Does Swedish Racism= American Racism?

H&M recently topped the news with an unfortunate error that shows a young black boy modeling a sweatshirt with “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle” emblazed on the chest. Collective America lost their minds, and for good reason. You cannot associate a black person with a monkey, plain and simple. It’s fundamentally racist.

Let’s play devil’s advocate for a minute. Do we think that H&M suffered a major marketing malfunction, or do we think that they didn’t associate a monkey with a black child?

Racism is everywhere. In every city, every county, country, and globally. Martians are probably racist of humans. In other parts of the world, there are different racist tendencies and different historical contexts. America is a melting pot of racism…you see a little bit of everything. We are hyper vigilant, offended, and unwilling to consider explanations. Did I gasp when I saw this story going around? Of course I did. It looked horrible, and in your face. Like, “Hey, we are H&M, and we are going to make this simple. We are racist as f**k!”.

Does Sweden see this add as racist? We will get to that. The boys mother, Terry Mango, resides in Sweden, and is managing her young son as he models clothing. She does not have an issue with this uproar, most likely because she didn’t consider it an obvious racist marketing ploy. Maybe she doesn’t correlate a little monkey in the jungle with a human. Maybe she has not had to confront white supremacists, or live in a place where she is stigmatized as a lower class citizen, even treated that way…

All of the above is WRONG. Sweden has an image of tolerance, and portrays itself as neutral, accepting, and overall, harmonious. That is, until you do some research. The Guardian printed an article in 2012 that points out Sweden’s approach: Racism is nothing more than a joke. The Root wrote an article last year looking into Stockholm, and the conclusion remains: Gender equality, awesome! Racism? Yeah, it exists”.

It seems obvious at this point that every culture has stigmatized racism towards other cultures, at least partially. While this latest issue with H&M has sparked a firestorm, it’s just the latest in what is sure to become more contentious, given who runs our country. In Sweden’s case, my opinion is that this mistake happened due to an oversight: It’s not that Sweden is immune from racism, it’s that they actually think it’s a laughing matter. Given that, it’s almost as if this ad was considered funny, rather than hateful…(isn’t it both?).

What I think happened? The mother of this child has accepted that racism is a laughing matter in her country. Maybe that’s why she didn’t see it as a blatant racist punch in her direction. Undermining the context and putting a comic slant on it seems like it indoctrinates different cultures in Sweden. In America, all minorities are targets. In Sweden, minorities are laughed at. Again…isn’t that the same? Well, as long as you aren’t a part of Islam, I guess.