Black Lives Matter.

As an organization committed to diversity and inclusion, we stand with the black community. All lives can’t matter until black lives matter.

Here are Sartorial’s organizational changes.

Let us be clear. Diversity, inclusion, and representation have ALWAYS been at the forefront of our mission at Sartorial because it is truly close to our hearts.

Still, speaking out about the Black Lives Matter movement as individuals is not enough. Here is what we are doing as an organization to help turn the tide of white supremacy in fashion, media, and journalism.

Leadership

The committee of general members will work alongside the executive board to hold Sartorial accountable to our mission of inclusion. The committee will…

• Oversee that Sartorial’s mission of Inclusion is carried out through recruiting diverse staff and creating content that highlights people of diverse backgrounds

• Brainstorm and organize educational events for our staff to learn to be inclusive creators

• Brainstorm and organize events for Sartorial to connect with other campus organizations

Policy

Going forward in all our editorial and social content, we will be capitalizing the B in Black. Style guides capitalize ethnic identities such as Asian, Indigenous, Latinx, etc. Alexandria Neason of the Columbia Journalism Review explains “...if we are going to capitalize Asian and South Asian and Indigenous, for example, groups that include myriad ethnic identities united by shared race and geography and, to some degree, culture, then we also have to capitalize Black.”

This correction is important because dating back to slavery, the color of one’s skin, not one’s ethnicity or nationality was what determined one’s place in American society. Many ethnic ties were destroyed or lost as people were sold into slavery in the US. “When people identify with specific terms of the African diaspora, we defer to those; in the absence of the identifiable ethnicities slavery stole from those it subjugated, Black can be a preferred ethnic designation for some descendants,” reads the Columbia Journalism Review.

We have outlined 3 pillars to guide our organization’s mission which is to be Missouri State University’s premier source for fashion, beauty, and culture.

Pillars:

Inclusion

At the forefront of our organization and publication is inclusion. Representation matters in the media and inclusion is essential to the health of any organization. At a predominantly white institution, it is essential that Sartorial strives to be a safe place for people of diverse backgrounds to bring their creative ideas to life. Feeling included and safe is a prerequisite for being able to creatively express oneself in a collaborative setting.

In our content, we aim to represent people of different backgrounds and shed light on issues through an intersectional lens. From an organizational standpoint, our aim is to recruit and include diverse staff to develop a well-functioning creative community. Part of the purpose of organizational meetings will be to build a team of connected creators.

Creativity

Creativity is essential to our success as a publication. Sartorial strives to be a place where MSU’s creative students can connect to people with similar or complementary talents to publicly share their work. 

Collaboration

Our staff members will learn to collaborate with one another to produce high-quality written/visual content. Working together, staff members will learn to develop their craft and gain connections with peers who will become future leaders. 

Each of these pillars is dependent on the others — we cannot have one without the others. Inclusion, creativity, and collaboration are the guiding principles of our organization but we need the best team members to achieve greatness. For us to be successful, we must be representative of the diverse community we serve.