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Company Uses White Models To Sell ‘Black Girl Magic’ T-Shirts, And Here’s How Internet Reacts
Online retailer Zazzle.com has recently found itself under fire for using white women to model “Black Girl Magic” T-shirts on its website.
The company, which allows people to customize their own clothes, was called out by a Twitter user called @jackieaina who was understandably surprised by what she found. She tweeted a picture from their website and it was soon retweeted by other people who were confused, angered, and outraged by the company’s bizarre decision, not least because Black Girl Magic is a term designed to “celebrate the beauty, power and resilience of black women.”
However, despite how bad it may seem, it appears that Zazzle didn’t deliberately arrange for this particular pairing to occur. They host their products through an e-commerce platform, but the online marketplace uses a computerized system that pairs those products with random models. In this case it just happened to pair the wrong thing with the wrong model, but the fact that the default model seems to be white raises a number of important questions that online retailers might want to think about for the future…
More info: Twitter
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Online retailer Zazzle.com is in trouble for using white women to model “Black Girl Magic” T-shirts
And people are not happy
The company was called out by a Twitter user who tweeted a picture from their website
It was soon retweeted by other people who were confused, angered, and outraged
Black Girl Magic is a term designed to “celebrate the beauty, power and resilience of black women”
But as you can see, there aren’t many black women in these pictures
Despite how bad it may seem however, it appears that Zazzle didn’t deliberately intend for this to happen
They host their products through an e-commerce platform that pairs those products with random models
In this case it just happened to pair the wrong items with the wrong models
But the fact the default model seems to be white raises a number of important questions for online retailers
Needless to say, the internet wasn’t impressed
However, some people had a different perspective
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Master Markus 8 years ago
I'm not offended, but I agree that it's super weird. Especially the white guy wearing the "black woman power" t-shirt.
Nia Hilton Wohl 8 years ago
Yeah, that one almost seemed like a weird joke to me.
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Denali Kincaid 8 years ago
I'm familiar with zazzle and I'm pretty sure they take the model photos in a plain t shirt without any slogans and then the computer program puts the slogan over it when the designer submits their slogan or image they want on the shirt. The computer program isn't going to understand why that shirt on that model would be insensitive and would have no way to fix it. This is overly sensitive even for the Internet.
Honestpanda 8 years ago
Who cares?? it's just fashion. I have a unicorn tshirt and i'm still not a unicorn. Stop screaming each time we involve skin color!!
Ch4rm3d 8 years ago
I have an owl shirt and sadly when i look in the mirror i'm still no owl...
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Hans 8 years ago
Wow...and I also heard several bags of rice recently feel over in China, with several more at the risk of tipping. These are T-Shirt slogans...not more and not less. If you really want to make this a racial discrimination issue you could rather argue that if a white-skinned person wears a shirt saying "I'm a strong black woman" they are supportative. You surely can discuss about a lack of diversity in models presenting fashion, as you could about the way fashion is presented. But this "outcry" is just way over the top!
ItsPam Duh 8 years ago
But I live in Southern California, so "white racism" doesn't exist -__-
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Rainbowroll49 8 years ago
Sometimes I feel like some people are taking it really far and (to me) I almost feel like they're being racist to white people.
Anna Thouvenin 8 years ago
They are. Read the first comment (in the pics). That girl is definitely racist.
Load More Replies... Avinas Anzelmas 8 years ago
Some people are just way too sensitive. Would it be better if they would have matched slogans with skin color? Let's say white woman with "White magic" or black man with "black power". Would it be more appropriate? No! (Does someone remmember power rangers series?) Some people are just unhappy about everything related with black and white colours.
Arta 8 years ago
" celebrate the beauty, power and resilience of black women." , try to replace "black" with "white" and see what happens, "angered"??? Seriously??? What a RASISTS!!!
Sarah Britt 8 years ago
There's nothing wrong with being proud of who you are. It doesn't imply that ONLY black women are capable of having such qualities. It doesn't say anything negative about any other race. Celebrating those things doesn't make you a racist.
Load More Replies... Master Markus 8 years ago
I'm not offended, but I agree that it's super weird. Especially the white guy wearing the "black woman power" t-shirt.
Nia Hilton Wohl 8 years ago
Yeah, that one almost seemed like a weird joke to me.
Load More Replies... Denali Kincaid 8 years ago
I'm familiar with zazzle and I'm pretty sure they take the model photos in a plain t shirt without any slogans and then the computer program puts the slogan over it when the designer submits their slogan or image they want on the shirt. The computer program isn't going to understand why that shirt on that model would be insensitive and would have no way to fix it. This is overly sensitive even for the Internet.
Honestpanda 8 years ago
Who cares?? it's just fashion. I have a unicorn tshirt and i'm still not a unicorn. Stop screaming each time we involve skin color!!
Ch4rm3d 8 years ago
I have an owl shirt and sadly when i look in the mirror i'm still no owl...
Load More Replies... Hans 8 years ago
Wow...and I also heard several bags of rice recently feel over in China, with several more at the risk of tipping. These are T-Shirt slogans...not more and not less. If you really want to make this a racial discrimination issue you could rather argue that if a white-skinned person wears a shirt saying "I'm a strong black woman" they are supportative. You surely can discuss about a lack of diversity in models presenting fashion, as you could about the way fashion is presented. But this "outcry" is just way over the top!
ItsPam Duh 8 years ago
But I live in Southern California, so "white racism" doesn't exist -__-
Load More Replies... Rainbowroll49 8 years ago
Sometimes I feel like some people are taking it really far and (to me) I almost feel like they're being racist to white people.
Anna Thouvenin 8 years ago
They are. Read the first comment (in the pics). That girl is definitely racist.
Load More Replies... Avinas Anzelmas 8 years ago
Some people are just way too sensitive. Would it be better if they would have matched slogans with skin color? Let's say white woman with "White magic" or black man with "black power". Would it be more appropriate? No! (Does someone remmember power rangers series?) Some people are just unhappy about everything related with black and white colours.
Arta 8 years ago
" celebrate the beauty, power and resilience of black women." , try to replace "black" with "white" and see what happens, "angered"??? Seriously??? What a RASISTS!!!
Sarah Britt 8 years ago
There's nothing wrong with being proud of who you are. It doesn't imply that ONLY black women are capable of having such qualities. It doesn't say anything negative about any other race. Celebrating those things doesn't make you a racist.
Load More Replies...
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