Car Design Trends
50th Pride Month Has Automakers More Involved Than Ever
Public displays of support not only respect how customers think and act today but also help establish a safer work environment
If you’ve read this page for a long time, the picture above might give you a feeling of déjà vu: the Chronicle published last year focused on the Pride Month had a very similar first one, featuring a Fiat 124 Spider surrounded by FCA North America’s staff. Comparing them shows two important facts: more workers than last year and the lack of similar photos from other automakers.
Both facts help represent how the automotive industry is taking a stand when it comes to supporting diversity: we see more and more actions every year, but there’s still a long way to go. Considering that the 50th Pride Month came at a very unusual time of our lives, to say the least, the importance of debating this topic and the related ones once again cannot be understated. Shall we begin?
LGBT+ cause and cars? What?
In short, the group fights for equality. We want to make part of society around the world in the same way as any other group, contributing to it and having its respect. Cars, on the other hand, have become a cornerstone of today’s society regarding consumers, market and industry. Their influences are so strong that it was a matter of taking a closer look to start seeing all the ways they overlap.
The car world was founded on the exaltation of archetypical men: white, rich, heterosexual, religious and with a dominant stance over his wife and children. We can see that through analyzing the ad pieces: while the most bizarre cases happened in the past, as Jalopnik reports, discrimination still haunts us every now and then. That only proves how the issue hasn’t been properly addressed.
How does discrimination appear?
Almost every post on social media which openly supports diversity is met with a barrage of comments, most of them from robot accounts. At the workplace, Volkswagen informs that cases go from occasional jokes to bosses misjudging employees who are different from them. “Studies also show that a foreign sounding name significantly reduces the chances of success for applicants.”
While Internet trolls are publicly visible and don’t often have a specific target, workplace discrimination is focused and operates undercover — old-fashioned notions of hierarchy and the lack of a strong stand from the company used to make victims afraid to speak out or to have their attempts diminished and/or gaslighted into oblivion. That’s why it’s so important for automakers to help.
What are automakers doing?
At the customer level, many have invited LGBT+ owners to share photos using the car along with their loved ones and posted trivia and messages of support. Some USA branches also teamed up to participate in and advertise events like the one hosted by iHeartRadio. FCA goes further as to help update state laws to “prohibit discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Other interesting actions came from GM and SEAT, which started campaigns at their facilities around the world dedicated to spread information and present past and future actions to pursue equality at the workplace from all points of view. BMW hosted a webinar on how discrimination works and how to fight it and Daimler invited employees and brand partners to host its own Pride event.
Is all that really effective?
When it comes to raising awareness, even updating logos on social media with the rainbow theme counts. Those actions mean the automaker at least intends to be effectively inclusive. While it gains public acclaim and a subsequent sales boost, they also mean employees can rely on its support if problems ever arise — or, at least, expose it and hold it responsible if it comes to neglect the issue.
We’re talking about deeply-rooted issues which require working mostly on the mindset of customers and employees. The best way to get the slightest chance to address them is by acknowledging their existence, designing plans to begin acting as soon as possible and monitoring itself from time to time. Companies that do that will certainly count with unconditional support from the society.
