Ever since the young Black kid, Liam Mango, was featured in a “monkey” hoodie ad, there has been a highly impactful amount of backlash H&M clothing corporation has received, understandably so.
Mother of child in controversial H&M ad says she does not think it is racist https://t.co/vGU71DJg6t pic.twitter.com/bi8Pmo7H2C
— The Independent (@Independent) January 17, 2018
However, as we previously reported, little Liam’s mother, Terry Mango (and now his father too), expressed that she did not see the big deal with her Black child being exploited in a hoodie that read, “The Coolest Monkey In The Jungle.” She even went back and forth with folks on social media over it, while simultaneously slamming everyone -which included celebs, like Diddy and LeBron James– for standing up for her son over it. Ms. Mango previously stated that she thinks the millions of people (of all races) who are offended by H&M’s racist ad, should just “get over it.”
Fast forward to a few days later, and Liam’s mother and father, Frank Odhiambo, have appeared in a television interview, with ITV’s “This Morning” in London, about the backlash the H&M ad has caused. Neither of them see anything wrong with the “monkey” hoodie their son modeled.
During the interview, Terry further expanded on her seemingly intentional oblivious opinion of their son being referred to as a “monkey” for profit. When “This Morning” co-hosts asked Terry and Frank about the outrage the ad has caused, Terry stated:
“I wouldn’t see such a connection to anything other than my son modeling a shirt. […] “To put the T-shirt and the word ‘monkey’ with racism, maybe that is not my way of looking at it,” Terry said. “I’m just looking at Liam, a black young boy, modeling a T-shirt that has the word ‘monkey’ on it.”
When further questioned about whether or not they felt that people “overreacted” to the racist H&M ad, Terry then attempted to straddle the fence, by explaining that although she understood why folks were pissed off, she still thinks that everyone should also understand and respect the fact that she sees nothing wrong with putting their Black child in a “monkey in the jungle” hoodie:
“Until the controversy now, with the whole furore that is going on, then you kind of look back and wonder if you had noticed it, what would be our, or my, initial response to it.” […] “It is not an overreaction when it comes to racism, everyone should act differently based on their opinions of what racism is,” Terry said.
Moved Out Of Their Home After Backlash
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdwyWluh033/
Liam’s parents also revealed, during the interview, that they have now moved out of their Sweden home because the backlash they received became too much. They didn’t quite go into detail about this, but I’m willing to bet it had a lil’ something to do with the fact that they don’t care about the racist exploitation that H&M did to their son in that ad. That’s just a wild guess here, but just sayin.’
