Marvel Studios 2018
Twitter Is Outraged After Forever 21 Uses White Model To Promote Official ‘Black Panther’ Clothing Line
On today’s edition of tone-deaf clothing retailers, we bring you: Forever 21 using a white male to model a Black Panther “Wakanda Forever” sweater. ICYMI (which, TBH, you really shouldn’t have), Black Panther is the world’s ninth highest-grossing film of all time and No. 1 for 2018. The star-studded cast includes fan favorites like Lupita Nyong’o, Michael B. Jordan, Letitia Wright, and of course, Chadwick Boseman.
In addition to being an all-around badass movie, Black Panther was (and continues to be) a huge step forward for the progression of black actors in Hollywood. Why is it, then, that Forever 21 decided to use a white model? Well, your guess is as good as ours, but rest assured, Twitter is pissed.
“The ‘Wakanda Forever’ sweater brought to you by the colonizer,” one user wrote. “So, [Forever 21] removed the ‘Wakanda Forever’ tweet, meanwhile on Forever21.com they got white people in official Black Panther merch, and a black guy in the bootleg. I mean… yikes,” added another, noting that the company also had a woman who appears to be white modeling merchandise. *Pauses to scratch head.*
So @Forever21 removed the “Wakanda Forever” tweet, meanwhile on https://t.co/ECJpDYMBv8 they got white people in the official Black Panther merch, and a black guy in the bootleg. I mean….YIKES. pic.twitter.com/hGd2WYca9u
— lissey (@lisa2bags) December 18, 2018
If you find yourself confused as to why Forever 21’s marketing of Black Panther merchandise is, to put it bluntly, dumb, you may want to give the film a rewatch. We are in no way suggesting that this article of clothing is not acceptable for all people to wear, but at the very least, the retailer should have known to use a model who better represents the message of the item. Representation never seems that important… until you’re the one not being represented.
Hours later, Forever 21 shared their official statement on the situation with Life & Style. “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.” They have also deleted the initial tweet advertising the sweater, as well as removed the listing from their website. We imagine their social media editor is not having a great day… and rightfully so. #SorryNotSorry. Do better next time.
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