Earlier this week, Gap was grilled for its latest fashion ad for kids featuring a white girl resting her arm on the top of a black girl’s head, but now there’s a little more to the story.
After a Twitter backlash.
@GapKids proving girls can do anything… unless she’s Black. Then all she can do is bear the weight of White girls. #EpicFail
— Fatima La’Juan Muse (@TheTherapyDiva) April 2, 2016
An apology from the retail chain.
@GapKids proving girls can do anything… unless she’s Black. Then all she can do is bear the weight of White girls. #EpicFail
— Fatima La’Juan Muse (@TheTherapyDiva) April 2, 2016
Plus, this newly released photo.
Come to find out, the two girls centered around the debate are actually sisters and their mother isn’t too happy about the fallout. Brooke Smith, the actress from Grey’s Anatomy and Ray Donovan, took to Twitter to silence some of the confusion.
they are sisters! https://t.co/eM1HjRqIdi
— Brooke Smith (@Iam_BrookeSmith) April 3, 2016
@TheRoot girl with arm resting on her shoulder is her sister She didn’t talk in video because she was 2 shy. everyone needs to calm down.
— Brooke Smith (@Iam_BrookeSmith) April 3, 2016
@rebel19 @GapKids I know my daughter is black. Why should she have to represent anyone other than herself?
— Brooke Smith (@Iam_BrookeSmith) April 7, 2016
Her daugthers, Lucy and Fanny are with Le Petit Cirque, a youth performance group. Founder, Nathalie Yves Gaulthier released a statement via ABC News about her full support of GapKids and the company’s handling of this matter.
The child in the ad is not an “armrest,” she’s the other girl’s little sister. They are a very close family. The child is a very young [junior] member with Le Petit Cirque, a humanitarian cirque company, and therefore a wee shyer than the more seasoned older outgoing girls. Our company is deeply saddened by some people misconstruing this as racist, and are keeping the children out of this at the moment to protect their beautiful feelings, but we are extremely supportive of dialogue in our country to move past any racial barriers. We stand by Gap Kids and Ellen DeGeneres.
