Have you heard about the great H&M racist hoodie controversy of 2018? In a nutshell, people went bonkers over this hoodie that says “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle” on the front:
Whose idea was it at @hm to have this little sweet black boy wear a jumper that says ‘coolest monkey in the jungle’?
I mean. What. pic.twitter.com/6AJfMdQS4L
— Stephy (@StephanieYeboah) January 7, 2018
H&M soon pulled the product over complaints from celebrities, including The Weekend, Sean Combs and LeBron James:
The @hm racist hoodie controversy has sparked outrage, led artists to re-envision the young king, and moved celebs like @Diddy , @theweeknd , and @KingJames to speak out. The mother of the young boy is seemingly unbothered. What will you do, Grio fam?!
— theGrio.com (@theGrio) January 11, 2018
And another celebrity furious at the clothing chain was transracial Rachel Dolezal. She was so outraged at the hoodie that she created a racist version of her own for sale on her website, but that didn’t go over so well:
Rachel Dolezal is selling 'Coolest Prince in the Hood' sweatshirts to protest H&M and people aren't happy with her choice of words: https://t.co/kglNNuPxpM pic.twitter.com/l94b3L6ptA
— The Root (@TheRoot) January 10, 2018
Dolezal, who identifies as black, was accused of trying to profit off the controversy:
Rachel Dolezal is trolling all of us again by trying to profit from H&M hoodie scandal: https://t.co/C8zot3b6Bd pic.twitter.com/gBGnhibUQE
— theGrio.com (@theGrio) January 10, 2018
Whoops!
She’s now changed the design and we’ll (allegedly) sell the hoodie $1 under cost “for the cause”:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdyCdGPhvBK/?hl=en&taken-by=racheladolezal
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