Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

We believe design should be a refuge — inclusive for all, and encompassing of every human experience. In order for people to feel at home in this space, The Vintage Rug Shop is committed to building an equitable anti-racist organization. 

To put it simply: we stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, and will do everything in our power to dismantle the structures that support white supremacy in this country. 

Beyond that, we recognize our privilege and influence within our local community and social design spheres. We will use that privilege to deeply engage with anti-racism work, and to make it a core tenet of our business in how we buy, hire, and operate going forward.

Our public commitments to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism:

~We will support the work of Black artists, vendors, and manufacturers in sourcing for our design projects and for The Vintage Rug Shop. We are committed to conducting quarterly audits of where/how we are spending our money, and re-allocating to BIPOC businesses as necessary. 

          ~ As of June 2020, 33% of our vendors are BIPOC, and of this, 19% are Black.

          ~ Over the next 2 years, we are committed to increasing this to 40% and 25% respectively.

~ We will vet our partners and vendors, choosing to work with those that adhere to anti-racist policies.

~ We aim to create a workplace environment that is conducive to conversations about race and culture. This will be a non-negotiable part of our quarterly planning, and we are proactively looking for ways to make this part of our continuous organizational learning as a team. These will not be one-off annual trainings, but ongoing discourse around how we can lean more into our identity as an anti-racist organization. 

~ As we grow our team, we will be aligning with hiring best practices focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion. This policy also extends to our work with contractors and freelancers.

~ We will use our platform to share and uplift Black voices and experiences. On the Britt Interiors blog and on our social channels, we will be focusing on creating content that amplifies the work of Black artists, makers, and creatives.

~ We have a no tolerance policy on hateful and racist comments on our blog or social channels. If it is rooted in oppression, it is not an opinion, it is hate speech, and we will delete it in order to create a safer online space for BIPOC. 

~ We will be donating on a quarterly basis to local organizations fighting racial injustice.

As we are a white-owned business, we acknowledge that we are still learning (a privilege in and of itself), and so we will be updating these policies as we engage with this work more deeply. We are always grateful for feedback from our community, so please reach out (hello{at}thevintagerugshop{dot}com) if you’d like to have an open conversation about how we can improve in making diversity, equity and inclusion part of our organizational DNA.

In the spirit of citing the work of Black men and women, we want to be clear that though this policy is our own, it has been very much informed by the following sources:

~ Small Business Reimagined Town Hall, led by Rachel Rodgers, Ericka Hines, Susan Hyatt, Nathan Barry, Sonya Renee Taylor, and Robert Hartwell 

~ The Black Interior Designers Network

~ Oluo, Ijeoma. So You Want to Talk about Race