April 6th, 2024 | Megan Priestman

Go Woke And Broke In The Great Outdoors

North Face UK gives discounts for accepting woke ideology.

“White privilege, however, does not imply that white people have not or cannot experience struggles in life; it means that any struggles that a white person has faced or may face is not related to the colour of their skin”

- "Allyship in the Outdoors”, the North Face, UK

Nike, Target, Disney, Bud Light, Harry’s Razors, Skittles, Kelloggs. The list of companies or brands that went woke and received financial and political repercussions as a result is long. While some of them have learned their lesson the hard way, it would appear that not everyone is taking the hint that most customers just want a good quality product at a fair price without the woke politics. The North Face UK is set to join the long list of companies who went woke and will hopefully go broke as a result. 

The North Face UK has launched a course titled “Allyship in the Outdoors” aimed at promoting the inclusion of people of colour in the Great Outdoors. UK customers who take the course are eligible for a 20% discount on their next purchase and get a certificate of completion for the course.

The stated goals of the course are, of course, no surprise. It’s not enough to worry about the usual obstacles you’ll encounter when climbing a mountain or camping in a remote location in the elements, you now need to consider the alleged barriers and challenges faced by people of colour who want to go for a hike. 

The course invites you to “challenge your own assumptions and ways of thinking” and to become a good “ally” to people of colour by hearing their “lived experiences” and provides strategies for doing so. The content contains all you’d imagine it would- misleading and unsubstantiated claims, a denunciation of “white privilege” and calls to action.

An education in racial justice wouldn’t be complete without a discussion of the death of George Floyd, who the course creators identify as the impetus for the BLM movement. Everyone with some sanity knows how "problematic" Floyd’s death is (to borrow a woke phrase). 

Floyd’s autopsy and toxicology reports confirm he had high doses of illegal drugs in his system, had just recovered from Covid and had an underlying heart condition, all of which were significant factors in his death. Importantly, alternate angle video footage released of Floyd’s arrest further calls into question whether Derek Chauvin caused his death. This footage shows Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s shoulder blade and not his neck. It's now known that the events that day didn’t happen exactly as the left-wing media reported. 

But the channelling of George Floyd wasn’t the only questionable material presented. The course also includes numerous video testimonials from people of colour making unsubstantiated claims that they were called the “N-word” and made to “feel different” and “excluded” in outdoor activities. 

The course creators couldn’t miss out on an opportunity to hate on whitey. In the discussion on "white privilege", we’re told that whites enjoy advantages that provide them access to the outdoors while others are excluded because of their race. Importantly, we’re advised that white privilege doesn’t mean white people don’t face struggles, it just means that these struggles are “not related to the colour of their skin.”

The course creators obviously haven’t heard of anti-white hate crimes such as the 2017 Chicago Torture Incident, or to white South African Farmers, or the victims of grooming gangs in the UK, to name only a few. 

After you’ve finished educating yourself, the course invites you to educate others and kill all humour in the process. (The correct answer to the question below is c) and d), by the way). Like all good allies, it’s not enough that you’re not a racist, or that you just want to mind your own business while skiing or going for a hike. You must take active steps to convert others to far left political beliefs about race and culture, or you yourself are complicit in racism and white-privilege. 

The North Face UK joins a long list of companies that can’t take the hint that customers just want to buy products without the far-left politics. From a business perspective, it doesn’t make sense to declare a political stance on any issue. Doing so automatically alienates half your customer base. Whether the decision to offer this course has come from rogue political actors within the company or was approved by all of upper management is irrelevant. Customers have shown over and over that they just want to purchase their products without having to deal with woke politics. Here’s hoping the North Face UK joins the long list of companies that went broke from going woke.