CWA Blog Archive-Projecting Anti-Racism Asking For Free Labor

Projecting Anti-Racism Asking For Free Labor

Pdf Summary

This installment of the Projecting Anti-Racism series confronts the harm of soliciting free labor from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in the rush to become anti-racist. It establishes that developing anti-racist businesses and organizations requires considerable long-term investments in labor and education, and that the work is complex, nuanced, place-specific, and emergent (ever-evolving), so companies newly pursuing anti-racism have much work to do. The article names a trending phenomenon that spiked after the uprisings in defense of Black lives: BIPOC being solicited for free labor. Industry professionals across sectors, put on the defensive and either not knowing how to or not wanting to pursue a genuine internal review of their operations, post a black square, virtue signaling solidarity without real change. They may also flood the inboxes of BIPOC and JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) experts asking for advice without offering to hire them. The article is direct that this is harmful: extractive, and perpetuating the narrative that anti-racist work can be an afterthought rather than the driving force behind socioeconomic pursuits. It reminds readers that any given gym, brand, publication, club, or team is not the only one making these requests, implying the cumulative burden placed on BIPOC individuals. The throughline is that genuine anti-racist work requires paying for the labor and expertise it demands, not extracting free advice from BIPOC individuals while performing solidarity through empty gestures. Because becoming anti-racist is complex, long-term, investment-heavy work, companies can't shortcut it by posting black squares or picking the brains of BIPOC and JEDI experts without compensation, such extraction is harmful, treats anti-racism as an afterthought, and burdens already-taxed individuals who are being asked by countless organizations at once. The article insists that anti-racist work must be the driving force behind business pursuits, backed by real investment in labor and education, rather than a defensive, performative afterthought. For the climbing industry, the piece challenges companies to move beyond virtue signaling and unpaid solicitation toward genuinely resourcing anti-racist work, hiring and compensating the experts whose labor and knowledge that work requires, as a matter of both ethics and effectiveness.

Asset Caption

This Projecting Anti-Racism installment confronts the harm of soliciting free labor from BIPOC individuals after the 2020 uprisings. It calls out black-square virtue signaling and picking experts' brains without hiring them as extractive and performative, insisting genuine anti-racist work requires real long-term investment in labor and education, not unpaid solicitation.