Protest Brings Awareness: Victoire commits to doing better to address racism

Here is what we are doing this week to be better allies in our community with Black, Indigenous and People of Colour

Our sadness and rage; your actions and knowledge: we want to commit to doing more and better.  We are enthusiastic in the diversity of our hiring, in the representation on our website, in the artists we collaborate with, in our customer service and in the ways Victoire allocates its resources. But we want to examine Victoire, and ourselves, deeper to find new ways to be better allies. This is what we can do NOW:

• We are educating ourselves by finding diversity in our news sources (Democracy Nowis a long time favourite but we would love a recommendation with a more Canadian focus). We are always educating ourselves through the thoughts and actions of our current (and former) staff members, and our vibrant and thoughtful Victoire community through your social media (and hopefully again soon through our in-store interactions). We learn so much from our errors and the growth that comes from being educated by those around us.
• We are committing to seek out more BIPOC designers for you to support at Victoire. We will also be considering what factors may be limiting more BIPOC designers from selling at Victoire, and what we can do to remove those barriers. We our committed to actively being anti-racist and acknowledge the white-privilege in our management, community structures and support systems. 
• We will be donating personally to each of these organizations: BAUcollective, BlackWomenInMotion, IdleNoMore, BlackLegalActionCenter, BlackLivesMatterToronto. As well, Victoire will be donating 20% of sales this week to these organizations. 
• We will do better at advocating for those around us by amplifying their voices through our social media. Though we have often felt that our actions speak louder and that other voices are more necessary, we are now realizing the option to only listen on social media is a form of our white-privilege. We are committed to doing more and better in this arena.

We are very open to any ideas, criticism or feedback you may have. As a small business rooted in community ties we want to do better by all those around us. 

In solidarity,
Regine & Katie