The mother of the little boy caught in the H&M race row has spoken out about the image of her son that’s gone viral the world over.
Liam, 5, hit the headlines when he was pictured in an H&M ad wearing a hoodie with the slogan “coolest monkey in the jungle”.
The image, which appeared on their UK website, was widely circulated on social media with many outraged Twitter users saying it was racist.
Terry with Liam. Source: Facebook
Liam’s mum Terry Mango took to Facebook to address the accusations he was a victim of racist discrimination.
“Am the mum and this is one of hundreds of outfits my son has modeled,” she wrote according to The Daily Mail. “Stop crying wolf all the time… unnecessary issue here. Get over it.”
When she received backlash herself, the Nigerian native, who is currently living in Sweden, defended her comments:
“I really don’t understand not coz am choosing not to but because it’s not my way of thinking.”
Famous names also called out H&M for the image. Musician Questlove posted this message to his 1.1million followers on Instagram:
And Grammy award-winning singer The Weeknd conveyed his disgust too, hitting out at the retailer to his 8.4million Twitter followers:
H&M issued an apology after receiving severe backlash.
“We are deeply sorry that the picture was taken, and we also regret the actual print,” the company said in a statement. “Therefore, we have not only removed the image from our channels, but also the garment from our product offering globally.”
