H&M Apologizes Amidst Racism Accusations

The global and popular retailer H&M have issued an apology after they were accused of racism. The accusations arrived after an image of a young black boy wearing a hoodie with the slogan ‘coolest monkey in the jungle’ written across the front was used on their website. The image soon went viral across Twitter. In reaction, singer The Weekend, who has collaborated with H&M in the past, has cut ties with the retailer. He stated on twitter that;

‘Woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. I'm deeply offended and will not be working with H&M anymore’.

The image has been removed from their website and H&M vows to remove the hoodie from its stores. Another singer, G-Eazy, has also decided not to work with H&M. It was only announced in early December 2017 that he would be collaborating with them and a clothing collection would be released later this year. A statement issued on both his instagram and twitter accounts said that he felt uncomfortable allowing his name to be associated with the brand;

‘Unfortunately, after seeing the disturbing image yesterday, my excitement over our global campaign quickly evaporated, and I’ve decided at this time our partnership needs to end’.

A spokesperson for the store has said;

‘This image has now been removed from all H&M channels and we apologise to anyone this may have offended…It’s obvious that our routines haven’t been followed properly. This is without any doubt. We’ll thoroughly investigate why this happened to prevent this type of mistake from happening again’.

A similar controversy occurred in January 2016, when H&M apologised for selling a striped scarf that was deemed to be a copy of a Tallit, the Jewish prayer shawl.