An apparel company does (mostly) non-racist for a change

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After countless racist incidents from clothing companies raising hackles (see: Abercrombie & Fitch racist t-shirt fiasco or Urban Outfitters’ Navajo fashion debacle), it looks like one big retailer has finally done some bit of good. The Gap stepped up.

This Huffington Post piece breaks down what happened.

The quick and dirty:

  1. Gap puts up billboard of this ad featuring Waris Ahluwalia, a Sikh man, who also happens to be a man about town in NYC. Pretty cool. (Here’s more of Gap’s series of #makelove ads, which actually features a healthy diversity of faces.)
  2. Muslim journalist Arsalan Iftikhar tweets photo showing one of said billboards defaced with all kinds of racist nonsense. (Here’s his account of the incident on The Daily Beast.)
  3. Gap replies to Iftikhar’s tweet to find out where the defaced ad is, and to stay tuned.
  4. Gap then makes the billboard art their Twitter background.
  5. Lots of people are psyched to learn how Gap responds.

Gap FTW? Not quite. While many laud Gap for the ad and for their response to the vandalized billboard,  some Sikh’s find the ad offensive for the way the woman is lustfully touching Ahluwalia’s turban and chest.

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