Mother of H&M kid : "Get over it!"

[August Blue 8,566]

Why do white people keep telling black people when to be offended from racism and when not? They really dont get it or what?  

[LePetitGAGABLover 21,234]

This thread is a mess.

 

[FABian 852]

9 minutes ago, August Blue said:

Why do white people keep telling black people when to be offended from racism and when not? 

They really dont get it.  

They want to be activists and fight for a social issue because they had zero issuess when they grew up so they have to look for problems.

[August Blue 8,566]

1 minute ago, FABian said:

They want to be activists and fight for a social issue because they had zero issuess when they grew up so they have to look for problems.

HELL YES THEY ARE RIGHT! 

I think u misunderstood me. I was referring to white people that dont understand. And they are not the ones to tell black peopke when to be offended and not. 

[rpggal 328]

11 hours ago, illbekind said:

I wouldn’t agree with this. It’s no where near as used as it used to be and what I’m saying is that by trying to put the term in this box, that it’s racist, is giving that term a second meaning. It’s painting his skin black. Can we not just see it as a kid who is wearing a fun themed sweater? If this jumper didn’t have a young dark skinned child in it nobody would think it’s racist. There are terms which I’m sure you can think of without me saying that would make this racist if they were used. That’s what the mother is saying.

Look, nobody is questioning that the history of what black people have gone through is by any means forgettable or justifiable. I would just hope that these days the offence isn’t the first thing we jump to when we see the term monkey. Especially with a company like H&M who are (despite what many would say, and before you argue with me on this I would encourage you to do your research) are quite socially and environmentally progressive. They’re Swedish after all.

This doesn’t give H&M a pass for making this mistake and I’m not saying they were right. But the whole boycott thing and people saying they are racist is going too far. They have apologised. Would you like them to time travel and go back and rewrite history? I think everyone needs to relax about this, accept it was a mistake and move the fk on so we can keep making progress in this area. Like maybe looking at actual real discrimination that is still happening. Not a dumb sweater. 

I didn't say you were denying history, I said you were denying the present, and you still are. It doesn't matter if you don't believe black people still get called monkey, or if it's not as common as it used to be. They do, and commonly enough that every black person knows it is a slur against them. Your "I would just hope" is irrelevant. Who cares what you hope or wish the present was like. It's not like that, and black people don't owe you to pretend that it's like that. And they don't owe H&M their business, period. Why lay people would run to the defense of giant companies that have no interest in using you for anything but a profit is beyond me. Except that it's not about defending a company. It's about silencing POC when they demand to be treated with respect and assert their autonomy and agency. White society gets infuriated when black people decide they can do whatever the **** they want with their money. White society capes be for these companies because in our capitalist society corporations hold the power and are the active agents upholding white supremacy, which white lay people care about maintaining because they benefit from it, even if they won't admit it to themselves. I don't give a **** what H&M says or does in response to this, why would I waste my time wishing for a giant company to "go back in time" or whatever strawman you threw out? The question is, why do you care so much about what black people do with their money or take offense to that you would go on a public forum and try to convince them to stop being offended and shop at a retailer you have no stake in?

[lego 44,165]

13 minutes ago, FABian said:

They want to be activists and fight for a social issue because they had zero issuess when they grew up so they have to look for problems.

 

Sorry about going off topic, but you support Trump and you defended his actions and views here with passion, so I don’t think you care about any sort of activism and social justice. You just want to shut people up. 

 

[Redstreak 6,651]

I wonder if people here would accept a gay person saying get over straight people saying fagg0t, something weirdly tells me they wouldn't

[Robo Ga 14,480]

EXACTLY. She is SO RIGHT. Only people with twisted minds immediately thought a CHILD can't be called a monkey without racial undertones - they're are just kids....

Woke Twitter needs to go the f*ck home 

[Speechless94 545]

A note to fellow white people on GGD (from a white person) 

If a person of color (or anyone for that matter outside of this context) says they are offended about something, you are never ever ever in the position to question whether it is actually offensive. 

If someone tells you they are offended by something (especially racial / homophobic / transphobic / sexist) and you are NOT the minority in the situation, you are never ever in the position to question whether it is actually offensive. 

And again for everyone in the back: If someone tells you they find something offensive you are NEVER EVER IN THE POSITION TO QUESTION WHETHER IT IS ACTUALLY OFFENSIVE. 

You shut up.
You listen. 
You console if needed
You help if your help is wanted. 

Ya'll can argue back and forth over what is appropriate response with H&M but the very BASIC idea here is: The majority, even with education, will never be in the shoes of the minority. You will never know how it actually feels. Your responsibility as an ally is to first LISTEN to what your peers are saying, and IF WARRANTED (because no one needs a white savior), you do what you can to help those around you that are affected. 

tldr; white people shut up and just listen 

 

[illbekind 1,316]

1 hour ago, rpggal said:

I didn't say you were denying history, I said you were denying the present, and you still are. It doesn't matter if you don't believe black people still get called monkey, or if it's not as common as it used to be. They do, and commonly enough that every black person knows it is a slur against them. Your "I would just hope" is irrelevant. Who cares what you hope or wish the present was like. It's not like that, and black people don't owe you to pretend that it's like that. And they don't owe H&M their business, period. Why lay people would run to the defense of giant companies that have no interest in using you for anything but a profit is beyond me. Except that it's not about defending a company. It's about silencing POC when they demand to be treated with respect and assert their autonomy and agency. White society gets infuriated when black people decide they can do whatever the **** they want with their money. White society capes be for these companies because in our capitalist society corporations hold the power and are the active agents upholding white supremacy, which white lay people care about maintaining because they benefit from it, even if they won't admit it to themselves. I don't give a **** what H&M says or does in response to this, why would I waste my time wishing for a giant company to "go back in time" or whatever strawman you threw out? The question is, why do you care so much about what black people do with their money or take offense to that you would go on a public forum and try to convince them to stop being offended and shop at a retailer you have no stake in?

We obviously have different views on the world and you are interpreting one way and myself another.

I totally understand why this can be perceived as racist and why H&M should apologise. So please don’t accuse me of being naive or uneducated when it comes to this. What I don’t understand is the massive offence that some people are taking. That is what this argument is about. 

The word is a homonym - you and so many others are the people making the conscious choice to read into it in a way that was clearly never intended. What this does is actually fight against the one thing we clearly both agree on - that there is still a long way to go in regards to racial discrimination.  This is shown in the way you “don’t give a ****” what they do to resolve this. If you don’t give a **** what they do, why would they or anyone give a **** how you feel about it? The world doesn’t owe you or anyone of any race or skin colour anything until the individual is personally responsible for racism that they have commited. Racism is not a social construct of society anymore and there are laws protecting people from it. Due to this H&M have apologised. Why is that not enough for you? Why are you so tarnished and holding such a pessimistic view? Of course it doesn’t mean racism does not exist and nobody is denying that here. This matters to a lot of people including myself, regardless of my skin colour - which to this point you still have no idea what it is - and instead of discussing about the actual issue at hand yourself and so many others are turning on those who care and aren’t arguing against whether this is racist or not but instead acknowledging it is but perhaps we can accept when people or companies make these mistakes and move on. Let’s all work together so that one day when we read the term monkey we don’t associate it with POC  

You want people to not care what black people do with their money? Hun, I could give a ****. You are the one painting a skin colour on this. You are acting like the only people who could be offended by this are black people. Just like you chose to view the sweaters text as a racist term and not what it is clearly implying about any child’s behaviour, black, white, Asian, who cares?

You need to stop working against those who want to help. I would never stand by and let blatant racism slide. Sometimes it feels like a certain group will victimise themselves and not accept that there are people who might share the same views of you that don’t necessary share the same skin colour. 

[Blue Fever 4]

16 hours ago, KingRedd said:

She ain’t worried about nothing she must’ve received her $20 check and she feeling herself lol

shes not “woke” y’all a mess 

shes just not offended by it 

[KingRedd 3,139]

10 minutes ago, Blue Fever said:

shes just not offended by it 

K

[LM 4,032]

3 hours ago, rpggal said:

//www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/07/white-millennials-are-just-about-as-racist-as-their-parents/?utm_term=.025b7450bb8e

3 second Google search. How can you possibly criticize another user for not checking for sources when you didn't either? "Stop calling me ignorant just because I'm actively choosing to not look up information available at my finger tips."

The link you posted here leads us to a site that reports the results of a study but it's not the study itself. You can use your 3 second Google search and search the difference

And yes, I tried to find the study but I didn't and I'm not gonna spend 1 hour looking for a study that asked like 500 people some questions and from that made a title "Millenials are as racist as their parents". What does it even say? Is that good? Is it bad? How much racist were their parents?  

So before you try to make me look like an ignorant you better make sure you won't look like a dumb

[Pray4FameGa 3,141]

17 hours ago, KingRedd said:

She ain’t worried about nothing she must’ve received her $20 check and she feeling herself lol

shes not “woke” y’all a mess 

Oh come on!

If anything, putting "cheeky little monkey" or whatever on a black kids hoodie today is actually very progressive.

H&M assumed, wrongly, that we're past the point where that would cause mass offence, and just saw the child as being a little monkey, not because of his skin colour, but because of his childlike behaviour.

[KingRedd 3,139]

2 minutes ago, Pray4FameGa said:

Oh come on!

If anything, putting "cheeky little monkey" or whatever on a black kids hoodie today is actually very progressive.

H&M assumed, wrongly, that we're past the point where that would cause mass offence, and just saw the child as being a little monkey, not because of his skin colour, but because of his childlike behaviour.

Yea.... I don’t want to be convinced or quoted. No shade