H&M child model's family moved house 'for security' after 'racist hoodie' row

The mother of the five-year-old H&M model at the centre of the racism row has said her family have been forced to move house in Sweden due to security concerns.

The retail giant has been caught up in a racism social media storm after it used a black child to model a hoodie emblazoned with the slogan “Coolest monkey in the jungle”.

H&M apologised and removed the image from its online collection after the image of Liam Mango went viral and critics branded the advert “racist” and “unacceptable”. The company’s stores in South Africa were even forced to temporarily close after protesters flocked to the shops over the weekend.

Liam’s mother Terry Mango told BBC Outside Source the family have moved out of their home in Stockholm over “security concerns”. While she chose not to go into the exact safety reasons, she said attacks on H&M stores in Johannesburg constituted one reason behind their decision to relocate.

The demonstrations were organised by the radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) opposition party and saw H&M stores in Johannesburg vandalised.

His mother has received criticism for defending the brand and urging people to stop “crying wolf”. Addressing the anger she has provoked, Ms Mango said she still does not consider H&M to have a racist agenda.

“I respect other people's opinion on the issue. I know racism exists, but does the shirt to me speak racism? No it doesn't,” she said.

Responding to the criticism she has garnered, she said: “I [am] a sell out to them, I [am] an embarrassment to the black and African-American people. I sold my son for money”.

This comes after Ms Mango and the boy’s father Frank revealed they were not even aware of the hoodie before the internet erupted. But Ms Mango said that even if she had seen the controversial slogan before she does not think it would have rung alarm bells.

“I wouldn’t see such a connection to anything other than my son modelling a shirt,” Ms Mango said on This Morning from Stockholm.

“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.”

But Ms Mango, who has been a victim of racism herself and has even been called a “monkey”, said she did not necessarily deem the whole furore to have been unjust.

She said: “It is not an overreaction when it comes to racism, everyone should act differently based on their opinions of what racism is”.

She added: “To put the T-shirt and the word ‘monkey’ with racism, maybe that is not my way of looking at it … I’m just looking at Liam, a black young boy, modelling a T-shirt that has the word ‘monkey’ on it. Everybody should respect different opinions based on racism.”

The parents said Liam was not properly aware of the social media storm the advert had provoked, explaining: “He’s aware he’s a superstar and people love him”.

NBA star LeBron James, Manchester United strike Romelu Lukaku, and singer The Weeknd were just some of the high-profile individuals who publicly condemned the advert.

Earlier in the week, South Africa’s opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA) announced it would be reporting H&M to the International Chamber of Commerce, saying they believe the advert breaks marketing guidelines.

“The DA will also write to H&M South Africa to express our deep concern over this tasteless advert which evokes painful sentiments among Black South Africans as well as the Black community abroad,” the party said in a statement.

“The displays of violence at H&M stores across the country are totally unacceptable and violence is no way to fight racism but only compounds it.”

A spokesperson for H&M UK and Ireland told The Independent: “We strongly believe that racism and bias in any shape or form, deliberate or accidental, are simply unacceptable. We would like to stress that our store staff had no part in this poorly judged product and image.”

The furore comes just months after H&M removed a hoodie emblazoned with the words “Dogfight in Random Alley” from its stores after animal rights organisation Peta complained that it sent a “dangerous” message.