this. absolutely this.

I have absolutely heard that from both white and black parents. calling their children monkeys. an interesting scenario:

What if you saw a black kid at a park wearing this? would people find it offensive in real life? What if they found out that the kid was from a mixed-race household and borrowed the hoodie from his white brother because he liked monkeys? what is the specific thing that even makes the juxtaposition of the child and the hoodie racially insensitive? it is OUR beliefs that make it insensitive? If nobody put the two together like that, would it still be racist?

what do you think a path to post-racism would look like? I personally have no idea. I don't really know if even SHOULD get to a point where we ignore race entirely.

I don't know exactly what the path to post-racism will look like, however I do believe we NEED to get to a point where we ignore race. We are all humans. We need to accept people for who they are not skin color and we need to level the playing field and eliminate the horrible conditions created by years of national policy aimed at keeping those of non white skin in poverty. I don't know how it is going to happen, but I am sure my children's generation and my grandchildren's generation will be moving us in that direction.

Largely it is because in the US if your skin isn't lily white you are discriminated against from before you are born til you die an early death. We will not let it go until skin color is not an issue, til all humans are treated fairly.

I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm trying to understand it. America probably does have more racial problems than most countries. However, it is not unique to us. It is a human problem.

@HippieChick58 true. and in parts of the country you get discriminated against for being white. i went to an all black elementary school, i was one of two white kids and got picked on avery day by the older kids. an interesting thing to note is that my peers, first grade and second grade kids didn't even seem to notice i was white, which is refreshing in hindsight.

also, ginger kids get picked on well into adulthood, albeit in a more lighthearted manner.

but not willfully racist, right? they weren't trying to say that black people are monkeys. they were trying to promote a hoodie with a self-affirming message that when paired with a person of color could be seen as racist, but i doubt there was any ill will. in fact, they were probably trying to find ways to add more black people into their modeling, rather than just being the store for white people. they f'ed up, sure. but i don't know if it's racist exactly.

there was another (white) kid in a hoodie about being a jungle survivor. people get upset about things that are upsetting. apparently that upset them. tbh i don't know if I would have even looked twice at it.