Via The Daily Beast:
Luxury Italian fashion house Prada shut down a New York City storefront and pulled a keychain from its stock after the accessory went viral for resembling blackface imagery.
The complaint was first made on Twitter and Facebook by Chinyere Ezie, a civil-rights attorney and activist who works at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Ezie saw the keychain while walking past the line’s SoHo store in downtown Manhattan.
“Thanks to #blackface @Prada, now you can take #sambo home with you for the holidays #StopRacism #StopBlackface #StopPrada,” Ezie wrote on Twitter, referencing a disparaging term for black men.
The offensive bauble in question was a $550 Pradamalia Otto-Toto Keychain Trick .
According to the brand’s website, the Pradamalia line features “mysterious tiny creatures that are one part biological, one part technological, all parts Prada.”
But for many, the monkey-like figurine looked like it could have come straight out of a minstrel show, with its red, oversized lips.
“Wow. Prada seems to think this is some kind of ‘mysterious’ new invention. Hate to break it to you guys, this ain’t the future. It’s the past. The very recent, racist past and it’s all too present now, clearly #blackface #sambo #slavery still in vogue, apparently,” British journalist Afua Hirsch wrote on Twitter. See keychain and read on [HERE].
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