Online retailer Zazzle is catching heat after trying to sell "Black Girl Magic" shirts using white models.
The saying "Black Girl Magic" is obviously a statement of empowerment for black women and cannot be gentrified. We can't seem to understand why we have to keep having this conversation. But one thing you will not do is appropriate every move we make and every word we say while simultaneously trying to erase us.
In true Black Twitter form, Zazzle was dragged for everything they're worth.
well in that case pic.twitter.com/2xI849O0we
— La Bronze James (@jackieaina) July 25, 2017
Clearly #zazzle needs a new p.r. team and a website manager because this is unacceptable https://t.co/lQmEJ4ZgA0
— Lisa Derogene (@lisa_derogene) July 28, 2017
— ????LEGENDARY???? (@camari_crayton) July 25, 2017
Me as a white person right now… pic.twitter.com/wpH3aajqyI
— Charley L. Bunting (@charleylbunting) July 25, 2017
Others came to their defense stating that the model was a default on the website, and Twitter users quickly responded with "Why do you assume white is default and that this is okay?"
Default models used for several different t-shirt designs. Not a mystery
— Emily. (@Emily_Taylor14) July 25, 2017
hey. hey emily. quick question. why do you assume white is default and that this is okay.
— (ง •̀_•́)ง (@JannaElizabeth4) July 26, 2017
follow up question. what makes black girls so abnormal as to not be default.
— (ง •̀_•́)ง (@JannaElizabeth4) July 26, 2017
Ask the damn question girl!!! pic.twitter.com/gFoE0nxbQb
— Khittey (@Khittey) July 26, 2017
Zazzle released a statement to Yahoo Style in an effort to clear up the confusion saying,
“Each designer is shown a series of pre-posed randomized model shots upon which their design is placed. It’s always possible that gender, race and other attributes of the model do not match up to the specifics of the design, given the ratio of our millions of designs to the 100 or so t-shirt styles we offer. At Zazzle, we’re committed to diversity and are working on increasing the diversity of the pre-posed model shots and the t-shirt range itself.”
Pre-posed randomized models? OK. And no one saw something wrong with this picture? OK.
We'll wait and watch with complete skepticism and judgment while they try to clean this up.