Prada Accused of Using Blackface Imagery at NYC Store and Online

Prada is coming under fire for using blackface-style imagery in at least one of its New York City storefronts and online. As part of a new holiday marketing campaign, the luxury brand was featuring a black caricature with exaggerated big red lips. Photos of the display brought fierce backlash on social media and prompted the company to get rid of the items.
Chinyere Ezie was walking past a Prada store in downtown Manhattan Thursday when she saw what she described as a ā€œracist and denigratingā€ caricature being displayed in the front of the store. In aĀ Facebook post, she described ā€œshaking with anger.ā€
ā€œToday 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 Pradaā€™s Soho storefront only to be confronted with the very same racist and denigratingĀ #blackfaceĀ imagery,ā€ she wrote.

I donā€™t make a lot of public posts, but right now Iā€™m shaking with anger. Today after returning to NYC after a veryā€¦
Posted byĀ Chinyere EzieĀ onĀ Thursday, December 13, 2018

ā€œHistory cannot continue to repeat itself,ā€ she added. ā€œBlack America deserves better.ā€
A spokesperson with Prada Group, Pradaā€™s parent company, told CBS News in a statement Friday that they ā€œabhor racist imageryā€ and will remove the characters in question ā€” part of the designerā€™s ā€œPradamaliaā€ collection. It said they were envisioned as ā€œimaginary creaturesā€ and were not meant to mimic blackface caricatures.

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