Imagine you’re someone who is pretty good at finding racist overtones in things. What would you find problematic about this picture?
Is it the fact that the black girl is singled out with a different colored shirt? Maybe the formation of the children spell out a retired racial slur? Or maybe the picture simply lacks a proportionally representative sampling of all ethnicities, body types and physical disabilities?
All those guesses are wrong. It’s clearly the white girl resting her arm on the black girl’s head. Ugh. It’s 2016, people. Learn how to manufacture outrage, already.
@GapKids Thanks for perfectly illustrating what 'passive racism' looks like in mainstream media. #DiversiryFail She is NOT your arm rest. ????
— Jasmine Wow (@Jmo120) April 3, 2016
@TheRoot This is what happens when your feminism lacks intersectionality. #DiversityFail #FeminismFail #WeAreNotMules
— 2nightboobooclubwise (@CallMeDSharp) April 3, 2016
And after a social media thrashing by the PC police, Gap Kids decided to pull the ad and apologize.“We appreciate the conversation that has taken place and are sorry to anyone we’ve offended,” a Gap spokeswoman said in a statement.
The video accompanying the ad was also criticized because the black girl was more static and less talkative than the other white girls.
While Gap was willing to accept all forms of absurd criticism, the actual mother of the two girls engaged in armrest oppression was not.
@TheRoot girl with arm resting on her shoulder is her sister She didn't talk in video because she was 2 shy. everyone needs to calm down.
— Brooke Smith (@Iam_BrookeSmith) April 3, 2016
Is it easier for you to tweet context to all offended by the optics here, @Iam_BrookeSmith,or for @GapKids to exercise cultural sensitivity?
— stacia l. brown (@slb79) April 3, 2016
Who would’ve thunk that a small child not talking in a video was because of shyness and not institutional racism? And a point of contact between two people of differing races was sisterly affection and not an allusion to slavery?
And then there’s this previous ad by gap…
GAP Kids pulls and apologized for ad people thought racist. Nobody blinked at last years ad.https://t.co/RFjSmhZrcU pic.twitter.com/IqTXihbUE8
— adland ® (@adland) April 7, 2016
…which is clearly not racist, but does show there is some weird photographer who works for Gap who likes to make kids rest their arms on smaller kids’ heads.
