Column: How Corporate America Can Go Beyond Lip Service and Help Foster Change

Column: How Corporate America Can Go Beyond Lip Service and Help Foster Change
Image by Tania Volosianko/ Shutterstock

Since the widespread protests against police brutality in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and countless others — large-scale public conversations have followed. Many companies have shared statements expressing their condolences to and solidarity with their Black employees and customers, and outlining their commitment to fighting racism.


Many of these statements have been welcome, with leaders sharing heartfelt personal sentiments that have hit the right notes, while others have been less well-received, with critics pointing out their uniformity and arbitrary tone.

Eyana Carballo is the manager of global commercial strategy & IP at BCG Digital Ventures.

But no matter how strong or wanting these statements have been, they mean very little without a concrete commitment to tangible steps that companies can enact. Now that the words have been shared, it's time for companies and leaders to walk the talk.

So, what can companies do?

Expand Diversity Networks

Enabling employees to work to bolster internal networks is an integral part of making sure their voices are heard. These networks can drive real change, helping to raise issues and set priorities and, in turn, to be heard by leadership. They can be vessels for mutual support, mentorship, and representation.

Invest and Donate

One obvious way companies can take action that backs up their words is by contributing financially. Consistent donations to causes such as the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund or the Southern Poverty Law Center are valuable, giving them the resources they need to affect positive change. But companies can also invest other resources, such as talent; partnerships with leading organizations that address racial injustice and inequality are extremely valuable for all parties.


Apply Metrics and Foster Accountability

Without a clear view of what's happening, it's difficult for companies to affect positive change or even decide on what that change might look like. Honing in on the current status quo and what 'good' would look like, in terms of internal diversity but also the external impact of work, enables companies to move in a positive direction and assess success, bolstering accountability in the process.

One aspect of this is a commitment to accelerating representation, which encompasses driving retention parity, increasing representation in leadership and educating leaders and staff. Metrics, whether internal and external, can be the levers which drive this and ensure tangible and lasting impact.

Each company will have its own set of circumstances, its own state of play, and different work that needs to be done. But now that these issues have been raised, we need to make sure that they do everything they can, starting with the initiatives above, to really support Black employees and the wider Black community, moving beyond spoken sentiments to actively making the world a more equitable place.

Eyana Carballo is the manager of global commercial strategy & IP at BCG Digital Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Boston Consulting Group.

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If Angelenos Don’t Seize the Curb, They Risk Losing Sidewalk Dining

Maylin Tu
Maylin Tu is a freelance writer who lives in L.A. She writes about scooters, bikes and micro-mobility. Find her hovering by the cheese at your next local tech mixer.
Connie Llanos, Jordan Justus and Gene Oh
Justin Janes, Vizeos Media

Three years ago, Los Angeles went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, cities like L.A. are struggling to hold on to pandemic-era transportation and infrastructure changes, like sidewalk dining and slow streets, while managing escalating demand for curb space from rideshare and delivery.

At Curbivore, a conference dedicated to “commerce at the curb” held earlier this month in downtown Los Angeles, the topic was “Grading on a Curb: The State of our Streets & Cities in 2023,” a panel moderated by Drew Grant, editorial director for dot.LA.

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Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Plug In South LA Accelerator Launches 4th Cohort to Double Down On Black and Latinx Communities
Provided by Plug In

Last week, Plug In, a South LA accelerator program, announced the launch of its fourth cohort. The deadline to apply is March 24 and the program will begin in April and end mid-July.

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How the 'Thrift Haul' Boosted Secondhand Ecommerce Platforms

Lon Harris
Lon Harris is a contributor to dot.LA. His work has also appeared on ScreenJunkies, RottenTomatoes and Inside Streaming.
How the 'Thrift Haul' Boosted Secondhand Ecommerce Platforms
Evan Xie

If you can believe it, it’s been more than a decade since rapper Macklemore extolled the virtues of thrift shopping in a viral music video. But while scouring the ranks of vintage clothing stores looking for the ultimate come-up may have waned in popularity since 2012, the online version of this activity is apparently thriving.

According to a new trend story from CNBC, interest in “reselling” platforms like Etsy-owned Depop and Poshmark has exploded in the years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. In an article that spends a frankly surprising amount of time focused on sellers receiving death threats before concluding that they’re “not the norm,” the network cites the usual belt-tightening ecommerce suspects – housebound individuals doing more of their shopping online coupled with inflation woes and recession fears – as the causes behind the uptick.

As for data, there’s a survey from Depop themselves, finding that 53% of respondents in the UK are more inclined to shop secondhand as living costs continue to rise. Additional research from Advance Market Analytics confirms the trend, citing not just increased demand for cheap clothes but the pressing need for a sustainable alternative to recycling clothing materials at its core.

The major popularity of “thrift haul” videos across social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok has also boosted the visibility of vintage clothes shopping and hunting for buried treasures. Teenage TikToker Jacklyn Wells scores millions of views on her thrift haul videos, only to get routinely mass-accused of greed for ratching up the Depop resell prices for her coolest finds and discoveries. Nonetheless, viral clips like Wells’ have helped to embed secondhand shopping apps more generally within online fashion culture. Fashion and beauty magazine Hunger now features a regular list of the hottest items on the re-sale market, with a focus on how to use them to recreate hot runway looks.

As with a lot of consumer and technology trends, the sudden surge of interest in second-hand clothing retailers was only partly organic. According to The Drum, ecommerce apps Vinted, eBay, and Depop have collectively spent around $120 million on advertising throughout the last few years, promoting the recent vintage shopping boom and helping to normalize second-hand shopping. This includes conventional advertising, of course, but also deals with online influencers to post content like “thrift haul” videos, along with shoutouts for where to track down the best finds.

Reselling platforms have naturally responded to the increase in visibility with new features (as well as a predictable hike in transaction fees). Poshmark recently introduced livestreamed “Posh Shows” during which sellers can host auctions or provide deeper insight into their inventory. Depop, meanwhile, has introduced a “Make Offer” option to fully integrate the bartering and negotiation process into the app, rather than forcing buyers and sellers to text or Direct Message one another elsewhere. (The platform formerly had a comments section on product pages, but shut this option down after finding that it led to arguments, and wasn’t particularly helpful in making purchase decisions.)

Now that it’s clear there’s money to be made in online thrift stores, larger and more established brands and retailers are also pushing their way into the space. H&M and Target have both partnered with online thrift store ThredUp on featured collections of previously-worn clothing. A new “curated” resale collection from Tommy Hilfiger – featuring minorly damaged items that were returned to its retail stores – was developed and promoted through a partnership with Depop, which has also teamed with Kellogg’s on a line of Pop-Tarts-inspired wear. J.Crew is even bringing back its classic ‘80s Rollneck Sweater in a nod to the renewed interest in all things vintage.

Still, with any surge of popularity and visibility, there must also come an accompanying backlash. In a sharp editorial this week for Arizona University’s Daily Wildcat, thrift shopping enthusiast Luke Lawson makes the case that sites like Depop are “gentrifying fashion,” stripping communities of local thrift stores that provide a valuable public service, particularly for members of low-income communities. As well, UK tabloids are routinely filled with secondhand shopping horror stories these days, another evidence point as to their increased visibility among British consumers specifically, not to mention the general dangers of buying personal items from strangers you met over the internet.

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