It’s beginning to look a lot like…Blackface

By: Adrienne Grant

…and we stuntin’ like Gucci Gucci. Those are the

song lyrics of Caucasian rapper Kreyshawn smash
hit Gucci Gucci. One of many rappers who adorn
the high fashion label. Let’s note she kept her 15
minutes of fame, until she received backlash for
racist comments, and was how the new age Twitter
lingo put its “cancel”. Cancelled is when a person
of notoriety is cancelled
due to negative information or publicity that is
outed to the public. Kind of like a “off with her
head” new age execution of fame. Moving on, a few days after the kickstart of the Black History
Month, on February 7th, one of Twitter’s birds tweeted a disturbing image from the luxury
fashion line label, Gucci, Fall 2018 collection. A Caucasian woman was pictured with gold,
framed glass, long hair, and a wool balaclava jumper starting at $890. The birds of Twitter went
fluttering over it and not for good reasons. The jumper hid half of the bottom of her face, there
was a spilt open, and around that opening was big, red lips, but her mouth was peeking through
the hole.

Started from the 1830s, and its still here?!

Can one say this was a depiction of Blackface or

simple just red lipstick illustrated onto a
sweater? Well, the Twitter birds decided that
this was not the case. To the readers that are
unfamiliar with blackface, let’s take a step back
in time for a second to familiarize ourselves.
Even though, Black History Month won’t be
here until four months from now. Minstrelsy shows were created and performed in New York in
the 1830s as comedy. In these shows Caucasian performers would perform with blackened faces
to represent enslaved Africans on plantations in the South, and was politically incorrect with the
way they represented them in terms of laziness, ignorance, cowardice, and more. Consequently,
the most famous character’s name was Jim Crow, created by Thomas Dartmouth, that later
spawned the Jim Crow laws of the 1950s in the South. You can thank Gucci for this black
history tidbit. Now back to Gucci…

How did they rectify the situation?

While twitter birds were flying all over the place with their feathers of backlash floating down
the to, the crisis management team of Gucci was putting were flying directly in with an issued
statement. The method Gucci chose of course was to respond where the crisis started on Twitter.
The same day the clothing item was ousted for being black face Gucci issued an apology. They
did not utilize a spokesperson. They pulled all the items from in store and online. A number of
the head honchos at Gucci issued statements, apologies, and rectification of the crisis. The
creative director Alessandro Michele, spoke on the matter after it calmed down, with use of the
intranet service somewhat he wrote an apology letter. Gucci’s CEO seemed somewhat illusive
with his statement, and was name dropping the number of organizations they have been a part of
as if that excused what happen? Even the owner of Gucci, made a statement which showed more
credibility as a result that the crisis would be rectified.

Is Gucci cancelled?

This is an ongoing issue not only with high label fashion designers but corporations like H&M
“Coolest Monkey in the Jungle” slip. If Gucci has apologized not only to the public, but the
employees, also, pulled the design, and increased their cultural sensitivity and diversity training,
then what else can they do but not to create the same issue once more? Accepted responsibility
and taking action is the most important steps to take when a crisis occurs, and they seem to do
both. This type of crisis was a preventable crisis due to human error which in turn led to product
defect due to Gucci’s creative director missing the beat. The type of response the organization
used was initially quick, but the apologies and statements were not consistent, each issued
different perspectives. They also utilized reputation repair, by listing their past good works, and
issued an apology as well. Overall, Gucci, I forgive you, but public opinion will always have the
last say. What do you think? Do you think Gucci really made a mistake, or was this a publicity
stunt? Comment below!

https://adrienneshominque.weebly.com