in the company and verbally assaulted with racist comments by fellow employees.
Women’s lifestyle publication Refinery29, on the other hand, switched it up with a black-on-white image reading “Change” (innovative and very different, yes), followed by a resignation note in the caption from its editor and co-founder in response to former employees coming forward to describe discrimination they experienced while working at the company.
Employee-led organization Hold the PRess, which is committed to improving diversity in the public relations and communications industry, analyzed these disingenuous statements critically and quite perfectly. PR agencies seldom appear authentic and often miss the mark with tone-deaf and out-of-touch messages because they neglect the very reason they find themselves entangled in accusations for racist practices in the first place.
“According to Harvard Business Review’s analysis of the federal labor statistics, the PR industry is 89.7% White, 8.3% Black, 2.6% Asian, and 5.7% Hispanic or Latinx,” reported Hold the PRess on its home page. The organization said these messages attempting to stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter appear inauthentic because many of these PR agencies do not do the work to “lift the voices, do not promote, and do not hire enough Black women and men” in the first place.
Brands and PR agencies touting progressive beliefs but then fail to live up to those ideas internally, fundamentally and structurally are claiming empty promises. An apology post on Instagram is not enough. To champion the ideals of the Black Lives Matter movement requires exhaustive restructuring of the workplace and the company’s foundation as a whole. To improve internal culture requires not just an announcement of your client’s newly-added diversity and inclusion board, but an exhaustive analysis of your client and your industry.
Public relations is only important because it serves our people and our democracy. Public relations operates for the mutual benefit of an organization and its constituents. Public relations requires a multidisciplinary approach, in which psychology, sociology and intersectionality all must coexist and play a role.
PR specialists––don’t just commit to saving face. Commit to self-criticism. Commit to dismantling racist foundations and building opportunities. Public relations is not easy. That’s why we’re here.
Angela is a journalism and public relations student at CSU Northridge interested in art, community building and social justice. Currently in the senior year of her undergraduate studies, she is the Public Relations Student Assistant for the CSUN Department of Journalism and a Student Scholar at the CSUN Office of Community Engagement. She hopes in the future to utilize her communications skills to serve nonprofit organizations, and when she grows even older, work in a library and own a tomato garden.