Wow, that’s the statement of a privileged individual if ever I read one.
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Please don’t mistake indifference for privilege. You know nothing about them to arrive at such a deduction. Plenty of people can suffer from oppression and inequity while being indifferent to the politics of it.
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Wow since when was it not allowed to not care about politics.
I just wanna live my life in peace without hurting anyone else.
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Let’s keep to the topic of the app rather than making digs at other users please.
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A company - especially a bank–has political influence by virtue of its very existance. You can’t depoliticise something inherent
Whether TSB puts a picture of Tom Moore on its Facebook, or accidently locks people out of their accounts resulting in potential regulatory scorn…it has a political resonance
Same goes for Monzo if it does a BLM logo or if it receives continued and escalated complains about account freezings…
Every time you buy something you are making a socio-political choice and impact (albeit of an incredibly small and limited influence)
You cannot pigeon hole politics from this unless you want to pretend to live in a world where PMQs and the footsteps of Whitehall are the only thing of any political relevance
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I must admit, I do tend to do business with companies I consider to be in alignment with my own personal values, and avoid ones that don’t. I don’t really consider those socio-political choices. A company is well within its rights to support human rights movements such as BLM, and I will gladly continue to support any company that does. But I draw the line when those values get pushed onto the customer, or receive favouritism over other important issues, and that, in my opinion, is where things become political.
It is crucial BLM gets the support and attention it needs right now so things can change for the better. But adding a BLM variant of the app icon to the Monzo app for reasons already mentioned above by myself and a few others is, in my opinion, not what I would like Monzo to do. They support the cause. I’m glad they support it. That’s enough. If they add such an icon, then they should be held to that same standard for every other important cause that matters to varying groups of minorities, Else it’s not equality, nor is it equity, and it very much becomes a political statement and I despise politics, again though, that’s just my opinion.
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I don’t necessarily mean it is a conscious choice
But this is the thing. I do not particularly like TSB plastering Tom Moore over their social media as I oppose all efforts to try and draw comparisons between a war and an epidemic. Does it stop me using an account with them for the odd thing, no it doesn’t. If it makes the odd old dear who goes into a branch happy, then that’s fine by me.
I don’t think it does enough harm to actively oppose it and I certainly wouldn’t oppose it on the grounds that ‘they should keep out of politics’ because by that logic they should give up their banking license.
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The precedent has already been set with the Pride icon. Adding the BLM variant would be no different to this, no more nor less groundbreaking. It’s really not a big deal, it’s an OPT IN personal app colour choice.
Also, I’m just curious but does Pride and it’s corresponding app icon fall under this “politics” you despise?
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I really don’t think anyone is going to be forced to use the BLM icon. No-one was forced to use the Pride icon when that was introduced.
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On the contrary, I think it is a big deal. I won’t rehash why, because it’s getting circular. The bottom line is, if they do this, after ignoring many other important movements between adding the pride icon and now it won’t sit right with me. Either do this for all of them or do it for none. Favouritism will never sit well with me.
Yes the pride app does fall under that to me. I’ve said elsewhere, that I personally dislike the pride movement in general, but that’s due to my experiences with the culture of it contradicting the values it proclaims to stand for. But that’s a horrible memory I do not wish to re-explore in a public forum.
The pride app icon I see as an exception that fits with Monzo’s core values. Adding another for a different human rights movement sets a precedent, and in my view, and would be a tone deaf move that would highlight Monzo’s ignorance towards other human rights problems that have gone ignored by Monzo.
In this case, sure it’s not forced, but that leads on to the issues I already mentioned with that approach in my second paragraph:
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Out of curiosity, what social rights issues do you think monzo hasn’t supported in the past that are on the same scale as LGBTQ+ rights and BLM?
I personally can’t think of any major specific things off the top of my head, or any related possible logo design related to them, or any requests from customers on this forum to make them.
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How are you defining major? Every social rights issue is major to the people it directly affects. If by major you mean mass mainstream media coverage, then not many.
Off the top of my head from recent memories. Islamophobia is a massive social issue. And in the U.K., Muslims receive far more hate and discrimination than blacks do. We also have a massive xenophobia issue in general. Almost all of my friends of Asian ethnicity have been victimised by their fellow Brits as a result of coronavirus.
People with disabilities are often excluded from society, victim of discrimination and hate crimes, especially those with invincible ones such as autism. Where is their solidarity? There is even a national autism awareness month in April every year. I’ve never seen Monzo acknowledge it.
There are other issues beyond social ones that Monzo haven’t supported in such a way that other companies do. Earth Day, the environment, privacy, free speech (including the freedom to offend).
I could go on…
A quick edit: a friend just reminded of the 2017 Manchester Bombing. A lot of apps had their icons changed to show solidarity with the victims, similar to what’s happening now with BLM. I don’t recall Monzo doing that.
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Absolutely. It’s disgusting.
Absolutely, and this is something I’d like to see improved. But people with disabilities aren’t being discriminated against to the extent that black people are, they’re not being killed by the police to the extent that black people are (even with the eyes of the world on them, the US police are still killing black people even now), and they’re not dying of COVID-19 as a result of systemtic discrimination like black people are.
I was watching TV the other day and saw someone make the point that people who complain are reading the issue as “(Only) Black Lives Matter”, when what everyone is actually saying is that “Black Lives Matter (too)”.
From my own point of view, the idea that you can only visibly care about X if you also visibly care about A, B and C is bullshit. This isn’t a zero sum game here. That at this specific point in time the focus is on one issue doesn’t mean that any other issues are worthless. Black people are under attack. We have to recognise that, move forward, and make things better.
I’m disgusted that apparently no progress has been made since Michael Brown in Ferguson. People older than me are no doubt disgusted that no progress has been made since Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in 1968. It’s been too long. We need to do better.
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Are you sure that’s an accurate statement in regards to the U.K.? I absolutely agree with your viewpoints on the situation however.
That’s not how I’m reading it personality.
I think you’re misunderstanding my point of view a little here. I agree with your statement, though I don’t necessarily like it, it’s not fair to be selective in that way, because then it will just come across as companies are only capable of caring when it benefits them, this is very obvious with companies that operate globally. But that’s capitalism at its worst I suppose.
Agreed. But we don’t need an app icon to do that. We live in a society where people care more about their perception of being a good than actually being a good person. If you care about the movement, there are better more important ways to help the cause than an icon that will do nothing more than fulfil that perception.
I share the sentiment and sympathise.
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You can play “but what about…” forever. This isn’t point scoring for something that affects you or that you find more important.
Pride and BLM are by far the biggest two. And maybe down the line Monzo will add more and more and then they can have 25 variations of their logo for people to choose from.
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I wasn’t playing “but what about”. I outlined those social injustices only because someone asked me to. Please don’t read any further into it than that, because there is no substance for your point.
I don’t want Monzo to make app icons for those either. Their vocal support is more than enough, in my opinion, I won’t rehash why, as the reasons are mentioned several times in the discussion already by myself and others.
My personal opinion remains that if they do it for one social injustice, it needs to then be done for all social injustice movements. Not just the ones that happen to gain the most media attention, or are the most socially acceptable to score them good will.
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They have already been doing it (for instance LGBTQ) so your point is already moot.
By your logic they should continue doing it, so happy days 
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Someone already made your point further up in the discussion and I’ve already responded to it, so your input here was unnecessary and only serves to make the discussion circular. We should move on from the but monzo already do it for LGBT argument, because it’s a valid point I’ve already recognised, though don’t necessarily agree with the logic behind it.
Thanks for letting me know “what is necessary”, however in future please refrain from hijacking the discussion and somehow becoming the god of who is and is not allowed to express themselves.
I am still extremely disappointed with Monzo for not doing this, but still providing the pride icon.
It just always happens to be race issues that people decide to draw the line at, and call unnecessary.
Monzo can call it politics all they want, but at the end of the day it’s just a phrase, and a gesture, that a bank profiting from a society that were still paying slave owners back for their “loss of property” until a few years ago could have easily made.
Hugely disenfranchising.
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