Image: The fashion retailer advert that sparked outrage this week.
The time people of colour were kidnapped and trapped in pens while millions of tourists paid to stare and point at them over a fence remains in living memory. Until just 60 years ago, Europe and the United States were dotted with human zoos, where people of colour were kept like animals and black ‘exhibits’ were advertised as the evolutionary ‘missing link’.
This week, clothing retailer H&M came under fire for a racist advert showing a black boy in a hoodie reading ‘Coolest Monkey In The Jungle’ (while his white counterpart enjoys the privileged title of ‘Survival Expert’). There is much about that image which only becomes visible when examining it alongside hidden chapters of our history like the human zoo - such as how few people of colour must have been involved producing the image.
