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When Meghan Cali posted a critical comment on her former employer’s Instagram in June, she didn’t expect to actually hear back.
Cali wanted to chide the popular children’s clothing company Hanna Andersson for putting out a statement on anti-racism she felt didn’t go nearly far enough amid the Black Lives Matter protests sweeping the US. She also accused the company of having a glaring diversity problem and called on CEO Mike Edwards to resign.
“If Hanna truly wants to live up to their mission to support ALL moms…their white male CEO should step down immediately and the company should seek to replace him with a woman of color,” Cali wrote.
About two hours after posting her critical comment, Cali received a LinkedIn notification. It was a message from Edwards himself, and he was angry.
“You do not know anything about me, our culture, our brand values,” Edwards wrote in his message. “Your comments are as racist as I have seen. Our parents expect Hanna to represent everyone and provide positive energy — not to be a political site.”
“If you don’t apologize,” he wrote, “we’re going to war.”
Cali had never met Edwards — she worked in marketing at the company until October 2018, while he came on as CEO in April 2019 after leaving his role as CEO of eBags — but his message left her stunned. “I obviously knew that Hanna doesn’t have a great track record as far as diversity, but…I thought my comment was fair,” Cali told BuzzFeed News. “So I was really shocked that the company would respond in the way that it did, and that the CEO would personally reach out and basically harass me.”
The heated exchange was not out of the ordinary for Edwards, according to three current and six former employees who told BuzzFeed News he has a reputation for rebuking staff members who disagree with him and that the company has a culture that does not give enough value to racial diversity.
Hanna Andersson, a Portland, Oregon-based company, has specialized in colorful, Scandinavian-inspired cotton clothing for children and babies since 1983. Originally founded by a Swedish mother, who left the company in 2007, the company has garnered praise for donating to children’s philanthropies and implementing forward-thinking policies for parents in the workplace.
But beneath the wholesome image, Hanna Andersson has a dark side that has developed in recent years, current and former employees said. While the company does frequently use nonwhite models, employees say it’s not being done enough, and that nonwhite models are not given the same prominence.
All those who were interviewed by BuzzFeed News said they could only recall one or two Black people working in the corporate office at any given time. The company confirmed there are currently no Black people among its 139 corporate employees. (A media strategist hired…
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Read More: Hanna Andersson Has Diversity Problems, Staff Say
