Gucci is tripling down on the company memos in the wake of a messy "blackface" scandal. According to TMZ, the luxury fashion brand is instructing its employees to keep a close check on all things insensitive, including but not limited to matters bordering on "blackface." The new "updated security protocol" handbook was sent to all members of staff in an attempt to create some level of continuity throughout their Global chapters.
"Blackface" is not an issue exclusive to North Americans. One might look towards a series of questionable practices in Western Europe to illustrate the problem of racial insensitivity. In the Netherlands exists a Christmas-time tradition where the worshippers of "Black Pete" dive into character by wearing offensive "blackface" makeup.
In the process of issuing the new "protocol" handbook, Gucci has almost privately admitted that he didn't quite understand "the history and significance of blackface" when company CEO Mario Bizzarri suggested that all the Gucci uproar was nothing more than a minor snafu and a whole lot of "overreaction" from a touchy public searching for an inconvenient truth.
Bizzarri plans to hire five new design leads in chapters around the World in order to create a model of biodiversity - as well as the reformation of the Rome head office, where Bizzarri hopes to implement a system to better ensure that "any product that is, or may be perceived as, culturally insensitive does not get to the production stage." The full "protocol" handbook can be viewed here.