Black History: Special Delivery!!
Retailer H & M recently pulled a photo of a black boy wearing a hoodie with said, “coolest monkey in the jungle“. Not sure how NO ONE thought about how this would be viewed as offensive. The ad has been pulled, but not before social media blasted the retailer. Not surpisingly, the retailer also had some defenders on social media making comments like, “I see a sweet little black boy wearing a sweater with ‘coolest monkey in the jungle. I see nothing else. Hope this helps.”
Another said, “Perhaps it was an innocent mistake and no-one even thought that they injected racism into the ad.”
Unfortunately, the disrespect of comparing black people to monkeys has a long standing racist history!
Sources:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/h-m-slammed-racism-coolest-monkey-jungle-hoodie-article-1.3744160
https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5a53203be4b003133ec9917a/amp
January 8, 2018 at 3:25 pm
Did no one see that as offensive prior to going to print with corporate approval?Too incredible to be an oversight, just another case of ‘implicit…’! That is not cool and far from hip, too.
P.S. Can you please tell the story of Otis Redding’s classic tune, ‘Sittin on the Dock of the Bay’, and how it came to be 50 years ago on this day, Jan. 8. Fascinating story and homage must be paid!
January 8, 2018 at 4:58 pm
Implicit and Complicit on many levels! I’ll look into the Otis Redding info!
January 10, 2018 at 1:54 pm
Yes, indeed!
January 8, 2018 at 4:37 pm
I do not believe this once an innocent mistake, this has to pass by a team of individuals before the actual photo shoot. That means why would have tyo believe anywhere from 5 to 20 people did not see the problem with this.
January 8, 2018 at 11:40 am
Agreed!
January 8, 2018 at 4:52 pm
This is beyond stupidity! How could anyone in this day and age think this was ok? Racism is all enduring…
January 8, 2018 at 4:57 pm
Right!! This should not have happened!
January 8, 2018 at 5:18 pm
Good god… what’s wrong with people?
January 8, 2018 at 5:23 pm
Indeed! Something is very wrong!
January 10, 2018 at 7:05 pm
I agree with your post and all the comments but so as a preschool teacher I see kids act out animals and make voices in imaginative play time, which is normal and creative and explorative… and empowering for them as they identify. And we talk about totem animals. So…what happens to the monkey and the kids who are not at any fault in this representation? Should I be teaching them about racism that will inevitably come from this identification and play?
Ultimately there is nothing wrong with monkeys or kids. It’s the adults.
I agree we can’t get past the marketing of racism…
but what if the ad had a white kid in the sweatshirt? Would that have made the hoodie “playful” or more white supremacist?
January 10, 2018 at 10:43 pm
The racist and disrespectful caricature of black people in comparing them to monkeys is nothing new. So the image is laden with a lot of negative context. I don’t think the child is at fault. Regardless of intent, the impact cannot be denied. I think acompany of that size could have done more to understand how the image could’ve been offensive. Kids using their experience and Imagination to fuel playtime activities is very different, in my mind than what happens here. Well the retailer is not necessarily responsible for all the negative cultural context associated with black people and their portrayal as monkeys, they do have a responsibility to be aware of the impact of the images that they advertise. It can be difficult to embrace the impact of the image if the person viewing it has never had to personally worry about there race or ethnicity being negatively portrayed or Typecast. With so much history of systemic bias and racism it is difficult to judge the original intent. But the impact can definitely be measured.
January 11, 2018 at 6:08 am
Yeah, I agree with you because ultimately advertising is using a child who doesn’t know all this yet. But I do wonder what the little boy thought as he wore it… as he agreed to be a model and how he feels about the reaction to it now. The debate about it just struck me because one of the things kids love doing is acting like the animals and invoking power from their spirits. Maybe if they had all sorts of of kids wearing them it would have worked as an image?
I’m not defending the advertisement…
your post just brought up these questions.
I had one child wear an octopus shirt the other day and another one had a dragon… and if there had been a monkey, it would all be the same really. Just whatever they want to wear that expresses them.
Anyhow, thanks for your post and reply!
January 10, 2018 at 10:43 pm
Thank you for your comments!