Terry Mango, the mother of the little boy, broke her silence over the ad via social media.
While much of the free world was rightfully outraged that a Black boy was featured in an advertisement by H&M wearing a hoodie deeming him “Coolest Monkey In The Jungle,” the mother of the boy thought otherwise. Terry Mango emerged from the sunken place and broke her silence about the matter via social media, essentially telling everyone to stop bringing the matter to her doorstep.
Mango, who is of Kenya descent and resides in Sweden where H&M is based, replied via Facebook to the chatter surrounding the ad. In so many words, Mango felt that the response to her son modeling the hoodie was over the top and had a slight message for the critics.
“Stop crying wolf all the time. Unnecessary issue here, get over it,” Mango wrote. When pressed on if she understood the reasons why people were angered, Mango doubled down and said she understood but was still largely unmoved.
Mango is certainly entitled to her opinion and yes, this is her son folks are talking about. However, while she might not see the problem, the ad itself is problematic and there’s nothing wrong with pointing that out.
Best believe if her son makes it big in the fashion world that he’ll have to contend with far more racism being a child with dark skin. If there’s some kind of utopia Mango lives in where that isn’t the case, she needs to hand over the directions pronto. Until then, she can keep the sunken place stance to herself.
We’ve captured some reaction to Mango’s comments below and on the following pages, including an Instagram post showing her reaction.
