15 January 2018
H&M Is Under Fire
Retailer H&M is under fire after running a product photo featuring a black boy in a hoodie with the words “coolest monkey in the jungle” emblazoned on the front.
Nobody claims that H&M meant anything racist by the shirt, and nobody is actually offended by the shirt
One can easily imagine that a kid would love it.
It’s a keyword-based reaction: the word “monkey” means that someone could be offended.
This is why Google refuses to include gorillas in their image search:
In another test, WIRED uploaded 20 photos of chimps and gorillas sourced from nonprofits Chimp Haven and the Diane Fossey Institute. Some of the apes could be found using the search terms “forest,” “jungle,” or “zoo,” but the remainder proved difficult to surface.
The upshot: Inside Google Photos, a baboon is a baboon, but a monkey is not a monkey. Gorillas and chimpanzees are invisible.
[updated 16 January]
Innocent shoppers and bystanders were forced to flee as chanting gangs wearing uniforms of the country’s radical opposition party swept through H&M stores across the city - including Africa’s flagship store in the upmarket suburb of Sandton.
Video from Make SA Safe.