Prada
No explanation whatsoever could justify Italian luxury fashion brand Prada’s decision to launch a racist blackface product at its SoHo boutique in New York last December which enraged customers. Social media complaints of keychain figurines displayed in the store which featured black-faced monkeys with big red lips resembling the racist blackface of the 19th century drove the brand to issue an apology and later withdraw the products from the stores. Dubbed “Pradamalia”, the blackfaced monkey reminded people of performers who entertained white people by painting their faces with burnt cork, greasepaint or shoe polish and exaggerate their lips to depict the black uneducated slaves on plantations as slow and dumb.
