H&M promotes themselves with potential racism, celebrities respond

Clothing retailer H&M is facing extreme backlash ever since they uploaded a new item to their website-
a sweatshirt that read “Coolest monkey in the jungle” modeled by a black child. There are always two
sides to every story, but in this situation, there is more of one opinion than the other.

There is a deep and dark history behind the word monkey, and we aren’t talking 100% about the animal. Monkey is used
as a racial slur. The slur “monkey” is derived from the slur “porch-monkey,” which according to Urban Dictionary, is a
“slang [word] originally held to highlight the segregation-induced laziness of negroes in pre-civil rights era America.”

The fact that a black child was pictured modeling the sweatshirt on H&M’s US and UK websites is what brought
up all of the backlash. This image passed by many editors, writers, and other workers of H&M and nobody
seemed to realize the “mistake.” The image, pictured below in a screenshot from singer The Weeknd’s Twitter
account, passed by numerous people and was published, while no one realized the issue at hand with the image
and sweatshirt.

After the image surfaced, celebrities such a G-Eazy and The Weeknd were sure to use their high social platforms
to spread awareness of the situation. On instagram, G-Eazy (@g_eazy) posted a mock picture of the original
image posted with this caption:

Over the past months I was genuinely excited about launching my upcoming line and collaboration with
@HM… Unfortunately, after seeing the disturbing image yesterday, my excitement over our global campaign
quickly evaporated, and I’ve decided at this time our partnership needs to end. Whether an oblivious oversight
or not, it’s truly sad and disturbing that in 2018, something so racially and culturally insensitive could pass by
the eyes of so many (stylist, photographer, creative and marketing teams) and be deemed acceptable.

I can’t allow for my name and brand to be associated with a company that could let this happen.

I hope that this situation will serve as the wake up call that H&M and other companies need to get on track and
become racially and culturally aware, as well as more diverse at every level.

Also commenting on the situation is singer/songwriter Abel Tesfaye, also known as The Weeknd. On his twitter
(@theweeknd) Tesfaye posted a reaction tweet to the H&M scandal.

(Source: @theweeknd on Twiter)

H&M issued an apology through their email and on their website. Sadly, the “sincere” apology has been taken down from
the group’s website since. Part of the apology issued,  “To all customers, staff, media, stakeholders, partners, suppliers,
friends and critics. We would like to put on record our position in relation to the image and promotion of a children’s
sweater, and the ensuing response and criticism. Our position is simple and unequivocal – we have got this wrong and
we are deeply sorry.”

Overall, the issue presented by H&M is a huge eye opener for the whole nation. Through this possible mistake,
people across the country and the world have been exposed to the possible racism within the post and have
equally expressed their deep opinions.

Submitted by staff writer Emily Correia

Edited by blog editor Amy Salvati