Mom of Kid in "Racist" Hoodie Ad Just Seriously Ticked Off Social Justice Warriors
We’ve all seen it somewhere: the controversial H&M modeling photo showing a black child wearing a hoodie that said “coolest monkey in the jungle.”
It’s been the source of plenty of social media outrage and has managed to go far beyond the Twittersphere, as well. Popular music artists The Weeknd and G-Eazy, both of whom had a relationship with H&M, have stopped working with the Swedish clothier over the image. Nicki Minaj, who has a winter collection with the retailer, has also deleted some mentions of the line on her Instagram account and is being pressured by fans to drop the clothier, according to Complex.
Given the outrage the photo has spawned, one would imagine that the angriest person involved is the mother of the child who appeared in the infamous photo with the “racist” hoodie. However, you’d be very wrong — and that’s ticking off social justice warriors big time.
Terry Mango, a native of Kenya who lives in Sweden, criticized the social media pandemonium over the picture and told social justice warriors to “stop crying wolf” over her son’s photo.
‘(I) am the mum, and this is one of hundreds of outfits my son has modeled,” Mango said on social media, according to the U.K. Metro.
“Stop crying wolf all the time, (it’s) an unnecessary issue here. Get over it.”
She added that she had passed off on the photo, having been present when it happened.
“That’s my son, (I’ve) been to all (of his) photoshoots and this was not an exception,” Mango said.
“Everyone is entitled to their opinion about this. I really don’t understand but not (because I’m) choosing not to but because it’s not my way of thinking. Sorry.”
What seems particularly telling about this whole thing is that nobody seemed particularly willing to reach out to the mother here before flipping out.
In fact, I had assumed — out of ignorance, apparently — that the mother had already weighed in. Why would we have gotten ourselves into a collective snit over a “racist” hoodie if we hadn’t first heard from the model’s family themselves?
I’ll grant the obvious fact that the hoodie was tone-deaf and that the derogatory double entendre nature of the word “monkey” may not have the same cultural context in Sweden, where H&M is based. This all being taken into account, the level of the offense doesn’t seem particularly commiserate with the paroxysms of racial furor that occurred in its aftermath, especially when you factor the family’s decidedly different reaction into it.
And it isn’t if H&M hasn’t apologized. The company said they were “deeply sorry that the picture was taken,” and that they “also regret the actual print.”
“It is obvious that our routines have not been followed properly. This is without any doubt,” the company said in a social media statement. “We will thoroughly investigate why this happened to prevent this type of mistake from happening again.”
There’s the rub, though: apologies are never enough. Even if H&M were to ritually sacrifice their CFO on a Facebook livestream in order to atone for the picture, no doubt some gender studies majors would complain that the executive was summarily beheaded upon the altar and not slowly tortured to death, clearly a sign of their white privilege.
And will anyone listen to Terry Mango? Of course not. After all, she’s just the child’s mother. What could she possibly have to say about this that couldn’t be better expressed by The Weeknd?
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