I really expected something more blatant like a direct reference to someone being inferior based on race. I think this is a completely blown out of proportion and as usual, it gathers the clique together to ooh and aah about how racism still exists because calling people racist is a great way to win arguments by people who have none otherwise.
The reality is that a monkey is a common animal to use for children's clothing. If a white boy had worn this sweater and a black mother had put it on her child, no one would be saying anything because monkeys are often used in clothing for tiny people. There is a reason for this. It is because tiny people behave like monkeys and climb all over the place.
My son was like 14 months old when he could climb out of his crib. He was about 18 months old when he started climbing over baby gates. A monkey was an appropriate nickname for him. I used to tell him that he was like a little monkey.
So I really think this is blown out of proportion. There is no reason to suggest that the boy wearing the sweater has anything to do with race and isn't wearing a sweater with a reference to a monkey because of his age, but some people will see racism everywhere.
Even if you could relate this ad to former stereotypes like the mammy or the uncle in early advertisements, you would still be stretching it. Finally, at the end of the day, this is far from blatant racism.
As a mother of young children living in the year 2018, I feel perfectly comfortable with my son wearing the exact same sweatshirt as the boy in the ad. If I didn't feel this way, that would be racist. Racism is defined as seeing a boy who is black wearing this sweater and thinking that this means that only black people should wear this sweater.
As a result of evolving beyond this thinking to the point where an advertising campaign for children's clothing includes black and white children, I find it hard to see this as "blatant" racism. Add this to the fact that consumers frequently see different races in clothing ads and we don't determine that a certain design belongs to a specific race anymore. This is just common knowledge. A little black boy wearing a sweater does not mean that sweater can only be worn by black people. If someone said something like this, that would be an example of "blatant" racism.
The subject of racism in response to this ad is really based on a delusion and we should try to balance out our opinion towards things like this with reality.
I am rather surprised...I would think the racist nature of this ad is obvious; even white people should be able to see it. I do, and I am half white( & half Japanese).
Also, yes, non-white people & especially blacks have historically been ostracized and dehumanized by the majority of whites, and it STILL continues today, as evidenced by this insensitive & blatantly offensive ad by H&M. And if you cannot honestly see the racism in the ad then you might want to delve into some historic research.
One major source of worldwide racism is the theory of evolution, which literally brainwashes people from a young age to believe the false idea that human beings “evolved” from apes, and that the lighter a person’s skin, hair, eyes & features, the more “evolved” they are.
That is one of the most foolish & ridiculous ideas humanity has blindly accepted & it is simply NOT TRUE. But so many falsely so-called “intellectuals” promote it so they regurgitate that nonsense & use it as a “justification” for racism.
The evolutionist & racist premise is: that if darker people are “less evolved” then they are not yet human & are more ape(animal) than man, therefore it is permissible to treat them as animals rather than human beings.
I just don’t jive with that.
But racists & eugenicists seem to believe it. Just look up the story of the African Pygmy man named Ota Benga. He was a young, Congolese family man out hunting for food for his wife and children, minding his own business, when a British explorer captured him, caged him & shipped him to the Bronx Zoo in 1906 to be featured in the primate exhibit.
He was literally housed with MONKEYS for years and people gawked & stared at him through glass & marveled at him as if he was an anthropological wonder—-a monkey in the more advanced stages of evolution that walked upright.
He never saw his wife or children again, and finally, after being deeply depressed, he committed suicide. I call it murder, because his kidnappers really killed him through his daily humiliation & suffering. They destroyed his spirit & dignity. He was violated & treated like an animal until eventually he lost all desire to live. Can you imagine what that must have been like for him?
A man, made in the image of God, with a soul, spirit & life breathed into him by our Creator, caged & mocked & snatched from his family & degraded and dehumanized until he could no longer bear another breath on this earth & saw relief only in death....
It is shocking, heartbreaking, infuriating & unacceptable.
Perhaps now you can understand why people, especially black folks, do not appreciate being called or compared to monkeys.
