00:00The fallout continues over H&M's Coolest Monkey in the Jungle hoodie.
00:08The parents of the little boy who model H&M's Coolest Monkey in the Jungle hoodie are speaking out.
00:13The couple appeared on a Swedish talk show recently and said they've since had to move from their home because of the harassment they received.
00:20Watch.
00:21If you'd seen that hoodie with that slogan, would it have rung alarm bells?
00:27Not for me. I wouldn't see such a connection to anything other than my son modeling a shirt.
00:37And until the controversy now with the whole furore that is going on,
00:43then you kind of look back and wonder if you had noticed it, what would be our initial or my initial response to it.
00:52H&M also had to temporarily close its stores in South Africa because of the destruction some protesters did to its stores.
01:00So now that H&M has apologized and the parents of the young boys say they still don't see anything wrong with the ad,
01:06we want to know your thoughts for today's viewer poll.
01:08Did we all overreact to H&M's Coolest Monkey in the Jungle ad?
01:12Black Girl Group tweeted,
01:13Joining us now to discuss it,
01:43our Essence.com Entertainment Editor, Danielle Katin Clark,
01:48and Editor and Writer Host, Mecca.
01:50Welcome to the show.
01:51Hey!
01:52So I need to know, what was your initial reaction when you saw that ad?
01:55Initially, I was like, this is typical.
01:57I mean, it's not a huge surprise that another brand has messed up, you know,
02:03something in terms of race relations and being sensitive.
02:05It happens all the time.
02:07Everybody has, I mean, all of them.
02:08I can list the Zaras, the Forevers.
02:11All of them have done something similar, so it's not a huge surprise.
02:14I kind of rolled my eyes and was like, next, to be honest.
02:17Yeah.
02:17It's funny you say that because in that same day, Angela Rye tweeted something.
02:21I think it was Adidas, and he had someone, the Predator ad.
02:24Right.
02:25Hey, Mecca, what was your natural reaction?
02:27Lack of black creatives at the table.
02:28I thought that last tweet said it perfectly.
02:30When we're not around to represent ourselves and you leave us in the hands of other people
02:34who don't know us that well, this is what's going to happen.
02:37It wouldn't be that.
02:38This, the idea that this made it past so many hands and so many eyes to get to the catalog
02:46and to get to the website.
02:47That's, that's what stunned me.
02:49This whole list of people in this multi-billion dollar company.
02:53No one said, wait, fellas, fellas, maybe not this one.
02:56Hold on, time out.
02:57Maybe, maybe the monkey thing we might want to rethink.
02:59No one said anything.
03:00That's what cracked me up.
03:02Now, what did you think about the protesters who were destroying the swords?
03:05Is that going too far with this?
03:07Absolutely, it's going too far.
03:08I mean, again, like, having lack of black creatives at the top is nothing new.
03:13So there's a lot of places we could protest.
03:15If we really got into the nuts and bolts of things,
03:17a lot of these companies are problematic,
03:19even if we're going to, like, the factories and the work conditions
03:22and some of the fires happening in Bangladesh.
03:25Like, there's a lot of places that we could have issues with.
03:28Jumping on H&M is way too far.
03:30And there's, if you want to, instead of protesting, move your money.
03:33Like, destroying stores, and they're a billion dollar company,
03:36so it's nothing to fix windows and...
03:38In one store.
03:39Yeah, like, come on, it's, it's down.
03:41And Mecca, what do you think?
03:42We here at the Black Caucus do not advocate destruction.
03:45Of any private property, corporate, artistic, or otherwise.
03:51Again, that's pointless.
03:52That's pointless.
03:53Now, what do you say to the parents who feel it's not a big deal?
03:56You sold out.
03:57Yeah.
03:57You sold out.
03:58It's not, I've been hearing it back and forth.
04:01I've seen multiple interviews where she's contradicting herself.
04:04She says, in one minute, she didn't think it was that big of a deal.
04:08She didn't look at it that way.
04:10But then in another minute, she tells a story about her being on a cruise and being referred
04:14to as a monkey.
04:14And she took it the exact same way that we all took it when we saw her son's hoodie.
04:20So, my thing is, obviously you sold out.
04:25And, you know, the Me Too movement didn't mean for you to go sell out.
04:29You know, we've seen it before.
04:31The Condoleezza Rice, and, you know, you got the Stacey Dash, and you're running behind
04:35Arma Rosa.
04:35Arma Rosa got kicked out the White House.
04:37Why are you trying to follow her?
04:38She just got fired.
04:39Don't be like her.
04:40Be like the rest of her.
04:41There's plenty of black women to emulate who have not sold their children out for it.
04:45And you can do whatever you want, but you made your child a part of it.
04:48Yeah, right.
04:49That's what really bothers me.
04:50You can sell out all you want.
04:52We'll bring you to the table.
04:53You're not going to be able to get away from it.
04:55We will remember that you sold us out.
04:57However, you made your kid a part of it.
05:00All right.
05:00And he doesn't have a choice.
05:01That's true.
05:02Danielle, let me ask you, how do we hold these companies accountable?
05:05That's such a hard question.
05:06Like we said, Dove, Pepsi, companies do this quite a bit.
05:10But how do we hold them accountable?
05:12It's hard.
05:12I think we, one, we voice our upset.
05:14I think social media is a great platform to say how we feel, hold them to the fire.
05:18I mean, H&M released a statement.
05:20It was a little late and lazy, but they released a statement.
05:23I think that's one.
05:24I think, two, pushing for more diversity on a higher level is always good.
05:27So, again, we can do that via social media or just with money, you know, saying that we'll withhold our funding of them, you know, if they don't start adding more diversity.
05:36And third, I know it's hard, and we say it so much, you know, all the time.
05:40But, like, buy black.
05:41I mean, if you want to see us do well, give us the support financially.
05:46Yeah.
05:46It's one thing to, like, say it all the time, but there are soaps that are black.
05:50There are hoodies that are black and not Rachel Dolezal ones.
05:53There's, there's.
05:54And let the weekend be a spokesperson for it.
05:57Right, right.
05:58Yeah, exactly.
05:58Kayla, what are they saying on social media?
06:01All right, so we're asking everyone, did we all overreact to the H&M Coolest Monkey in the Jungle ad?
06:05Vote 8 for yes, B for no.
06:08And so far, everything's been flooded with no.
06:10We did not overreact.
06:12So, Robin Bennett-Cross says, how disrespectful.
06:14Helen Williams says, we need to stop making excuses for racism.
06:18Robin Swan says, given the history of how our people have been treated and how they connect us with primates, yeah, it's highly offensive.
06:25Rodney McHouser says, no, because people start with the monkey and then escalate to something else.
06:29Nicolai Turner says, what advertising exec even thought this was a halfway good idea?
06:33It can't be this easy to let stuff like this get approved for publication.
06:37Ouch.
06:37So today's viewer poll asks, did we all overreact to H&M's Coolest Monkey in the Jungle ad?
06:43Was it A for yes, social media didn't get all the facts, or B for no, clearly the ad is racist.
06:49And here's how you voted.
06:5090% of you said, no, 97% of you said, no, the ad is clearly racist.
06:58Yeah, I would definitely be voting that too.
06:59So let's say it's 98%.
Comments