So you use a black child for your advertisement in order to be PC and to prove your diverse credentials. [3% of the population identify as black (last census: tinyurl.com/m7nvuwu ) so choosing a black child was almost certainly a positive decision rather than a matter of taking the next child in line.]
And then you are accused of racism because you've chosen a black child to model the item
uk.yahoo.com/style/weeknd-ends-ties-h-m-over-racist-advert-055200484.html
because it's wearing a tee-shirt that states "the coolest monkey in the jungle"
Now, calling a child a monkey is pretty common practice. But it takes a black person to think that because the child is black, and being called a monkey, that it's racist. For a white, middle-class man such as myself the idea of comparing a black child to a monkey died well before I was born (didn't it?).
Would it have been better if the child had been white? Fewer diversity points, but fewer racism points perhaps? Probably not making the item of clothing in the first place would be the only solution, but that's just being silly, isn't it? What child doesn't want to be "the coolest monkey in the jungle"?
So I'm going to point the finger of racism at the 27-year-old musician (whose name doesn't seem to be in the article anyway), without whom nobody would have thought about it.
|
