Popular clothing brand Baobab has apologized for an incident it deemed racist in Cartagena

Brand on February 25 of this year Baobab Colombian clothing He opened his own store in Cartagena. There, the company hired local artists of the region to accompany the performance planned for the opening ceremony, but the meeting did not go as expected. The event sparked hundreds of comments on social media, where the brand was accused of racism, after participating in its campaign. Afro-descendant women According to the appellants, it is wrong. The company apologized.

organization for ILEX Racial Justice Palenque women commented on such occasions when they were invited to participate in campaigns of this type, “deepens stereotypes related to slavery and reinforces racism”. According to what the subject reveals, the women who were part of the story were used as a type “ornament”.

Those who asked what happened on social media emphasized that there were no black women inside the event, they all danced outside and greeted the guests of the event. This, according to the community, reinforced the racist and classist behavior of the company. In fact, in the middle of the situation, the controversial cover of the Spanish magazine Hola was recalled. A photograph of the article titled is printed “Colombia’s most powerful women in Valle del Cauca, at Sonia Zarzur’s stunning Hollywood home in Beverly Hills, Cali.”

In front, the picture shows Rosa Khaluf de Castro, Sonia Zarzur, Royi Kucalon and Rosita Aljure sitting on white chairs on the side of the palace, and behind them are two women of Afro-descendant dress. white, which means they are domestic workers in this photo. It has been compared to controversial created an event for the swimwear brand.

“What we saw in the city this weekend is a racist practice that dehumanizes black women, relegates them to negative stereotypes associated with slavery, and casts them as mere decorative objects, referring to imaginary slave owners (…) These are survival attitudesAlthough they appear to be servants, they are responsible for a racist and structural system that prevents black women from accessing the well-paying jobs that would ensure a decent living for their families. And then we talk about the kinds of resistance that allow Black women to work in an anti-Black world, denying them access to work opportunities and opportunities. dehumanizes them by treating them as ornaments“, details ILEX.

Amidst the falling wave of criticism About the baobabA representative of the swimsuit company made several statements about this His intention was never the complainers they thought they were ready to have a conversation about it to fully understand how problematic the situation was. They say that with this measure they intend to solve the situation through dialogue.

“Faced with the situation, we have developed a plan of reflection, dialogue and reparation in collaboration with the people of the NARP population who have come to support this process, which allows us to find a balance between creating new schemes of discussion while recognizing the collective possibility. development of different points of view, discussions against the normalization of structural racism and cultural representations of NARP’s populations,” highlights one of the company’s communications channels.