Is hiking an activity of a racist nature? No one would say it outright soon, but that's how The North Face has dared to suggest it on Instagram.
The German subsidiary of the brand specialized in outdoor activities got off the hook a few days ago on Instagram with a post that left many stunned. In the previous post, The North Face presented the writer Emilia Zensile Roig as the first member of the EMEA Explore Council fund focused on promoting diversity and inclusion.
To note the incorporation of Zensile Roig to this fund, the brand wrote these words: «Hiking and outdoor activities are perceived mainly as dominated by people of the white race, of the male gender and bourgeois origin and are not this sense accessible and attractive to many people. It is something that must be changed, since nature is not owned by anyone.
Such explosive words (which did not seem to come to mind either) resulted in a strong wave in the form of raging criticism of The North Face in German lands.
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Was it necessary to bring up racism to promote diversity and inclusion?
It is surprising that the brand classifies hiking as an eminently masculine activity when it is clearly a mixed sport, argue the most critical voices. Also, to what extent is hiking inaccessible when a pair of shoes and comfortable clothes are enough to practice it?, some wonder.
What has caused many Internet users a burning horn is that, by the work and grace of The North Face, the specter of racism suddenly hovers over all those who practice hiking.
Faced with a downpour of criticism, The North Face tried to calm things down by disabling the comments feature on its Instagram post. It goes without saying that this decision proved to be clearly wrong and the criticism was not long in moving to Twitter.
Worst of all, The North Face could have easily weathered the reputational crisis it has faced in recent days by promoting a message of diversity and inclusion without adding an unnecessary racist patina to the trekking its own. customers.
