Black Safety and Liberation in the Fashion Industry & Beyond

Whitney McGuire and Dominique Drakeford, Co-founders of Sustainable Brooklyn

“WHEN YOU START WITH THE SAFETY OF BLACK CONSUMERS, EVERYONE ELSE IS PROTECTED.”

2021 was a reckoning of all kinds for the fashion industry–fashion brands cancelled orders leaving numerous manufacturers and workers unpaid, and George Floyd’s murder catalyzed a racial reckoning and the greatest wave of wokewashing we’ve ever seen. The trend to ignore harm while promoting a facade of good has been played out. Not surprised by any of the responses and reactions of the industry, Whitney McGuire, co-founder of Sustainable Brooklyn and attorney at law, is still in relentless pursuit of redefining sustainability. On this episode of Unspun, McGuire talks to Lauren, Danielle, and Catherine about how she addresses the root of unsustainability with an approach of black safety and liberation.

At the start of her career as a lawyer, McGuire was at the vanguard of the Fashion Law Movement to bring legal protection to artists and designers in fashion. There is very little legal recourse, besides copyright protection and trademark law, to protect young fashion designers from being copied. And there is no legal recourse against the intellectual property of communities being stolen and appropriated. BIPOC communities bear the brunt of this from streetwear to heritage/cultural designs. McGuire seeks to understand how harm shows up in the system to help artists, designers, and communities better protect themselves and their intellectual property. This journey is what led to her work today to address the lack of safety for Black consumers.

The Fashion Industry and the Black Consumer

“IN LAW, THERE ARE DUTIES OF CARE IN BUSINESS TO AVOID LIABILITY FOR HARM AND THERE’S NO OTHER DEMOGRAPHIC THAT HAS BEEN HARMED AS MUCH AS BLACK PEOPLE.”

Labor abuses and negative environmental impacts are issues the industry has been grappling with for decades—from the development of social and labor standards to environmental sustainability programs and circularity initiatives. But the protection (or lack thereof) of Black consumers has gone largely unaddressed.

“IT’S HARD TO COMMIT TO SUSTAINABILITY WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL SAFE.”

Not only is there less safety for Black consumers, there can also be less accessibility to sustainable products where race intersects with class. The sustainability movement often places the onus of responsibility on consumers, sometimes going so far as to shame shoppers for unsustainability when they buy price-conscious fast fashion pieces (accessible to the many) over high cost “sustainable” items (accessible to the few).

Centering People to Create Solutions

McGuire’s approach is truly people-centered and specifically focuses on the safety, justice, and liberation of the Black community. She’s asking a crucial question: What causes Black consumers to feel unsafe where they spend their money?

In response to this question, she and her partner Dominique Drakeford have convened a multi-stakeholder coalition to create the initiative Green-ish, named in the spirit of the original Negro Motorist Green Book by Victor Hugo Green, a publication listing safe businesses to visit for Black travelers during the Jim Crow era. Community members will be held to standards of care, drawing on human rights law and duties of care. The tool is preemptive, putting the responsibility on businesses to meet consumers’ needs rather than on individuals who have experienced harm having to seek legal recourse. People can choose to visit an establishment based on their rating of safety and whether an instance of harm has been reported at that place of business.

Tune in to part two of this two-part series with the co-founders of Sustainable Brooklyn, as Whitney McGuire highlights the many leverage points in the system through which she approaches change in the fashion industry and beyond.