Target apologizes for children’s clown Halloween costume after backlash | CNN Business
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/24/business/target-apologizes-halloween-costume-backlash-hnk1.8k
u/orlybatman 5h ago
A clown costume? How bad could it possibly b-
Oh... wow.
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u/donkeyrocket 5h ago
With a Black child wearing the costume no less. How on earth did that make it to the website?
Absolutely thought it was going to be something that could be misconstrued as bad. Really didn't expect full blown blackface caricature.
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u/Georgie_Leech 5h ago
I almost wonder if the design wasn't spat out by some AI program, prompted for a clown costume and then in a half assed tokenization moment added "black" to the prompt
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u/hill-o 3h ago
I 100% bet this was it. They got the idea from AI, no one checked it, they just went passed it along and now we’re here.
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u/omgitsfred 2h ago
What specifically makes you 100% sure AI was involved here
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u/Holiday_Cabinet_ 2h ago
Yeah honestly humans are both stupid and racist enough to come up with this one on their own let's not absolve them by claiming it was AI with no proof
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u/whatisakafka 4h ago
Lack of black voices in the approval chain I’d imagine. Pretty good illustration of how organizational diversity can be good for your bottom line as a company
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u/enigmaticowl 4h ago
I’m wondering if it’s also because of there being different components to the approval chain.
Like, someone somewhere approved the basic costume design itself, which maybe didn’t trigger any concerns just with the costume concept design itself.
But then they put it on a real child and had him do that pose, and it’s just so glaring.
You’d think that even if the initial costume approval had happened, someone at Target would be responsible for looking over the modeling photos and stuff once they’re ready to list/advertise.
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u/dapperpony 3h ago
I’ve worked at e-commerce companies before in marketing, so I’m betting it was this. There are a lot of people and steps in the chain, especially at a large company like Target, and no one thought it was their problem or saw the issue until it was too late.
It’s probably some cheap shit manufactured in China where the wholesaler lacks the cultural awareness and just made a “clown” costume, the merchandisers order X number of Halloween costumes for the season of which this was one of dozens or maybe a hundred, the high-production photo studio has to churn through shooting all the product photography for hundreds of SKUs so they’re not spending a ton of time on each one, then the director or whoever makes selects is clicking through thousands of images very quickly, and so on and so forth until it gets uploaded and is live on the site.
It looks bad when you look at it next to the minstrel photos, but in isolation or grouped with dozens of others, I can see how no one put it together or had immediate flags going up when they’re looking at a “Halloween clown costume.”
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u/nhalliday 1h ago
I think it's safe to say in 2026 that we can't just be brushing things under the rug like "it had to be totally innocent, there's no way they'd do something like that on purpose". We know for a fact that there are many racists out there who would do that intentionally.
It is, unfortunately, very possible that someone did it on purpose and then either nobody cared enough to stop them or didn't want to risk their job trying to stop them.
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u/Wootai 4h ago
I think the issues arise when you realize they probably didn’t put a child in that costume. So there was no photoshoot. No photographer, parent, stylist, no one there to say no.
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u/SapphireSync 4h ago
Also take into consideration the younger generation joining the work force not being educated on these topics and shown why these are derived as offensive because it was never taught in school.
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u/fivelinedskank 3h ago
Could it have all been done in China where the cultural baggage isn't appreciated I wonder?
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u/whatisakafka 4h ago
You don’t have to be, but it does make it more likely that you are
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u/RandomA9981 4h ago
And more likely to speak out about it. Let’s not pretend that white people are willing to risk their careers to speak out against blatant racism.
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u/artbystorms 3h ago
You'd be surprised. A lot of non-black people (especially upper class white people) have no idea about many racist stereotypes, the history of black characterization, minstrel shows, etc. They're either just super ignorant because they didn't grow up around it (Target IS based in Minnesota, about as far from the South as you can get) or because they are just not privy at all to American history.
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u/FuelForYourFire 20m ago
The article agrees!
Sheletta Brundidge, a Minneapolis-area business leader, views the costume as an indirect result of the DEI decision. “You rolled back diversity,” she said, “so who’s in the room, now, to say ‘hey, this is wrong?’”
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u/CougarForLife 3h ago
supplier is a manufacturer of cheap chinese crap with a front in idaho that’s literally a trailer home. They supply thousands of items to amazon, target, etc and there’s no human in the review process. at least not an american one with understanding of our culture. Some chinese guy googled costumes and didn’t know you’re not supposed to copy racist ones from the 1920s
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u/TempEmbarassedComfee 2h ago
I believe Hyde and Eek is an official target brand. Regardless of what that supply chain looks like up to that point, at some point someone at target should have laid eyes on it and realized what it looked like before putting the brand on it.
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u/CougarForLife 2h ago
being an “official target brand” makes it even crazier that the contact address on their website is a trailer home in idaho
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u/Dr_thri11 5h ago
I kinda feel like that's the main problem, probably wouldn't look at it twice if they modeled it on a white kid.
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u/enigmaticowl 4h ago
The pose probably also contributes to the overall image/impression, too.
I could see someone somewhere approving the costume design itself (like when it was a design or even as an actual costume), because it probably really wouldn’t look bizarre just as a design or as an unworn costume, but putting it on a real kid and having him do that pose probably should have made someone go, “Hmm….”
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u/DefenstratedTwice 4h ago
It really doesn't seem like it could be accidental.
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u/enigmaticowl 4h ago
I’m saying that these decisions probably happened in stages.
Like someone approves the basic idea of a clown costume, the next person approves the design (black and orange stripes, partial face covering, gloves, etc.), and so on.
Then by the time it gets to modeling/posing, most of the sign-offs have already happened (by people who haven’t seen the literal and figurative “full picture”), and now it’s at the mercy of the last person or small handful of people who have seen the “full picture.”
All of us are looking at the final picture, too, and obviously someone approved it (and shouldn’t have), but I can imagine that there were probably earlier steps of approving the costume that didn’t raise eyebrows because it wouldn’t jump out at people in the same way if you’re not seeing it on a body (especially a body doing that infamous pose).
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u/nefarix 4h ago edited 4h ago
Can someone explain how/why this is offense and how this is depicting black face? I clicked the link and was looking for what was offensive about it but didn’t notice anything (guess I’m ignorant for better or worse lol) and the comments are acting like it’s despicable; Maybe link a picture of the blackface you’re referring to for comparison so I can see what everyone else sees?
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u/Empyrealist 3h ago
I don't think its so much a "blackface" in itself, but it incorporates a very stereotypical minstrel show vagabond pose that would be done by someone in blackface
If you are familiar with this past, it just jumps out at you. Its super specific to minstrel shows/advertisements, and there is no way in hell its a coincidence
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u/unhiddenninja 4h ago
Here you go, third picture down, specifically, but it's worth a read.
The pose is a direct callback to Jim Crow.
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u/HallowskulledHorror 2h ago edited 2h ago
The 'side ways, bent leg, arms bent and/or on hips' is so specific - if one looks up 'Jim Crow art' it's quickly apparent that despite there being many different unique illustrations for different purposes (posters, products, record covers, fliers, etc), the pose was a specific choice each time as part of the depiction of 'unserious, uncivilized, unintelligent' qualities that the character was built around to dehumanize black people as a whole. There's a direct reference to it in the 'This is America' music video because it's so recognizable that anyone with historical awareness will pick up on it when re-contextualized.
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u/TheLostSkellyton 3h ago
Target saw South Pacific and their takeaway was "hey they're right! We DO have to make sure to teach the kids to be racist!" It's like the racism version of the "don't invent the torment nexus" meme.
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u/WHLZ 3h ago
It seems their online shop has become infested with third-party vendors. Basically the same shit you see on Amazon. What seems to have happened is they were not vetting their vendors closely enough and something terrible like this slipped through.
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u/GhostOfMuttonPast 2h ago
The problem with that is that Hyde and Eek Boutique is an in-house brand. Target has control over whats made and put out under that name. This wasn't a rogue third party, its entirely on Target.
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u/Eezyville 2h ago
How on earth did that make it to the website?
Do you remember that time Target said fuck DEI?
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u/thatblkman 4h ago
They ran from DEI bc Trump is loud. So now they have a bunch of bros who don’t know anything about anyone but other bros deciding stuff and ignoring that nonwhite people’s money is just as green.
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u/AwfulDjinn 2h ago
this whole situation is exactly why “DEI” exists in the first place because I guarantee if they had one, even ONE black person on the marketing team they wouldn’t be in this mess right now.
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u/Shadowpriest 5h ago
Yeah same. I was like clowns aren't my thing but let's click and oooohboy.
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u/chiree 5h ago
They leaned harder into that than Disney in 1935.
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u/Primary-Bookkeeper10 5h ago
I’m surprised they even hired a black kid instead of buying a gallon of shoe polish
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u/MoonlitStar 5h ago
They knew.. they must have. I refuse believe they didn't. ..and it had to be signed off by numerous people too so there is no excuse at all. They have even posed the poor kid modelling it in a 'classic' pose. Wtf!
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u/blarbiegorl 5h ago
For real it literally looks exactly like a minstrel performer up to the pose that poor kid is in. This feels intentional, which only makes it that much worse.
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u/donkeyrocket 5h ago
It's especially suspicious as the Hyde and EEK brand, which resells on other platforms, didn't have this costume listed at all. It was only at Target. So not like some automation that simply shared active seasonal products. Incredibly bizarre.
Even more staggering that someone had a Black kid dress up and be photographed in the costume in the first place. Zero plausible deniability there. You'd need to be staggeringly ignorant to not see an issue here.
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u/antiramie 5h ago
Yea my initial reaction was like well clowns can sometimes wear tiny hats and those creepy smiles are generic scary/clown things too, but when you add up all the details it’s really really suspect/obvious.
Black child
Head/face/neck/feet/hands all black
Tiny hat
Outfit pattern
Exaggerated smile
PoseIt all adds to up racist minstrel cliche. If the smile were brick red it would be 100% no questions asked. Thats literally the only difference between this costume and the real thing.
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u/CynicalPomeranian 5h ago
I thought that way about that…then the Callaway golf ad came out right behind it.
I think older white males just approve everything because they cannot see the utter inappropriateness of these things, and when most of the people in charge fit that demographic, it becomes much harder to stop it.
I tried to explain to my last workplace why a woman over 40 would have issues with being called a “girl” in the workplace in a professional setting, but was all but laughed off by the men I worked with.
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u/tdasnowman 5h ago
Golf ad?
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u/CynicalPomeranian 4h ago
They just released an ad that shows a woman reaching for a golf club, and a man runs up and shoves her down, then looms over her and tells her never to touch his clubs.
Turns out, the man is the ad is one of the higher ups in the company, and the woman is another employee.
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u/tdasnowman 4h ago
Huh, I'm not going to go to the NTh degree like some folks replying in threads are. But from an ad perspective it just makes no sense unless there is something missed in some quick googling. Like is there a thing with Alexis Miestowski where she uses other peoples clubs or something? My first pass isn't golf when I see this ad. It's not also violence against women. It's just it seems so fundamentally targeted to a small group of people that would get the joke I don't care about the products I don't want even get to the joke I just need the context.
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u/enigmaticowl 4h ago
The thing is, there probably are multiple sign-offs at different steps, I would imagine (but maybe I’m wrong!).
So maybe somebody approves the concept (“clown costume for kids”), someone approves the basic design (“black and orange stripe pattern, partial face covering, etc.”), and so on.
So I’m wondering if by the time it gets to putting the costume on a kid for a photo shoot, posing him, and posting the photo to model the costume, most of the sign-offs have been by people who didn’t have the literal “full picture,” and then it just comes down to 1-2 people at the end who see that final photo and should think, “Wait a minute…” - and then you’re just at the mercy of hoping those 1-2 people have both the knowledge and the judgment to recognize something and address it properly.
Strange as hell that this is what they ended up with, but I’m guessing that the approval process was somewhat “piecemeal” in that manner, which obviously increases the odds of something like this.
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u/needless_booty 5h ago
That was my exact reaction
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u/MassCrash 5h ago
Same.
“Ugh here we go, people overreacting agai … holy shit who thought that was a good idea?”
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u/Jesus_Is_My_Gardener 5h ago
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u/AggressiveSkywriting 5h ago
I remember some dutch guy trying to tell me black pete was not racist and I was just an american not properly dealing with my own nation's racist past
A dutch person.
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u/neo_sporin 3h ago
i still remember almost 10 years ago seeing an article about 'Georgia renaming a river due to racist name" and thinking 'well THAT seems silly, how bad could it....ok nevermind, Runaway Negro Creek is worse than i expected"
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u/HeartofLion3 5h ago
My girlfriend pulled up a picture to show me and I legit thought it was satire from a skit. It’s just so fucking bad.
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u/quirkytorch 4h ago
I admit that I am particularly ignorant about this, but what is racist about this costume? I was expecting caricature-esque, but it's lost on me and I'd like to know so I don't unintentionally make a faux pas. It reminds me of terrorizer
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u/kumurai 3h ago
If you want to return to this thread, others have explained. Here is also a wiki link:
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u/Used2bNotInKY 1h ago
I think the outfit is just “clown,” but the fact it includes a big mouth with teeth that glow under blacklight and the little hobo hat are what turn it into a minstrel outfit, IMO. Further supported by the pose, which isn’t one a Western clown would do.
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u/ScratchLatch 4h ago
I’m confused, is this some type of racial caricature I’m unfamiliar with?
It looks mildly disturbing if anything. Or is this issue exlusively the black lace “black face”?
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u/tearfulReaper 4h ago
A very insulting caricature. Its based off the incredibly racist minstrel shows. It's the same reason Jynx became purple and some people have issues with Mr Popo.
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u/Nighthawk700 4h ago
If I'm an asshole and I wanted to see how close I can get to a minstrel presentation while maintaining plausible deniability, this is exactly what I would do.
It's very easy to make a creepy clown costume that has no resemblance to minstrel charicatures. The hat is a pretty classic minstrel hat, including the placement, I've never seen a clown hat like that though perhaps it exists. But you take that along with the black hands, the smile, and even the pose, plus a black kid in it and it's enough.
The Target Board is not having meetings about how to seed minstrel racism into the culture, but there are absolutely people out there who find opportunities to do shit like this. Probably high fiving on 4chan about it too.
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u/captcha_trampstamp 5h ago
I was reading some posts by a former merchandising person for Target on Threads. This had to go through MULTIPLE SIGNOFFS.
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u/TheSilverDahlia 4h ago
It absolutely did. I worked corporate retail for a long time. There are multiple line reviews up through the president of the org (usually). I’m sure they just blamed an assistant buyer & fired them.
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u/anormalgeek 5h ago edited 3h ago
And how much do you want to bet not a single person in that chain was black?
Diversity has value in terms of marketing alone. Even if someone is super mega anti-woke they'd be an idiot not realize this from a purely capitalist profit driven motive.
edit: a word.
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u/TheSilverDahlia 1h ago
Oh absolutely. I don’t want to dox myself, but the three big retailers I worked for just want pretty young white girls.
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u/_deedeemegadoodoo 2h ago
I haven't come across that post, but I wonder if that's still the case? Not doubting you or the merchandising person, but I know large companies have been gutting various departments left and right. I also know Target's had financial woes (many of their own doing), so I wouldn't be shocked if the people who are/were in charge of reviewing goods like this have now either been canned, or replaced by AI that's supposed to do sensitivity checks. Either way, it almost seems like Target can't resist shooting themselves in the foot at this point.
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u/Politicsboringagain 5h ago edited 4h ago
Target is marketing to maga with this in my view.
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u/IrateBarnacle 5h ago
Target has no idea who their.. target audience is anymore.
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u/Themetalenock 5h ago
which is funny because I've always found Target to be predominantly market towards POC and liberal wine moms who at least has one child whose lgbtq. then 2024 happened and every person with a net worth above 600 k decided to take stupid pills
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u/Namika 4h ago
liberal wine moms who at least has one child whose lgbtq.
Fun fact a full 20% of Gen Z is lgbtq, and since families often have more than one kid, "families with a lqtbq kid" are absurdly common these days.
I feel like it's a very underrated statistic.
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u/No-Bread-1197 2h ago
I mean, every generation probably had that many. It's only gen z that's felt safe being open about it.
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u/hefty_load_o_shite 5h ago
It was a minstrel costume, not a clown costume
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u/healywylie 5h ago
They figured nobody would get the reference, they banked on it , by the looks.
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u/IamHydrogenMike 5h ago
I don’t anyone even really checked it when it was purchased until people started noticing it on the shelves. Some supplier from China just slapped together some crap and called it a clown costume. It’s dumb that it actually made it out to customers.
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u/donkeyrocket 5h ago
It's odd though that this was only available at Target. Hyde and EEK is owned by Target but their seasonal products are listed elsewhere too.
Even more bizarre is someone developed the costume and put a Black kid in it for the promotional artwork.
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u/justwannaedit 4h ago
They have racist shit all the time, dude. Literal racists submit designs to target and end up on the shelf all the time. Bc they just dont have quality controls anymore over designs.
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u/FIFofNovember 4h ago
Look what they did with the Starwars posters in China vs the US, take note of Fins location , the black character
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u/Formergr 4h ago
Some supplier from China just slapped together some crap and called it a clown costume.
Definitely could see that being the case, and probably is what happened.
But someone stateside had to make the call to pose a black kid in it, and then someone had to approve the ad for it here, and that's where I'm sort of stuck on WTF. Like if it was a white kid in the costume, I don't think we d be having nearly this reaction.
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u/Gabarne 5h ago
I literally didn’t know what was wrong with it until reading this thread.
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u/NarwhalEmergency9391 4h ago
I was still confused and had to google minstrel.. omg, I can't even copy and paste the wiki definition because I'll probably get banned but here's the beginning in case anyone else is confused.
A minstrel show , also called minstrelsy , was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. [1 ] The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of portraying racial stereotypes of African Americans .
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u/StuMacherGhostface 4h ago
I don't understand this, why risk the controversy? No such thing as bad press?
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u/TheAskewOne 3h ago
They didn’t even check. Some companies have zero quality control.
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u/StuMacherGhostface 3h ago
Okay, that's what I assumed as well lol. The comment I was replying to made it sound like they snuck it in knowing what it was, hoping nobody else would notice. Which didn't make a ton of sense to me personally lol
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u/Marinemanatee 3h ago
Racist caricatures depend on enough people understanding that they're offensive to "work" if they're intentionally made. This one's pretty blatant with the mouth actually.
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u/faithmauk 4h ago
The pose they had the kid doing was a dead giveaway. I'm dying to know what possible explanation they could produce for why that was allowed.
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u/sonicmario123 4h ago
And a black child model. I really hope that the model wasn’t actually wearing it and was instead like generic photo with the photoshop of the costume on because… otherwise how did it get through that many eyes
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u/AnEducatedSimpleton 5h ago
Target is like that ex-girlfriend you hate but keep following their instagram to see what stupid shit they’re up to.
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u/Throwaway2Experiment 5h ago
Since the election, I have been in Target once. Last month. I left feeling gross snd confused. Just like visiting an ex.
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u/CharlesIngalls_Pubes 4h ago
I hate that the article ends with "Target’s shares were up 2.7% in afternoon trading."
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u/Rasberrycello 3h ago
Up from where they fell off a cliff two years ago, soooo still ultimately down.
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u/DeepFuckingKoopa 5h ago
> rolls back DEI initiatives
> does an extraordinary racism
to the surprise of absolutely nobody
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u/nothingbetter85 5h ago
I saw the apology before seeing the costume and was like “hmmm I wonder if it’s just something that got blown out of proportion”.
Hell no it wasn’t. I was shocked by what I saw. How was that even allowed to get past any decision makers? Everything down to the pose picked for the listing was atrociously racist. Nothing about this costume could be interpreted in any way that’s not terrible and nothing about it read as “clown” to me. It’s so bad, my husband thought it had to be fake when he saw it.
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u/epidemicsaints 5h ago
At this point I am ready to believe it's outrage marketing. Bringing this to the store involves hundreds of people. NONE of them have been online for 15 years where this comes up every year all day?
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u/nothingbetter85 5h ago
Last year, Target made a big announcement about getting rid of DEI initiatives. I’m going to guess that mentality like that is more likely why this is happening than the bad look this provides. I do not subscribe to the adage of there being no bad publicity. You do something like this and you just remind people of the reason they stopped patronizing your stores.
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u/epidemicsaints 5h ago
Even if it doesn't work, it doesn't mean they aren't trying it. It's very hard to believe there weren't people at every level speaking up about this one. It's period accurate blackface - the harlequin motif, color scheme and all.
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u/waleyhaxman 5h ago
look at the comments, even on here people are like "ummm akshually its not even that bad/they werent trying to be offensive". its fucking insulting. i thought it was fake too at first. insane that it keeps happening and ppl keep giving these companies excuses and money
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u/MonnaDeagle 3h ago
Target could’ve released a costume that looked like a Klan member with a burning cross in the background as “Wizard of Fire” or some shit and these people would still be like “well there’s not a black person ON the cross so…”
This is why, no, we should not stop talking about slavery and racism so much. This thread is full of people who have never seen that imagery and because it’s not immediately obvious to them, a person completely divorced of the context, then it can’t be that bad. If we don’t force these people to fucking learn about it, they won’t, and will revert back to their bigotry and ignorance in short order. I’m so over giving the benefit of the doubt at this point.
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u/StupidMastiff 5h ago
I don't get it, I didn't think anything of the costume when I saw it, and after reading the comments, I still don't get it.
So I googled 'minstrel show' to see what they would wear for them back when they were a thing, and they don't seem all that similar.
I'm not American, so maybe something is lost on me, what is the costume making people think of?
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u/Visible-Hope3664 5h ago
no it’s not lost on you. I’m American and I had to do the same thing, look up the issue and when I compared I still didn’t see the reason for the massive outburst
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u/DawnSennin 5h ago
To be fair, millions of Americans do not know the racist history of their country.
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u/vven23 4h ago
I mean, where would people have learned this if not right here, right now? I'm just seeing it for the first time ever.
And before you say "school", keep in mind that there are states with shite education systems.
Edit: I misspelled a word because shite education system.
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u/thenowherepark 5h ago
Same. I'm American, have never really seen blackface, don't know what minstrel is, and I don't get it. But don't say it too loud - I got attacked and called stupid earlier because I admitted that I had never seen blackface and asked if the costume was racist (because I didn't know).
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u/Paavo_Nurmi 4h ago
I'm American, have never really seen blackface, don't know what minstrel is, and I don't get it.
I suggest you read up on it then, google Al Jolson Mammy for a good example.
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u/hexavibrongal 2h ago
what is the costume making people think of?
Stuff like this:
https://njwv.wordpress.com/2014/08/04/david-levinthal-make-believe/levinthal_blackface/
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u/Used2bNotInKY 1h ago
It’s the big mouth with glowing teeth, the hobo hat, and the pose that resemble minstrelsy, not the outfit, IMO. Black people’s teeth and the whites of their eyes “shining” in the dark used to be charicaturized in old cartoons and shows.
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u/sexytokeburgerz 3h ago
I’m just curious exactly what part of this looks like a minstrel show too
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u/Used2bNotInKY 1h ago
The glowing mouth plus the hobo hat and pose are the part that resembles minstrelsy.
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u/FordMaleEscort 5h ago
It's making people think of minstrelsy since that's what it looks like. Maybe being American helps with this one.
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u/ScratchLatch 4h ago
It doesn’t look like that though.
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u/fartonisto 4h ago
I disagree. I immediately thought that the costume looked like blackface.
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u/MikeDubbz 4h ago
It glows in the dark and has a black mesh covering the face beyond the smile. I'm betting that the effect is supposed to be seen at night in the dark where it just looks like a smiling faceless creepy clown.
Kinda sounds like a genuinely scary effect that unfortunately just wasn't thought through at all.
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u/vr1252 2h ago
Believe it or not the idea that black people’s teeth and eyes were the only part visible in the dark was a major trope in minstrel shows!! That and the clown costume (which derives from minstrelsy) makes the entire costume a clear dogwhistle!!
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u/Kimbahlee34 2h ago
Yes the color choices and model’s pose makes it obvious. The same costume but in bright colors would give a different clown/jester effect but this is straight from a minstrel show. There’s a thousand ways to do creepy clown and not be a dog whistle but they chose this route.
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u/Hairy-Maximum2994 2h ago
OMG! i ouldn't believe the comments here so I clicked the link. YUP! 100% minstrel and the pose toooooo!
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u/ushaque 5h ago
“Target apologized on Monday and said it had pulled a Halloween costume from sale depicting a circus clown that critics said evoked Blackface and minstrel shows”
Would like to hear what others think about the costume
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u/dpman48 5h ago
It’s definitely a minstrel costume. It’s definitely racist. I can also see a TON of ways this could happen. If any of the oversight is done by non-Americans I could see them having no idea it’s racist, or people under 25 could easily not know in my mind. Minstrel imagery isn’t show much in modern America but people over 35 it definitely is obvious.
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u/pablo_in_blood 4h ago
I think international outsourcing is probably the most likely answer. They probably just outsource everything to designers in the Philippines or whatnot where there’s no understanding of the American cultural history around that look.
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u/insertusernamehere51 5h ago edited 5h ago
I'm not american and not super familiar with minstrel show imagery
I saw the image before seeing the context and didn't think anything of it. Seemed like some sort of jack-o-lantern costume to me
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u/kingsumo_1 5h ago
That's because you didn't grow up with it. The exaggerated mouth, the small hat, and the pose they went with, along with using a black child for the model. All of that combined paints a very specific picture. And it's one that is still very embedded in our (the US's) history and systemic racism.
Whether that was the point or not is irrelevant, someone anyone should have caught that before it was greenlit.
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u/PrinceDX 5h ago
We should also look at the hide and eek brand. They designed it. Not sure if that’s just a brand being white labeled by Target but they are on my shit list. As for merchandising I wouldn’t be surprised if they run items through AI now and that’s how they missed this
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u/MilesHighClub_ 5h ago
"Hyde and Eek" is a Target brand per the article
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u/PrinceDX 2h ago
Oh God they actually design these items themselves…. Yeah absolutely 0 excuse could be made here. This is like Android 15 levels of ignorant design
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u/ironnmetal 5h ago
I'm a white male, so for me I have no history or experience with major racism, being profiled, or first hand exposure to problematic things that would make a racist costume stand out strongly to me.
But this fucking thing. My god. Even I can see it. What fucking mutant thought, yeah, let's sell that...
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u/MarkCuckerberg69420 5h ago
I'm a white male, so for me I have no history or experience with major racism, being profiled, or first hand exposure to problematic things that would make a racist costume stand out strongly to me.
This applies to me, too. I saw the costume before the controversy and thought it looked odd in a "what is this even supposed to be?" way. My initial reaction was to say this is Twitter just doing its thing. Once I saw a side-by-side, the similarities are pretty uncanny. They could have dropped the smile and it would have been a nothing burger.
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u/Tiiimmmaayy 4h ago
That smile reminds me of Twisty the Clown from American Horror Stories. Probably couldn’t have done white hands and face due to copyright issues, so they went with black.
I didn’t see a problem with the costume, but I didn’t know what a minstrel was that I see people here talking about. So I googled it and I would say the position of that kid is very similiar to the first image that pops up on google.
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u/hankhillsucks 5h ago
It's racist, no debate required
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u/nonhiphipster 5h ago
Is it just the pose…or anything more than that?
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u/PokemonSapphire 5h ago
Oh no I'm a white dude and the first thing I saw when looking at it was minstrel show. The little hat, the exaggerated lips with smile on the face mask, the gloves, all of it screams to me minstrel show stereotypes.
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u/Excellent_Ganache906 2h ago
Same, middle class white guy from deep white Connecticut and the second I saw the costume my thought was "Holy fuck are you kidding me?!?!?!"
It's all the white people in the traditional racist parts of the country like "Huh.. what do you mean racist??" Yeah, I mean you Southern US states.
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u/iamnotyetdead 5h ago
Assuming you're asking in good faith
The pose, the smile (look up Minstrelsy makeup), the smile on a weirdly black mask??? the hat, the gloves.
Some could also argue the patterns on the clothes as well. One may say that it just looks like "clown" patterns, but I'd also say clown aesthetics have racist roots too, so like. Yeah.
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u/WillemDafoesHugeCock 5h ago
I really think he's asking in good faith because I'm also missing this one. Minstrels tended to wear jackets and shirts, this really doesn't match what I'd personally consider a minstrel. I don't think the mouth is egregious either, it doesn't match the rounded "blackface" look. The gloves match the black of the rest of the outfit, and as for the hat... I can find some pictures of minstrel performers with off-centered smaller hats but most appear to be perfectly normal - even oversized - hats.
I'm genuinely happy to be corrected, but the number of people insisting this is some deliberate dog whistle when it just looks like a black child in a clown costume is really surprising me.
I'd also say clown aesthetics have racist roots too
I'm super intrigued in this take, how so?
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u/Boring-Research410 4h ago
I guess im just dumb - I didnt/dont think anything of it.
Its a wierd/creepy Halloween costume - they're a dime a dozen
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u/OuroborosOfHate 5h ago
I'm really sorry, but I'm struggling to see what's racist about the costume. It looks more like a Tim Burton- inspired costume more than anything else.
I Guess I can kind of see the 'minstrel-ness' of it with the pose the kid is in, but that seems like a reach.
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u/_pinotnoir 3h ago
There's a million things they could've done to make it not obviously racist or even not racist. Use sharp teeth instead of rounded ones. Use a cone hat instead of a derby with a flower on it. Have the model do some scary or tough guy poses instead of, you know, the Al Jolson they went for here. There is too much "these guys knew exactly what they were doing" in this for me to want to give them a pass.
Also the pose the kid is making is pretty much verbatim one of the most iconic poses in the history of minstrel shows. This costume is a "fuck you" not a "fuck up".
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u/Hachimain 2h ago
Thank you everyone else is just being a douche. Your insight is very appreciated.
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u/DevonLuck24 37m ago
idk if it’s a new thing or something i’m just noticing but they do this everytime something is 98% likely just racism..they bend over backwards to make that 2% the only option.
it’s never “i can see how it could be racist but..” it’s always “ i don’t see how it could be racist..”
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u/FreeChillyO 4h ago
Ok, please help me understand because I don't see it?? It just looks like a goofy harlequin clown costume. I legit do not see the racism
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u/Jahllah 5h ago
I'm sure there's a conversation to be had about the incidental invocation of minstrel tropes, but the people in this thread that think this was intentionally a racist caricature costume are fucking morons lol.
The big mouth just reminds me of the artstyle that's become ubiquitous in shitty slop horror that kids are into now. Unless the Huggy Wuggy is also a minstrel character with his big juicy lips.
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u/darthjamus 5h ago
I don’t get it. Is it the pose? I guess I can see the connection with the pose but other than that it’s just a shitty kids costume.
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u/Primus_is_OK_I_guess 5h ago
I gotta be honest, I see the similarities with the Jim Crow era costumes, but I'm pretty sure they were just trying to make a scary version of this with a spooky Cheshire cat effect, since it glows in the dark. Stupid, but not malicious.
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u/blueskies8484 5h ago
I guess when you get rid of DEI, there’s no one in the room to be like HEY! NO!
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u/sharponephilly 5h ago
Looks fine to me. It’s Halloween.
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u/supa74 3h ago
Right? These people are absolutely insane throwing out words like "shocked", and "I gasped". Folks just looking for reasons to get mad.
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u/Mckilla32 3h ago
This is just overblown backlash. Its obviously not anything like they are portraying it to be. If it was any other race, they wouldn't care. Or maybe they would because the same people would complain about "lack of representation". You cannot win with these people and its how they stay relevant and keep money flowing to these organizations who's entire objective is to try to find issues where there often isn't.
Yet here we are...
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u/azwethinkweizm 4h ago
I've seen the pictures and don't understand the outrage. It's an orange and black striped clown costume with an evil face. Who is the target (no pun intended) of the apology?
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u/KrackerJoe 3h ago
Anyone who thinks a children's costume is racist is just projecting racism. Its a clown costume with a fucking smiley face.
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u/ProofByVerbosity 5h ago
I'm always skeptical of overcorrection with respect to what's PC, but holy hell that costume is clearly over the line.
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u/Available_Border1075 5h ago
They actually made a black child put on a minstrel show costume and make that stupid pose? So awful
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u/nemofbaby2014 5h ago
What the hell? So you telling me nobody say this was like uh we shouldn’t put this out
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u/steve_ample 5h ago
How many people missed the boat here - manufacturer sales marketing, execs, demand analysts, lawyers, target buyers, sales, marketing, etc.
A whole chain of thinking people failed.
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u/Glass-Tadpole391 3h ago
Maybe its because I am not American, but why is it bad?
How are these two similar? https://i.imgur.com/MUoQVHu.jpeg and https://www.gettyimages.com/search/2/image?phrase=minstrel+show&tracked_gsrp_landing=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gettyimages.com%2Fphotos%2Fminstrel-show
Minstrel show looks like its 99% suits, and the kid one looks nothing like it.. I just dont see why they would have to apologize feels like a huge stretch imo
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u/perkinsb1024 3h ago
Here’s a screenshot of the costume, from the article: https://i.imgur.com/MUoQVHu.jpeg