Fashion giant Prada pulls ‘racist blackface’ keyrings after being accused of mocking black people

One of the trinkets on display at the brand’s store in Soho, New York was of a monkey-like figure with brown skin and large red lips similar to the controversial Sambo figure from the era of ‘blackface’.

The Prada figure at the centre of the uproar, on sale for $550, looks almost identical to this racist imagery and was on prominent display throughout Prada’s New York store, including window displays.

The controversial figure is known in Prada branding as “"Otto-Toto" and is part of Prada's "Pradamalia" collection.

Prada’s use of such offensive and racially-provoking imagery caught the eye of Facebook user and lawyer Chinyere Ezie.

In a public post, she said: “Today after returning to NYC after a very emotional visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture including an exhibit on blackface, I walked past Prada's Soho storefront only to be confronted with the very same racist and denigrating #blackface imagery.”

Chinyere added: “History cannot continue to repeat itself. Black America deserves better. And we demand better.”

She has also demanded a boycott of the fashion house.


The social media post sparked national and international outrage, and prompted hundreds of people to question why the fashion house would have approved such a concept.

One Twitter user commented: “Sickening but not surprising.”

Another said: “I’m fuming I guess the devil actually does wear Prada!! Boycott Prada! @Prada #boycottprada #racism #prada”.

A fellow outraged user added: “#Pradamalia is incredibly tone deaf and insensitive. You want to create mysterious animals? How about not drawing from racist history to do it?”

Others questioned how the product even came about: “i'm always curious about how many people these sorts of things actually went through.”

Another added: “There's someone that did a sketch, then colored it, showed it to their boss, who took it to their boss, then they had a meeting about it, a final drawing, got full approval, did a final prototype, then it went to production. And nobody at any point, said, ‘oh hell no!’”


Prada was forced to issue a statement via Twitter earlier today, saying: “#Prada Group abhors racist imagery.

“The Pradamalia are fantasy charms composed of elements of the Prada oeuvre.

“They are imaginary creatures not intended to have any reference to the real world and certainly not blackface.

“#Prada Group never had the intention of offending anyone and we abhor all forms of racism and racist imagery.

“In this interest we will withdraw the characters in question from display and circulation.”

Blackface is a form of theatrical make-up used predominantly by non-black performers to represent a caricature of a black person.

It has been considered a racially insensitive representation of blackness by the African American community since gaining popularity in the 19th century.

Exaggerated red lips have been a common trait of racist cartoons depicting black people throughout American history, along with googly eyes, inky skin, and very white teeth.

The racist image has historically featured in everything from advertisement, entertainment and children's books.

The Sun has contacted Prada for comment.

Blackface continues to be a controversial issue, both in the USA and UK.

At Halloween, a mum faced harsh criticism for blacking up her three-year-old daughter to look like a Benidorm 'lookie lookie' beach trader.

And a man was confronted on London Underground for painting his face black after dressing up as Samuel L Jackson.



 

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