H&M, the world’s second-largest fashion retailer, had for sale in their online store hoodies that read, “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle.”
The model for the hoodie was a Black child.
Now usually, I don’t pound and punch the keys for the fashion and retail industries. But H&M served me a notice that must be returned to the sender publicly. This notice from H&M is past due, and it’s as old as can be, so I must add a few keystrokes immediately.
H&M, what are we supposed to make of what you did? You’re in an industry that studies every detail from color, to design, to lighting and more. Are we to believe this was an honest mistake? Was it a publicity stunt somehow?
I don’t know, but you do not get to once again make Black people subhuman and animals. We will not allow that to happen.
Even the use of the word “coolest” in this ad burns me hot. Once again, we are not here for your entertainment or your jokes.
My teeth clench and my eyes water at the call to action, “add to your shopping bag.”
I see racism for sale in unlimited quantities. I see an open invitation for people to try on and check out hand-me-down racist notions. H&M reduced and marked down an entire section of people with two ads.
This shopping experience feels like an auction marketplace. When I see the body of a Black boy standing still and frozen in time for customers to shop, it disturbs me.
I never thought I would see a black boy in a buy box with the words monkey under his chin. And the buy box has more boxes with words like DESCRIPTION, DETAILS, DELIVERY, and PAYMENT.
The on-screen notification screams to all of us that racism is profitable. It’s a clear reminder of how racism and exploitation have always been at the center of capitalism, fashion, and retail.
And in my world, green is the color of money, so this child dressed in the color green just underscores H&M’s bottom line interests. So, I must counter that message by saying we are not objects for your consumption. We do not exist to boost your profits.
And of course, this is H&M’s ad for a hoodie. A hoodie is another racially-charged reference for me. Black people have died over how white people misinterpret us in hoodies. But what also gets under my skin is that a hoodie is an article of clothing for our heads.
Which refocuses me back on my question — where were their heads?
H&M will not be able to hide under hoodies because what they did is obvious to everyone. Altogether this ad by H&M dehumanizes Blackness with some of the oldest justifications for the enslavement and oppression of an entire race.
And really, all of it, from every place, and every time period, is the same old shit. So now, I have to scoop and sling feces with phrases because my bowels are rattled and running. How many times must we insist that we are humans?
Now, if that image wasn’t bad enough, H&M also posted a similar hoodie modeled by a white child that read, “Survival Expert.”
As you can see, H&M should just stop branding children. I’m not sure if branding children came out in a focus group or what as a good idea. But, it’s always best to just let kids be kids. That’s part of the problem here.
With those two images in Black and white, this whole collection is racist and touts the supremacy and expertise of whiteness. This wasn’t just one racist mistake, but it was twice as bad with the second image.
H&M doubled down on denigration. The contrast could not be clearer.
And after an online firestorm, as per practice, H&M removed the images and rolled out an apology which stated the following:
“This image has now been removed from all H&M channels and we apologise to anyone this may have offended”
Is it me or did H&M basically process racism like it was a customer return or a factory recall?
Are they really that clueless about customer service? Customer service should be proactive and preventive. Everything about this, from the ad to the apology, was a disservice and a disgrace to H&M customers and employees everywhere.
But, let’s look a little closer at this apology because surely someone put their head in this one. Now, the second half of the apology grieves me. How can H&M issue a statement with the words, “to anyone this may have offended”?
This is plainly offensive. Globally offensive. Eternally offensive. There’s no need for the words may or anyone. H&M should’ve apologized outright to everyone and called it wrong.
And later H&M released a longer, but still unsatisfying statement:
“We understand that many people are upset about the image. We, who work at H&M, can only agree. We are deeply sorry that the picture was taken, and we also regret the actual print. Therefore, we have not only removed the image from our channels, but also the garment from our product offering globally. It is obvious that our routines have not been followed properly. This is without any doubt. We will thoroughly investigate why this happened to prevent this type of mistake from happening again.”
H&M’s statement doesn’t seem to recognize the images of the children combined were offensive too.
So, I’m over here still scratching and shaking my head trying to figure out what the hell they were thinking?
How did this happen? I must examine the conveyor belt on this one. I want to see every link in the chain of command. I want to talk about and turn the loose screws. There are pieces missing, that I am sure.
Upon inspection of H&M, I would expect to see a gap in Blackness and brownness. So, I’d say to them, even if you have no Black or brown people on your staff, didn’t you learn from Dove soaps or any of the other brands that have shown their true colors?
H&M’s inability to learn from competitors or even themselves shows us that racism and white supremacy shuts down mental, emotional, and other faculties.
Perhaps no lesson was learned by H&M because many of these companies only issue an apology and remove their offending ads.
Racism is a quality control issue because it tears apart humanity. Businesses must work harder to catch and prevent racist and white supremacist notions in their products. Reports show us how racism and white supremacy groups are on the rise. We must be more careful about how sentiments from these groups seep into our collective consciousness.
Many entities and individuals work hard to catch and prevent the subtle seeds of racist references. But here H&M missed and let fly some of the most obvious references of all time.
Maybe some Black heads in the assembly line could’ve spotted this defect and given a heads up. Blackness at every level is vital, but this is why Black heads must not only be present, but they must be raised high inside places of work.
But even if H&M was the most melanin deficient billion-dollar business on the planet, they’ve got other problems. This ad shows their gaps in intelligence, humanity, decency, and social consciousness. All of which adds up to a total system failure.
So, what were they thinking? Where were their heads on this subject?
This mess came out of the country of H&M’s headquarters. Where was the head of the company when H&M issued this apology? Where was that head? Where was the head of marketing? Where was that head?
What I want to make clear is that an apology and the removal of the offending images are not enough.
Those actions have never been acceptable or sufficient. And we can’t pretend anymore.
Instead, we need heads.
Don’t roll out any apologies ever again without heads that roll too. No more apologies without heads! Not only do I want to see every head responsible but I want to see every one of them fired immediately.
The statements by H&M talk about reviews of their routines and internal policies. Which those statements are really just standard crap companies say after they are caught in violation of human standards.
But how long does a review take? H&M is in an industry that races to respond to and create the latest trends. If they miss a trend they miss an opportunity and they miss the money. Where’s the sense of urgency here? We need more than something that says “we’re working on it, come back later.”
H&M could’ve finished that review and timed it with their statement. Do they not have an org chart handy? This is not complicated. I don’t understand why H&M can’t fire people now?
When I was a kid my mom used to tell me to be careful of the police because they “shoot first and ask questions later.”
And that is exactly what H&M did in this case. They did a photo shoot first, and now they want to ask questions later.
All I’m asking them to do is remedy the situation in the same way. I say, fire someone immediately and figure out the questions later. Because the answer to every question about this debacle is that it was wrong. There are no excuses and there are no justifiable explanations.
H&M can even borrow the same line used by the police. That line from the police has to do with fear, and it works almost every time. But instead of fearing for their lives, H&M executives should fear for their livelihoods. Apparently, H&M has fired no one, because they fear nothing.
But at some point, these racist displays must bring down brands and careers. Prior to this unmasking, H&M was already on shaky ground with their stores closing and sales down. Now, I hope they will see racism and white supremacy as lethal liabilities.
So, H&M, you should’ve shot first and asked questions later. From now on we need heads first, please, and apologies second.
Because what H&M did was a form of brutality. And now, we deserve those heads.
I want to see the brains behind this brainchild exposed. Their minds are already missing and they are clearly off, so give us those heads. I want to examine and take a bite out of the squishy matter that made this mess.
I know that not every head from H&M must roll. But I want to know what H&M plans to do with the heads that remain in place?
Will there be any training for those heads? Will H&M hire any new heads for head positions? Will there be any new protocols put in place so that heads don’t get loose like this ever again?
I want heads.
And because I see no heads, I mutter to myself, where were their heads? We got a headless apology. How can a headquarters issue an apology with no faces to face the music?
But I know I mustn’t demand H&M heads alone. No, that would be shortsighted because H&M has victims here too.
I want to know about the heads of the children they abused and misused with these ads.
Now, because of H&M’s racist spread, those children are the poster children of H&M’s issues. Children who didn’t deserve to be cataloged by race. Children who didn’t expect their photo shoots to become the social justice imagery of today and tomorrow. Now, they are forever indexed on search engines and in the Wayback Machine as children with faces unblurred.
Fortunately, the community was ready to redeem these slurs and slanders with new images of this child. We know how to work with the monikers you try to apply. So now the search engines reveal the community’s response too.
That’s what a community does to be responsible citizens. We’ve been doing that for centuries. We know how to hug and huddle to get through but that’s also what’s gotten us to this point. We have to come for H&M. They have to do more. They messed with the heads of both children. And it’s a shame we had to see the heads of babies and H&M will not give us their own full grown but underdeveloped heads.
Can H&M really guarantee no children and no minds were harmed in this process? What about those heads? What are they going to do for those heads? Those heads are priceless and they should’ve been spared.
So, I think Sweden’s heads of state must be involved with this matter in the form of cash. H&M should put up some face bills to remedy this wrong. They should put those printed paper heads to work inside and outside of H&M.
And to think H&M even has a foundation with a stated interest to better education for children. Their racist ad was an attempt to pass off racism to future generations while turning a profit. What a horrible lesson we see here. What happened to caring about one life and one child?
Brands and businesses do have a social responsibility. A responsibility to respect the communities that they take from and the communities that give to them. And H&M needs to make social understanding and responsibility a core part of their brand. You don’t build a better world by playing to the oldest and most racist notions in the history of mankind. You also don’t build a better world by exploiting whole countries and factory workers. H&M was shady and shameful long before they rolled out this terrible idea. And, this wasn’t even their first public issue with racism.
I know one thing, until we see the heads, and something is done about the heads, nothing will change.
Which is why I demand heads.
If H&M wants to fix its problems then they must roll heads. They must train heads. They must hire Black heads. They must spare future heads from harm. And, they need to put up and payout heads to make up for what they did.
I want change. And the only way we get it is by doing something about the heads. That’s where all this starts and ends, with our heads.
H&M showed us their tails, now it’s time for them to show us their heads.
(Thanks to Orge Castellano for his edits, research, and content additions)
UPDATE: The mother of the child in the H&M ad, Terry Mango, recently took to social media to declare her support for the ad. Diddy AKA Love has offered 1M to the child to model his clothing line. And H&M has issued a more explicit apology on Instagram.
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