H&M Is CANCELLED After Being Forced To Remove A Racist Hoodie From Their Site
9 January 2018, 14:58 | Updated: 15 November 2018, 15:22
H&M have now apologised and the image has been removed.
Fashion brand H&M has been hit with MASSIVE backlash after advertising a hoodie with the words "Coolest Monkey In the Jungle" written across the front... modelled by a young black child.
As soon as Twitter caught wind of the product, they called out H&M for a disgusting lack of awareness and casual racism.
. @hm, have you lost your damned minds?!?!?! pic.twitter.com/EYuCXLZtv3
— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) January 8, 2018
@hm this is disgusting & irresponsible. You know the history of racist using the term “monkey” to demean people of African descent... and you put this on your website! 😡😡😡😡 “Coolest Monkey In the Jungle” #SMH pic.twitter.com/IY877D2d8R
— Karamo Brown (@KaramoBrown) January 8, 2018
Whose idea was it at @hm to have this little sweet black boy wear a jumper that says ‘coolest monkey in the jungle’?
— Stephanie Yeboah (@NerdAboutTown) January 7, 2018
I mean. What. pic.twitter.com/6AJfMdQS4L
As somebody who has been called a monkey many times by white people (both to my face and online), this is absolutely unacceptable.
— Stephanie Yeboah (@NerdAboutTown) January 7, 2018
To make the situation even more unacceptable, the other two variations of the same hoodie on the site are modelled by two young white children. The orange sweater reads "Survival Expert".
.@hm this is inappropriate, offensive, and racist. Why is the white kid "a jungle survivor" and the black kid the "coolest monkey in the jungle"? How do you think this is okay? REMOVE this and the clothing piece. This is completely distasteful! #racist #hm https://t.co/uati7eI0Io pic.twitter.com/WSF9Wiksio
— Selene Arianela (@ArianelaSelene) January 8, 2018
If the theme was the “Jungle”, why couldn’t he be a Lion or a Tiger? Why was the black child picked as “The coolest MONKEY”? pic.twitter.com/SzMjnQDMDd
— leratokganyago (@leratokganyago) January 8, 2018
The Weeknd, who has a clothing line with H&M, immediately pulled the plug on his collaboration after seeing the picture.
woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. i’m deeply offended and will not be working with @hm anymore... pic.twitter.com/P3023iYzAb
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) January 8, 2018
Others called out H&M for what looks like a clear lack of diversity behind the scenes at the company. One Twitter user wrote: “This is why companies need more non-white diverse executives to avoid these online disasters and accusations of 'racist' advertising.”
How no one flagged this image, from the photoshoot to the point where it was uploaded onto the website, is ridiculous.
An H&M spokesperson later told BuzzFeed News: "This image has been removed from all H&M channels and we sincerely apologise for any offence this has caused."It was never our intention for this image to be perceived in this way and we will be reviewing our internal routines to ensure that such a misjudgement does not happen again."
The hoodie has now been removed from the site.
