Another fashion retailer is facing backlash over its marketing and promotion, as it pertains to black culture.
In the latest incident, Forever 21 shared a photo of its Black Panther-inspired Christmas sweater on a blonde hair, blue-eyed white male model, which, in turn, sparked widespread outrage.
The company quickly responded by removing the model who was originally wearing the “Wakanda Forever Fair Isle Sweater” listed on Forever 21’s online store. Now, the sweater is advertised alone with no model. Although one of the other “Black Panther” sweaters was modeled by a black male model, a third sweater was advertised with a white female model.
Customers and fans of the retailer were pretty pissed over the companies decision to feature white models in the ”Black Panther” merch. But, the incident has since ignited a conversation on race, fashion, and advertising.
According to The Blast, a rep from Forever 21 stated, “Forever 21 takes feedback on our products and marketing extremely seriously. We celebrate all superheroes with many different models of various ethnicities and apologize if the photo in question was offensive in any way.”
Wakanda may be forever, but it looks like Forever 21 might be cancelled. What do y’all say?
