The story and photos saying H&M is releasing a new collection by David Enrique that is "equally racist to all the other races" is false and originates with a satirical website. The satirical piece titled 'H&M To Release "Equally Racist" Collection As Apology To Blacks (See Collection)' was created in response to the recent controversy about H&M using an African American boy to model a hoodie with the imprint "Coolest monkey in the jungle" which was deemed by many to be racist.
The satirical story (archived here) opened:
SWEDEN - After H&M faced huge controversy for putting an african american boy to model a hoodie which read "Coolest monkey in the jungle", It is being reported that H&M is planning on releasing a new collection that according to chairman Stefan Persson, is "equally racist to all the other races". The collection will be called the "You're Not Alone" collection.
It was accompanied by several photoshopped H&M publicity pictures of kids modeling actual H&M designs but with the slogans and imprints digitally altered to create a racist effect in combination with the apparent ethnicity of the kids:
- Middle Eastern kid: "I'm the bomb!"
- Hispanic kid: "Cross Country Champions" in combination with the colors of the Mexican flag and and outline of a family of migrants.
- Asian kid: "Puppy fever" in combination with a heart symbol and a plate with steaming meat plus a knife and fork.
- Caucasian kid: "Too Cool For School!" in combination with a logo featuring two crossed handguns and the subtitle "Shooting expert".
- African American kid: "Coolest monkey in the jungle" (this one wasn't photoshopped, it is the real one that caused the controversy)
Stefan Persson is indeed the chairman of H&M and they did release (and retract) the now infamous "Coolest monkey in the jungle" hoodie. But the rest of the story and the other pictures are fake. H&M issued a public apology and stated they were removing the garment from sale. Any remaining ones would be recycled. So it is higly unlikely they would now double down and create a collection with even more explicit racism.
People did seem to enjoy the satirical story on Twitter:
#H&M decided to release equally racist collection to offend everyone 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/4wK7RMxBog
-- Javii Alvarez 💥 (@javii_alvarez13) January 12, 2018
At least one YouTube channel copied the story without irony and completely failed to mention that it was satire:
H&M TO RELEASE EQUALLY RACIST COLLECTION: https://t.co/bdbeqoQuoy via @YouTube
-- Miss Martini (@MissMartini23) January 12, 2018
Huzlers styles itself as a "fauxtire" website and carries a disclaimer at the bottom of each page:
Huzlers.com is the most infamous fauxtire & satire entertainment website in the world. If it's trending on social media you'll find it here!
According to Splinter News the site is run by Pablo Reyes and David Martinez and according to Buzzfeed Reyes is involved with several other fake news websites. They tend to shy away from political stories, opting instead to write for a more "urban" audience, with stories about rappers, criminals and celebrities.
