Gap apologizes for 'racist' ad

[PartySick 174,275]

5 minutes ago, gag said:

You mean the times where people were blatantly racist and weren't condemned for it? 

  Hide contents

Jokes, kinda - I mean I half agree with your point of how political correctness may be taken too far in some instances.

But it's so  when people say stuff like this because before political correctness became overexposed, people said the most homophobic/racist **** and got it away with it. In some cases I'm glad people are actually speaking out about how offensive some things are.

Just my 2 cents tho so.... who cares.

 

It's a balancing act. I tend to consider myself as a bit of a "keyboard/social justice warrior" but I'm no where near as overly sensitive about things like this. Demanding to take down a Gap ad because some people feel that it denotes white power? When they literally did the same thing the year before, but the other way around?  but then you have those people that believe you can't be racist towards white people

All endeavors like this do is alienate the people whose opinions, for some reason, aren't made up on the matter. They also serve to make people feel defensive. Even right now, I feel like I have to walk on egg shells 'cause I'm light-skinned (but not even half white). Instead of doing what great civil rights leaders did decades ago, calling upon their white brothers and sisters to combat bigotry, they're instead telling white people about their "privilege" and making something like an ad that's supposed to be cute into a message of oppression from the white devil.

They make the fight against racism into a "black vs. white" thing when it's not. It's a "compassion and acceptance vs. ignorance and bigotry" thing. All this'll do is heighten tensions even further.

This ad is supposed to tell a story. Four girls having fun and wearing clothes from the Gap. They're probably all like sisters and the tall one is leaning on the short one. No. Big. Deal. If people want to be upset over some racism, we still have a "justice" system that's incredibly crooked, a lower class that's mostly minorities, and multiple educational institutions that consider minorities tokens to show off 

Spoiler

Don't take any of this as hostility towards you, btw  I've just had many heated discussions on the whole topic of racism and political correctness. I see it all so differently than some do and I hate this new way of thinking that literally everything is SSOOOOOO offensive that we need to burn the country for it and demonize whomever we can...usually white people, cis people, heterosexual people, or men

Instead of wanting to tackle real problems, they'd rather piss and moan about a Gap ad. Instead of tackling the issue of violence, they want to yell about "micro-aggressions". They don't go after a dad who killed his gay son but if a celebrity says "f*ggot" they'll call for a total boycott of their material/product in an effort to ruin them...it just totally undermines the real fight, ya know?

And it's not that those aren't problems, they are and should definitely be pointed out as problems, but not blown up on such a scale that this is what's trending on facebook right now instead of some real sh*t

/ranting essay

tl;dr - This is offensive only to people who are looking to be offended. Stop making big deals about little stuff and no deals at all about real stuff.

[Kayla 7,595]

30 minutes ago, PartySick said:

This is apparently last year's ad

Yet no outrage...probably because kids leaning on kids is just that

People get offended way too easily imo. Or at least over the wrong things.

Also consider in this ad there are multiple white people, one just happening to be the armrest and doing so in a confident stance, while in the new ad the one black girl ends up being the armrest with an expression that does not look strong or happy and a shirt that doesn't match the other girls (if we really wanna reach for symbolism  )

I don't think Gap is trying or actually being racist at all- I think they printed a photo that was unintentionally reminiscent of past slave images that in reality proooobably could have been done better. But again, as stated in my previous post, I think both sides of the equation here need to do a better job of being understanding. 

Sure, people nowadays are more sensitive, but unfortunately what's also happening is while one group of people is becoming more and more offended, another group is becoming less and less likely to give a **** about other peoples' feelings, which I think ultimately is worse of two evils. 

[teo 609]

This is the biggest tumblr bullshit I have witnessed to this day. 

[PartySick 174,275]

2 hours ago, Kayla said:

Also consider in this ad there are multiple white people, one just happening to be the armrest and doing so in a confident stance, while in the new ad the one black girl ends up being the armrest with an expression that does not look strong or happy and a shirt that doesn't match the other girls (if we really wanna reach for symbolism  )

I don't think Gap is trying or actually being racist at all- I think they printed a photo that was unintentionally reminiscent of past slave images that in reality proooobably could have been done better. But again, as stated in my previous post, I think both sides of the equation here need to do a better job of being understanding. 

Sure, people nowadays are more sensitive, but unfortunately what's also happening is while one group of people is becoming more and more offended, another group is becoming less and less likely to give a **** about other peoples' feelings, which I think ultimately is worse of two evils. 

I tend to think that's because they're being told all the time how evil and oppressive they are  Like I said in my rant above, even I'm feeling defensive about this stuff and I'm half white, half hispanic, but with light skin. Others have just decided "f*ck it, I'll be seen as the villain either way, might as well do what I want".

Like you said, both sides need to chill. The path to beating this ugly monster in our society is hand in hand, not shaking a fist and raising our voices at each other  It's not calling people out on their privilege and it's not calling it "political correctness gone mad" when you get told about some nonsense that you pulled.

Everyone breathe and learn to look past the color lines, look past the division, and tackle the ignorance of our species as friends. It'll get done a lot faster.

[Kayla 7,595]

@PartySick you made excellent points that I agree with very much. 

Sometimes I wonder if the "SJW" crowd goes after things like this because they think it's an easier target? It makes more sense to target the REAL social issues like you mentioned, but perhaps those seem like no-win situations. I mean, getting a company to remove ONE ad, or boycotting ONE celebrity for saying '*******,' is easier than dismantling our problematic prison system and obtaining legitimately equal rights for everyone, y'know? 

The Always-Offended-By-Everything-Generation is coming after the We've-Fought-For-Years-And-This-****-Still-Happens-Generations, so I'm not surprised tbh. 

I also think that seeing root issues so intensely causes you to find reflections of those issues in little things that in reality don't matter, like this ad. For example, if you know of those images of black kids being used as furniture, that's what your mind is going to bring up when you see this image, which is going to effect how you view it. Some people do that and then get offended, when the next step SHOULD be - "What were Gap's intentions?"

When you friend says something unintentionally messy, you often laugh it off and just kindly tell them what's up, right? People need to extend that compassion to people they don't know. Instead of vilifying Google, these SJW's should just be calmly saying "Hey, we know you didn't mean any harm, but just pointing out that your ad reminds a lot of us of some other images that aren't so pleasant...."

[LUCARTPOP 5,972]

This is so ignorant, this also gives me "Justin Bieber has now dreadlocks, rip black culture!!1!1!" teas. 

People who are considering such things are the dumbest humans alive. 

[Fiona Apple 13,006]

This is not racist 

[Bye 3,947]

It's more heightist than it is racist :lmao: 

[PartySick 174,275]

1 minute ago, Kayla said:

@PartySick you made excellent points that I agree with very much. 

Sometimes I wonder if the "SJW" crowd goes after things like this because they think it's an easier target? It makes more sense to target the REAL social issues like you mentioned, but perhaps those seem like no-win situations. I mean, getting a company to remove ONE ad, or boycotting ONE celebrity for saying '*******,' is easier than dismantling our problematic prison system and obtaining legitimately equal rights for everyone, y'know? 

The Always-Offended-By-Everything-Generation is coming after the We've-Fought-For-Years-And-This-****-Still-Happens-Generations, so I'm not surprised tbh. 

I also think that seeing root issues so intensely causes you to find reflections of those issues in little things that in reality don't matter, like this ad. For example, if you know of those images of black kids being used as furniture, that's what your mind is going to bring up when you see this image, which is going to effect how you view it. Some people do that and then get offended, when the next step SHOULD be - "What were Gap's intentions?"

When you friend says something unintentionally messy, you often laugh it off and just kindly tell them what's up, right? People need to extend that compassion to people they don't know. Instead of vilifying Google, these SJW's should just be calmly saying "Hey, we know you didn't mean any harm, but just pointing out that your ad reminds a lot of us of some other images that aren't so pleasant...."

Perfectly stated!

And yes, I do think things like this are targets because they're easier to combat or talk about.

Who's to blame for this picture that may or may not be seen as insensitive or offensive? Gap and their advertising department. Bingo. Done. Let's rant, write blog posts, get it trending on facebook and demand an apology. 

Who's to blame for, say, the extremely imbalanced number of minority inmates in prisons who serve longer sentences for lesser crimes? Subconscious feelings that stem from generations of social conditioning rooted in ignorant thoughts that may have been passed down willingly or totally unknowingly from parents to their kids. That'll take lifetimes of education, understanding, and patience to change. We'll not see the fruits of those labors but our kids will live in a better world, their kids will live in an even better world than that, so it's worth it.

That's hard, though. Change is hard and being patient and calm is hard. Bitching on facebook, twitter, or tumblr is easy and can provide immediate results and the false feeling that you've "done something". There's the problem

[gag 22,449]

32 minutes ago, PartySick said:

It's a balancing act. I tend to consider myself as a bit of a "keyboard/social justice warrior" but I'm no where near as overly sensitive about things like this. Demanding to take down a Gap ad because some people feel that it denotes white power? When they literally did the same thing the year before, but the other way around?  but then you have those people that believe you can't be racist towards white people

All endeavors like this do is alienate the people whose opinions, for some reason, aren't made up on the matter. They also serve to make people feel defensive. Even right now, I feel like I have to walk on egg shells 'cause I'm light-skinned (but not even half white). Instead of doing what great civil rights leaders did decades ago, calling upon their white brothers and sisters to combat bigotry, they're instead telling white people about their "privilege" and making something like an ad that's supposed to be cute into a message of oppression from the white devil.

They make the fight against racism into a "black vs. white" thing when it's not. It's a "compassion and acceptance vs. ignorance and bigotry" thing. All this'll do is heighten tensions even further.

This ad is supposed to tell a story. Four girls having fun and wearing clothes from the Gap. They're probably all like sisters and the tall one is leaning on the short one. No. Big. Deal. If people want to be upset over some racism, we still have a "justice" system that's incredibly crooked, a lower class that's mostly minorities, and multiple educational institutions that consider minorities tokens to show off 

  Reveal hidden contents

Don't take any of this as hostility towards you, btw  I've just had many heated discussions on the whole topic of racism and political correctness. I see it all so differently than some do and I hate this new way of thinking that literally everything is SSOOOOOO offensive that we need to burn the country for it and demonize whomever we can...usually white people, cis people, heterosexual people, or men

Instead of wanting to tackle real problems, they'd rather piss and moan about a Gap ad. Instead of tackling the issue of violence, they want to yell about "micro-aggressions". They don't go after a dad who killed his gay son but if a celebrity says "f*ggot" they'll call for a total boycott of their material/product in an effort to ruin them...it just totally undermines the real fight, ya know?

And it's not that those aren't problems, they are and should definitely be pointed out as problems, but not blown up on such a scale that this is what's trending on facebook right now instead of some real sh*t

/ranting essay

tl;dr - This is offensive only to people who are looking to be offended. Stop making big deals about little stuff and no deals at all about real stuff.

I really do agree with everything you said, though! My original comment was more directed towards racism (and homophobia) generally within the media and marketing. Personally I think this GAP ad is a terrible example of denotations of racism in advertising or the media, the cases where racism is more heavily implied in advertisements is what people should condemn. This ad is innocent, IMO, though I can see how some may perceive this to be racist.

Spoiler

I'm guilty of being a 'SJW' on multiple occasions too. 

 

[Hexxx 2,244]

She looks so...

There is something wrong with this image. Now I'm not to quick to jump to conclusions but it feels like a subliminal message. I don't think it was intentional but the black girl looks so random as if they said, "Let's just stick her in the picture." 

Even in the video she didn't say anything

[TiphEret 1,320]

I think sometimes people should pick their battle but whatever... anyway some call Gap in a dar humouristic way clothes for children made by children soooo what did you expect? If it makes people so mad don't buy their clothes

[MrFameKills 1,600]

That's where SJWs get us, folks 

[Sizzily 14,574]

Of course people thought it was racist. 

[AJH219 4,448]

More stupid Tumblrinas getting their panties in a wad over nothing, as usual. Typical butt-hurt Americans  Are you fvking kidding me? I swear between two clowns running for President and people not being able to live without finding something to be offended over, I truly HATE this country sometimes. Actually, I hate our generation. Not everything has to be offensive.....