H&M Controversy, Who's To Blame?

If you're a regular on social media then you would know about the H&M controversy, but in case you don't know, H&M posted a picture of an African-American boy wearing a hoodie that said "coolest monkey in the jungle".

People immediately let H&M have it by calling them racist and just really getting on them.

Screenshot Credit New York Times

Naturally H&M issued an apology by saying how they sincerely apologize for offending people and that the image has been removed from all online channels, and the product will not be for sale in the United States. But of course it didn't stop there. The mother, Terry Mango actually came forward and said people need to "get over it" and she had no problem with it.

   

I've had a couple of days to do research and let responses continue to flow in and then I asked myself if H&M really committed blatant racism or are people overreacting? I do feel people are overreacting, however I can understand the anger. Do I believe this was H&M intentions? Not at all especially when you're dealing with people who don't fully understand racism. For decades Black people have been called monkeys/apes and are still called that. So to have a Black child wearing a hooded sweater saying "coolest monkey in the jungle" is a bit eye turning and uncomfortable for me as a Black person myself. This is what I call "unintentional racism marketing" in my opinion. I know others may not agree with me, however the mother have spoken and she's perfectly fine with it.