Italian luxury brand Gucci is facing calls for a worldwide boycott after creating a sweater design that many believe is an exact replica of someone in blackface.
Lifestyle
The design in question is a black turtleneck sweater which pulls up over the bottom half of the face and has cut-out and oversized red lips around the mouth. When Gucci took the design public, the negative reaction was almost instant against the decision making that went into the release of the controversial campaign.
In a Twitter post from last week, Gucci said it “deeply apologizes for the offense caused by the wool balaclava jumper.”
Gucci deeply apologizes for the offense caused by the wool balaclava jumper.
We consider diversity to be a fundamental value to be fully upheld, respected, and at the forefront of every decision we make.
Full statement below. pic.twitter.com/P2iXL9uOhs— gucci (@gucci) February 7, 2019
They also added that the sweater is no longer on the company’s website,
“We can confirm that the item has been immediately removed from our online store and all physical stores,” Gucci said. “We are fully committed to increasing diversity throughout our organization and turning this incident into a powerful learning moment for the Gucci team and beyond.”
Needless to say, not everyone was buying it.
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One day I am going to deliver a prolific dissertation on how it feels to live in a continuous cycle of disrespect as a black man.
Gigantic brands like @gucci create offensive “fashion”, quickly apologize, and then state “We did not know”.
I don’t care. This is unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/D6y50AAImJ
— Michael Bonner (@MichaelBonner_) February 7, 2019
In a backlash that has grown to include such hip-hop artists as T.I., Soulja Boy, and Waka Flocka Flame, the general public has taken to social media urging everyone to not only stop wearing Gucci designs but to also cease buying from them in the future.
“As a 7 figure/yr customer & longtime supporter of your brand I must say…Y’all GOT US f-cked UP!!! APOLOGY NOT ACCEPTED!!!!” T.I. wrote on Instagram alongside a Gucci logo. “We ain’t going for this “oops my bad I didn’t mean to be racist and disrespectful towards your people” shit!!! Y’all knew wtf y’all was doin and WE AINT GOING FOR IT!!!”
Soulja Boy, who is often seen wearing a Gucci headband, also took to social media to share his frustration over the blackface sweater.
“Smh what is this man? —-♂️ no more @gucci headbands for me. Who’s responsible for this? Because it’s not funny! At all!” the rapper posted on Instagram.
Interestingly, this is not the first time a fashion brand has been accused of using ethnically insensitive imagery. Last year, luxury fashion house Prada withdrew several products from sale after items it displayed in a Manhattan storefront were seen as depicting blackface. The products, which were part of Prada’s Pradamalia line, were pulled after images surfaced of some merchandise depicting monkey-like figures with black faces and large red lips.
This is also not the first time that White-Americans didn’t blink an eye before dressing in blackface for a party, or for believing the only way they could successfully costume as someone black was to blacken their face to the darkest extreme.
The Gucci sweater debacle comes on the heels of a contentious situation in Virginia, where the presiding governor and attorney general were each found to have dressed in blackface during their college days.
Additionally, a teacher at the Old Fourth Ward Charter School in Atlanta was suspended recently for directing her 2nd-grade students to hold blackface masks while reciting a poem for a school play. According to the teacher, she thought she was presenting a touching tribute in honor of Black History Month.
With a white citizen or corporation being caught and reprimanded nearly every other month for either appearing in, showing support for, or being completely insensitive to the racist connection to blackface, is it possible that everyone is seriously so unknowledgeable and unaware of the weight of their actions? Or, could it be these people know exactly what they’re doing but just don’t care?
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They knew what they were doing. I’m not buying no type of apology.