It’s safe to say that “Black Panther” was one of the most talked about films in 2018, opening up the discussion on diversity in film. With its wild success came merchandise, which flew to the shelves in a variety of forms.
But, Forever 21’s latest “Black Panther”-inspired product isn’t exactly going over well with fans for a very valid reason.
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On Tuesday, in a now-deleted tweet, the clothing giant shared a photo of a blonde, blue-eyed white model sporting the company’s new Christmas sweater with the popular “Wakanda Forever” slogan and a Black Panther mask printed on the front.
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People on social media quickly came at Forever 21, sharing their frustrations that a black model was not chosen to rock the jumper.
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A rep for the brand reportedly told TMZ, “Forever 21 takes feedback on our products and marketing extremely seriously. We celebrate all superheroes with many different models of various ethnicities and apologize if the photo in question was offensive in any way.” The image of the sweater in question has reportedly been uploaded without any model wearing it.
Although the tweet may have been deleted, it’s safe to say a screenshot is worth a thousand words.
