Baby-wearing is a great way to bond with your newborn and also, apparently, a great way to demonstrate your white supremacy.
Who knew, right?
Solly Baby, a company that makes baby wrap carriers (which to non-parents can be translated as long pieces of fabric), has been under fire by the woke community after introducing a new product, The Loop Carrier.
To the untrained eye, it may appear fairly innocuous. But to those trained in art of finding offense in everything, it is clearly racist.
The founder, Elle, said in a video statement on Instagram that the backlash came in the form of accusations of cultural appropriation of the style of baby carrier, a lack of acknowledgment of the roots of baby-wearing, and a failure to respond quickly enough to the BIPOC community regarding these complaints.
You can watch the apology on Instagram if the embed breaks.
After this video apology, Solly Baby posted another apology about how the previous apology was also racist and only amplified white voices.
In our efforts to know better and do better, especially when it's hard, I have read feedback relating to my statement yesterday that I would like to apologize for here:
1. I am sorry for centering myself in an apology intended for Black, Indigenous, and people of color. I can see that I centered myself in the apology and on my own emotional weight rather than the emotional burden placed upon the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color I have offended. I am deeply sorry that in my defensive attempts to explain myself, I made it about me instead of you. I can see how that was dismissive of the apology. That was not my intention but I can see it was the impact.
I was also informed that using the acronym BIPOC should only be done in writing, not in speaking, which we will be mindful of in the future.
2. I am sorry for problematic support of white women's comments and not amplifying BIPOC voices. We failed in our responses to many of the comments in our post. We can see where not continually acknowledging our missteps and the work we have to do as an organization was contradictory to our apology.
3. I am sorry for appropriation of a carrier that was not mine to claim. We introduced our carrier as a brand new carrying style rather than our take on a short cross carry with a ring that emerged over a decade ago in many BIPOC communities. This also reveals our lack of acknowledgement of the deep roots and unbroken tradition of babywearing in communities of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color that have given the babywearing world so much.
We look forward to learning and sharing more of this history as we celebrate the gift of babywearing and the many cultures and peoples and histories that have, often at great personal expense, shared this gift with all of us.
Three apologies later, and the baby-wearing woke are still not satisfied.
