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Prada removes blackface products following backlash

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signal

signal

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Oct 28, 2017
40,183
Business of Fashion
CBC - Luxury company says it 'never had the intention of offending' with monkey-faced, red-lipped key chains

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Prada has removed a series of products from its stores worldwide after accusations the items were racist and depicted blackface.

"Prada Group never had the intention of offending anyone," the luxury apparel brand posted on Twitter Friday.

Backlash began earlier this week after photos began circulating on social media, showing close-ups of the items juxtaposed with traditional blackface illustrations.Chinyere Ezie, a lawyer at the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights, posted a series of pictures on Facebook after spotting the items in the brand's storefront window in New York.
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"I entered the store with a coworker, only to be assaulted with more and more bewildering examples," she posted Thursday. Ezie said the imagery left her "shaking with anger." "This iconography has been used throughout history to mock and demean black people and strip us of our humanity," she added in a statement provided to CBC News.
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The company describes the product line as a "new family of mysterious, tiny creatures that are one part biological, one part technological" and have names like Otto, Toto and Disco.
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$550 btw.
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

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Oct 25, 2017
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Jesus christ, i was expecting that they did some weird makeup face cleansing product, but that's a full on racial caricature bag charm
 
Hrodulf

Hrodulf

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Oct 25, 2017
5,299
No, it's okay, they're imaginary creatures and totally not blackface at all. What a shit excuse.
 
stew

stew

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Dec 2, 2017
4,188
What in the hell?!!! No way nobody who got involved in this didn't see it was racist.
 
Masterspeed

Masterspeed

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Oct 25, 2017
4,825
England
Every time I see a thread like this, I always get in the back of my mind "It's probably not even that bad to pull" but hoollllyy shit Prada, that's a little on the nose don't you think?

Holy fuck.
 
BurntFoot

BurntFoot

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Apr 10, 2018
2,204
They know what they're doing. White society has this deep hatred of black folks like me. I've come to accept that.
 
Wetwork

Wetwork

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Oct 27, 2017
2,607
Colorado
It just looks like a cartoon monkey. Like seriously. First thought was a ripoff of the Paul Frank monkey I saw growing up tbh. They're totally not people, they're naked, long arms, short torsos and legs, and really don't resemble humans at all.

Can totally see how it could be insensitive and taken as an offence, but can also see how it's just a stupid monkey for a stupid clothing brand.
 
Cat Party

Cat Party

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Oct 25, 2017
10,403
Nevermind the designers. How did someone actually put those in a display and not go "wait a sec..."?
 
RailWays

RailWays

One Winged Slayer
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Oct 25, 2017
15,666
Nah, they knew what they were doing with those designs. It astounds me that these kind of designs can reach the shelf without someone along the chain pulling the brakes.
 

Deleted member 1248

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Oct 25, 2017
12,018
I believe them when they say they never intended to be offensive. I doubt anybody there has ever thought about how black people might feel about anything.
 
NoName999

NoName999

One Winged Slayer
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Oct 29, 2017
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"But guys, is this really racist though? I think pointing out racism is the real racism. There are other more important topics to talk about."

/s
 
Hollywood Duo

Hollywood Duo

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Oct 25, 2017
41,764
Neopolitan said:
It just looks like a cartoon monkey. Like seriously. First thought was a ripoff of the Paul Frank monkey I saw growing up tbh. They're totally not people, they're naked, long arms, short torsos and legs, and really don't resemble humans at all.

Can totally see how it could be insensitive and taken as an offence, but can also see how it's just a stupid monkey for a stupid clothing brand.
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Show me a cartoon monkey that looks like similar to that.
 
low-G

low-G

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Oct 25, 2017
8,144
Yeah the red lips are fucking damning. Definitely willful racism.

Search 'cartoon monkey' and you're gonna be scrolling a damn long time before you find red lips, if at all.
 
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
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Oct 26, 2017
59,968
Knowing fashion, I doubt they are any POC near anyone who made this decision. This is why representation is important.
 
coldzone24

coldzone24

Member
Oct 27, 2017
610
Cleveland, OH
Jeez that was wayyyyy worse than I expected!

And for half a second I gave them the benefit of the doubt because I wasn't sure if Pradamalias were some old things with history, but no it's just some dumb racist thing Prada came up with.
 

Deleted member 887

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Oct 25, 2017
16,738
Neopolitan said:
It just looks like a cartoon monkey. Like seriously. First thought was a ripoff of the Paul Frank monkey I saw growing up tbh. They're totally not people, they're naked, long arms, short torsos and legs, and really don't resemble humans at all.

Can totally see how it could be insensitive and taken as an offence, but can also see how it's just a stupid monkey for a stupid clothing brand.
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....
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
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Oct 25, 2017
93,021
Yeah no way that that went through to production without someone pointing it out. But it was ignored.
 
Heromanz

Heromanz

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20,202
Neopolitan said:
It just looks like a cartoon monkey. Like seriously. First thought was a ripoff of the Paul Frank monkey I saw growing up tbh. They're totally not people, they're naked, long arms, short torsos and legs, and really don't resemble humans at all.

Can totally see how it could be insensitive and taken as an offence, but can also see how it's just a stupid monkey for a stupid clothing brand.
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What is this?
 
Wetwork

Wetwork

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Oct 27, 2017
2,607
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Hollywood Duo said:
I don't see that as even remotely similar.
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Same general shape. Like for real? The biggest and most damning thing about the Prada one is the stupid giant red lips, which was an abhorrant design choice. The chrome design removes that feature and is also prominantly featured in the store. Either way, the the stupid thing was rightfully taken down.

But I ain't here to defend a stupid company that sells bags that make more than I make in a month.
 
Orochinagis

Orochinagis

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Oct 27, 2017
3,548
Well the wood monkey dolls are not bad if they reduced the lips , the black people dolls are really really atrocious
 
OrdinaryPrime

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Neopolitan said:
It just looks like a cartoon monkey. Like seriously. First thought was a ripoff of the Paul Frank monkey I saw growing up tbh. They're totally not people, they're naked, long arms, short torsos and legs, and really don't resemble humans at all.

Can totally see how it could be insensitive and taken as an offence, but can also see how it's just a stupid monkey for a stupid clothing brand.
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So you spell "offense" with a c which makes me think you're not American (or at the very least Canadian). You really need to understand the history of blackface and racism in this country. The whole "I can see how some people could consider this offensive but also see how it's just a stupid monkey" isn't it chief. It really isn't.

This is the type of shit that the US faces in its history (and largely tries to ignore):

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Can you understand why people would consider them similar?

Neopolitan said:
It's literally a stupid monkey design. FFS. It can be totally taken as a racist design, and rightfully so. But goddamn, it's missing like 90% of what would be Sampo. But as a non-black person, it's not my place to decide what constitutes a racist design or not.
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I feel like you're contradicting yourself here. You seem agitated but acknowledge that you really shouldn't be.
 
Icemonk191

Icemonk191

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Oct 25, 2017
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Neopolitan said:
It just looks like a cartoon monkey. Like seriously. First thought was a ripoff of the Paul Frank monkey I saw growing up tbh. They're totally not people, they're naked, long arms, short torsos and legs, and really don't resemble humans at all.

Can totally see how it could be insensitive and taken as an offence, but can also see how it's just a stupid monkey for a stupid clothing brand.
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Mammoth Jones

Mammoth Jones

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Oct 25, 2017
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Lottsa people don't know the history behind that type of imagery. It's privilege since you don't have to. It'll never affect how people view you.

But that excuse gets thinner every year especially for a global company that should have enough diversity among its marketing and creation staff to flag ideas like this before it even goes to fabrication, let alone store shelves.
 
Slayven

Slayven

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Neopolitan said:
Same general shape. Like for real? The biggest and most damning thing about the Prada one is the stupid giant red lips, which was an abhorrant design choice. The chrome design removes that feature and is also prominantly featured in the store. Either way, the the stupid thing was rightfully taken down.

But I ain't here to defend a stupid company that sells bags that make more than I make in a month.
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Neopolitan said:
It's literally a stupid monkey design. FFS. It can be totally taken as a racist design, and rightfully so. But goddamn, it's missing like 90% of what would be Sampo. But as a non-black person, it's not my place to decide what constitutes a racist design or not.
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Then why are you defending them?
 
Commedieu

Commedieu

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Nov 11, 2017
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Neopolitan said:
Same general shape. Like for real? The biggest and most damning thing about the Prada one is the stupid giant red lips, which was an abhorrant design choice. The chrome design removes that feature and is also prominantly featured in the store. Either way, the the stupid thing was rightfully taken down.

But I ain't here to defend a stupid company that sells bags that make more than I make in a month.
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U sure?

Because it's tone deaf, and speaks to a lack of understanding of these issues. If you had 3 black people near by, you could just gauge their looks to see this was bad taste.

If it's a rip off like the gymnastics are suggesting, they would have mentioned as much. But their design is closer to historic shit, than it is the clear as day cartoon monkey.
 
Hollywood Duo

Hollywood Duo

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Oct 25, 2017
41,764
Neopolitan said:
It's literally a stupid monkey design. FFS. It can be totally taken as a racist design, and rightfully so. But goddamn, it's missing like 90% of what would be Sampo. But as a non-black person, it's not my place to decide what constitutes a racist design or not.
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That's a monkey tho. Looks like a monkey. This Prada thing is blatant blackface.
 
Kreed

Kreed

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Oct 25, 2017
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Prada said:
The Pradamalia are fantasy charms composed of elements of the Prada oeuvre.
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So looking up "Pradamalia", this seems like a "Pokemon Jynx" situation in regards to colors for at least one of these fantasy charms. Still, almost any Black person on staff would have caught this and told them not to do the Red and Black one vs using the Yellow and Green one/another coloration.
 
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