The North Face is offering some customers a 20% discount if they take an hour-long course on racial inclusion.
The sportswear brand says its Allyship in the Outdoors course in the United Kingdom is meant to “educate individuals …on the barriers that people of colour face in the outdoors,” and describes access to the outdoors “in this context” as “white privilege.”
It’s also designed to “foster a deeper understanding of the unique challenges that people of color face when accessing the outdoors,” according to the survey.
News of the program, which launched in November, exploded on social media this week in response to a Sun report.
Shoppers who downloaded the digital course highlighted sections of the “modules” that they found particularly irksome, including a description of ‘white privilege.’
“In this particular context we refer to ‘white privilege’ meaning that your race and skin colur can give you access to the outdoors when others can be excluded because of historic enduring racism and biases,” according to an expert of the course.
In a statement to The Post, the retailer said, “The North Face has always believed the outdoors should be a welcoming, equitable and safe place for all. This course aims to bring light to the barriers to entry preventing all people from sharing equally rewarding experiences in the outdoors.”
The company told The Post the course is only offered in the United Kingdom, where the initiative began.
The 58-year-old, Colorado-based company — owned by VF Corp., which also owns Vans, Timberland and JansSport — took heat for being woke and out of touch.
“This is completely bonkers,” posted one X user while another wrote on X, “I used to be a regular customer. Gone.”
“I might take the course and answer with only politically incorrect responses. Will I still get the coupon?” posted another X user.
Tony Young, the founder of Free Speech Union – a conservative non-profit in the UK that focuses on cancel culture issues – told The Sun “The irony is that The North Face is implicitly acknowledging here that all its customers are white.
“After all, why would black customers need to take a course about ‘white privilege’ to get a 20% discount?”
This story originally appeared on NYPost
