PORTLAND, OR – The Portland vintage store Artifact has won the virtue signaling award of the week after announcing its temporary closure for staff to undergo training related to racism and “white supremacy.”
Tired of the ads? Go Ad-Free and Get EXCLUSIVE Content, Become a PREMIUM USER
For reasons the store has declined to mention, management fired a person of color in February. This apparently led to a need to train staff and employees on “microaggression and racial biases” within the store. Enough training was needed, apparently, to completely close the store down for “two to three weeks,” beginning February 26.
“Because of this,” a post by the store read, “we will use the closure to take the following steps…” The post went on to explain that the store will be “engaging an independent BIPOC investigator” to speak with employees. Exactly what is an “independent BIPOC investigator?”
Who the hell knows.
The store also said it would be taking the opportunity of closure to “educate its management team on racial-equity, implicit bias, white supremacy culture, and identifying and interrupting microaggressions.”
Artifact’s website states that it’s hiring (anyone interested?). They state that their hiring “mission” is 3-fold, focusing on design, sustainability, and community.
But, of course, that’s only certain people in the community: “Artifact is an inclusive community hub. Working here you will build relationships with coworkers and customers alike who come from diverse walks of life. Through our Buy/Sell/Trade model we support many individuals who have been excluded from the formal economy. To date, we have raised over $20k through our summer Funday Flea that has been donated to local nonprofits. Throughout the year we host pop-ups and events aimed to raise awareness and promote inclusion of our local BIPOC, Queer, and women identified community and local businesses. It is our goal to continually use our resources and platform to support and benefit these communities.”
It’s unclear at this time whether the BIPOC person fired was allowed back to work after it was discovered that the entire Artifact store was racist.
Red Voice Media has reached out to the company via email for comment and an update on how their abolishment of racism and white supremacy is going, but we have not heard back at this time.
<Support Our Efforts To Keep Truth Alive>
The opinions expressed by contributors and/or content partners are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Red Voice Media. Contact us for guidelines on submitting your own commentary.
Join the Discussion
COMMENTS POLICY: We have no tolerance for messages of violence, racism, vulgarity, obscenity or other such discourteous behavior. Thank you for contributing to a respectful and useful online dialogue.
wth does racial equity mean? racial fairness? so obiden thinks giving free drug kits and crack pipes to black people is fair cuz whites can afford to buy their own???? this racial equity is BS. work hard, do good and u will be treated well. doesnt have a damn thing to do with ur skin color as much as it has to do with THE CHOICES YOU MAKE.
Let us know when they go bankrupt, that’s the next step after being this stupid