Over the past several months, we have been saddened and outraged by devastating news, which has placed a powerful spotlight on an unconscionable list of racial injustices, abuses of power, prejudice, and broader systems of inequality in the United States. During these challenging times, we must also grapple with a global health emergency that has reinforced economic and racial disparities. The deep pain expressed through nationwide protests is shared across the communities that each of us call home.
We took the time to pause our external messaging, so that we could better direct our attention internally, have open and honest conversations, reflect, learn through our retail team, and to invest our energy into new initiatives to better our journey tomorrow.
Through internal workshops and all-hands discussions, facilitated across every region and including all members of our team, we have established a new framework to enhance our commitment to diversity and inclusion. The immediate actions that we have implemented include:
Two Paid Days Off To Vote
Bluestone Lane is compensating all teammates with two paid days off to research, and to exercise their democratic right to vote this November. We recognize that exercising the right to vote for our government and laws is a crucial method to enact meaningful change.
New Diversity & Inclusion Committee
For diversity and inclusion to truly flourish within our company culture, we acknowledge the need for constant dialogue and fresh ideas. As such, we have formed a Diversity & Inclusion Committee, which will formally meet each month to develop, ideate, and action ongoing initiatives to make the workplace more diverse and inclusive. All of our teammates, regardless of their role or service with our company, have been encouraged and afforded the opportunity to join this Committee.
Donation Match
All donations made by our teammates to any organization that helps promote the Black Lives Matter movement will be matched. This will be ongoing for the remainder of 2020 to ensure that we continue to fundraise throughout the year. This will also allow us to support the organizations that our teammates elect and feel passionate about.
Importantly, we acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers, but we are committed to sustained conversation and constant re-evaluation. We are holding ourselves accountable to promoting our “Fair Go” core value, and we encourage everyone to take up the fight against racial inequality.
“Fair Go” is also the defining value behind our commitment to celebrate all people in our community, with special events, resources and fundraising efforts for Pride, Mental Health Awareness, International Women’s Day, Australian bushfires, the young Visually Impaired, COVID-19 relief, as well as local area donations to charities and schools within our communities. Since our inception, giving back, building community through human connection and celebrating our locals has been inextricably part of the Bluestone Lane brand and mission.
This moment must serve as an inflection point — There is absolutely no tolerance for racism or discrimination of any kind. We must continue to invest in diversity at all levels, have open and honest conversations, educate ourselves about structural inequities, bias, and the systemic challenges that disproportionately impact the Black community. We unequivocally support the Black Lives Matter movement and the urgent need for change.
