{"id":391402,"date":"2018-01-14T08:45:53","date_gmt":"2018-01-14T08:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=391402"},"modified":"2018-01-14T09:05:14","modified_gmt":"2018-01-14T09:05:14","slug":"hm-stores-south-africa-trashed-racist-hoodie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=391402","title":{"rendered":"H&M stores in South Africa trashed over ‘racist’ hoodie"},"content":{"rendered":"

South African police have used rubber bullets to disperse a mob trashing H&M stores in and around Johannesburg, after the brand used a controversial picture of a black child.<\/p>\n

The protests were organised by the radical Economic Freedom Fighters’ party (EFF).<\/p>\n

H&M apologised several days ago for the image, which ran on its website.<\/p>\n

It featured a young black boy modelling a green hoodie with “coolest monkey in the jungle” written on it.<\/p>\n

The retailer withdrew both the product and the image after it sparked outrage and allegations of racism\u00a0on social media.<\/p>\n

“We’re deeply sorry that the picture was taken, and we also regret the actual print,” it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Video footage showed activists trashing displays, kicking over clothes rails and shoving mannequins.<\/p>\n

Floyd Shivambu, an MP from the EFF, tweeted: “That @hm nonsense of a clothing store is now facing consequences for its racism. All rational people should agree that the store should not be allowed to continue operating in South Africa.”<\/p>\n

South African Police (SAPS) also tweeted about the vandalism, writing: “Several incidents of protests at H&M stores around the province have been reported.<\/p>\n

“At the East Rand Mall the protesters managed to enter the shop & stole several items. #SAPS members had to intervene and dispersed the group of protesters by firing rubber bullets.”<\/p>\n

EFF leader Julius Malema defended the rampage, saying: “We make no apology about what the fighters did today.”<\/p>\n

“We are not going to allow anyone to use the colour of our skin to humiliate us, to exclude us,” he added.<\/p>\n

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The Johannesburg branch of the EFF tweeted this picture<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

While consumers in several countries had called for a boycott of H&M as the picture went viral, the mother of the child model has said that she did not find it offensive.<\/p>\n

She said the hoodie was “one of hundreds of outfits my son has modelled”, and urged people to “stop crying wolf all the time”.<\/p>\n

Addressing the EFF store takeovers, she tweeted that “apartheid and racism [have] corrupted some so much that this is thought to be reasonable in response to a hoodie with the word “monkey” on it”.<\/p>\n

More than one celebrity has cut their ties with H&M over the hoodie row.<\/p>\n

Singer The Weeknd, who had collaborated with the company, said the advert made him feel “shocked and embarrassed”.<\/p>\n

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Content is not available<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

He was joined by rapper G-Eazy, who had been due to bring out a clothing line with H&M in March.<\/p>\n

“I can’t allow for my name and brand to be associated with a company that could let this happen,” the musician said.<\/p>\n

“I hope that this situation will serve as the wake up call that H&M and other companies need to get on track and become racially and culturally aware, as well as more diverse at every level.”<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African police have used rubber bullets to disperse a mob trashing H&M stores in and around Johannesburg, after the brand used a controversial picture of a black child. The protests were organised by the radical Economic Freedom Fighters’ party (EFF). H&M apologised several days ago for the image, which ran on its website. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":391403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-391402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=391402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/391403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=391402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=391402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=391402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}