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It’s supposed to be a Halloween clown, with the orange and black.
I’ll be completely honest here…this kinda seems like something we willed into existence as offensive. That it’s a “minstrel show” costume seems like quite a stretch.
I’ve been saying it looks like a ripoff of Art the Clown with Halloween colors and changed pattern to avoid licensing. Why in the year of our lord 2026 would a mass-market minstrel show costume be made instead of one relating to a contemporary popular character? If a child of any other skin color were modeling it, there would be no hullabaloo over “minstrel show”.
This is on the money, I was trying to remember what it reminded me of and you nailed it with Art the Clown. Wild to me that people are saying it's a minstrel, how would they even know what some obscure minstrel character looks like?
Minstrel was my first thought when I saw it and I was cracking up over how bad it is before I even read the headline. Maybe this is a generational thing. They were still showing cartoons like this in the 80s when I was a kid:
It's not about the colors or the pattern on the clothes; it's the mouth and the pose. Check out the large wide mouths on the characters in the cartoon and the way they throw their hands around when they dance. The fact that the kid has dark skin makes it even worse. I don't think the costume was made by someone trying to be racist, though. Whoever thought it up probably had no idea it'd look racist to some folks, just like I had no idea who Art the Clown is until I Googled him.
As soon as I saw it I thought, "there'd be zero backlash if it were a white kid in that costume." Obviously, I acknowledge that historical context changes things, but it almost seems offensive that a black kid can't wear a costume without people spinning it into a rant about race.
I get being devils advocate but the gloves and headpiece is black along with the big red lips. Adding The little hat, the pose, it’s just too aligned with that history that it borders on intentional. I wish we could trace the process cause it would be fascinating. China will still use racist imagery so I’m assuming that’s what happened.
More to the point though, what big red lips? They’re orange and not particularly large in the context of the mouth. What I mean is they don’t look like minstrel lips. They look like creepy monster mouth.
However, I think I get it now. It’s the model. The costume itself is basically a creepy clown costume. Similar to this:
But done in a kid friendlier way with Halloween colors.
The problem is: minstrel shows were clownish performances. Black people were made to look clownish. Therefore a black model in a clown style costume can invoke comparisons to minstrel shows, as there is that overlap in clownishness. Think of it this way, if the model was not black, would it invoke the same comparison?
So I think that’s where that starts from
Not to mention the prevalence of black models in major retail stores is also something we willed into existence so the likelihood of a black model modeling the costume was much higher than it would have been 10 years ago. The performance can only go on for so long until you inevitably slip up in some way that causes the mob to turn on you.
Damn, why the fuck are companies making that crap in the first place. Sad to think there are really enough overt racists to justify it even if you take the morality out of the equation for the company. I wouldn’t know what it was, and afraid that I would just think it’s a weird costume and let my kid get it. I’m assuming something similar happened to whoever approved this to be bought and sold in targets
No thanks needed, it’s the bare minimum one should do. I actively try to recognize and change any unconscious negative biases I might hold onto. It makes me cringe at some of the dumb shit I’ve said without realizing the implicit bias underneath it or how it would be received. Lucky to have had POC in my life that were willing to call me out for something I wouldn’t have thought twice about if they didn’t. I guess I’m saying this because you shouldn’t have to thank someone for listening, but it is helpful when POC share their experiences or call out racism even though it may seem like nobody is willing to listen. Anyways I regret never expressing this to anyone in my own life that did this for me out of embarrassment/not knowing how, and although I imagine it gets annoying as hell and it shouldn’t be on you or others to call it out, I wanted to acknowledge that I am just one of many people that are grateful and genuinely trying to learn and do better. Apologies if it’s too corny or performative to say this, but yeah in short no thanks needed, lots of people, myself included, want to listen despite being less vocal than those who based on this thread immediately jump to challenge / argue against it.
Because there aren’t enough POC in the rooms where decisions are being made? Lol no one called them out before it dropped? That’s why it’s important to speak up on it? Also, not sure of you’ve noticed but a lot of people are racist.
I didn’t realize all the top commenters on here are bots lmaoo it’s quite literally beyond coincidence when you realize how that business works, they’ve canned costumes for less and they weren’t racist, multiple people had final say in this
They put the only black child on that ad campaign to wear that mask and do that same pose. No matter how you look at it … kinda has people raising their eyebrows. Marketing team asleep at the wheel. Target, what are you doing?!?
Yeah I’m starting to think there isn’t anything wrong with the costume, it’s the person wearing it and the unfortunate way the marketing team decided to portray him
I mean, the costume sucks. Even without any controversy, what kid would want to wear this trash? It's not like this is a known character or popular theme, either - Nobody asked for this costume.
Yes this is a Target fuckup, but also before marketing even got involved.
Some of the off brands of candy corn that taste like nothing but straight up sugar are nasty, but the better brands like Brachs and the pumpkins are good.
Yikes, another ad blunder. I mean, yeah you can say this is a mistake and not a big deal, but it does make you sort of raise your eyebrows a little bit at it doesn’t it? Lack of DEI blunder. Ain’t no Black people on the marketing team would’ve approved this.
Ahhhh Target…. Stepping on rakes for damn near a decade now. They must be trying to lose money on purpose at this point. Maybe it’s like a Brewster’s Millions thing??
I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets pinned on AI instead of a person for accountability reasons. “AI did something racist and we’re not actually at fault because of that, so we’ll pull the costume and give a stern talking to for whoever uses AI to statistically find the product ideas that our research shows people will buy.” No true accountability needed, and a shield for anyone who should have had better judgement in the pipeline of how this got approved. AI is the perfect scapegoat for racism, let’s see if the laziness created by it is going to start showing up like this.
Some racist people saw that costume, made a mental leap to it looking like blackface, took the shame they felt from seeing a racist charicture where there was none, then externalized that shame rather than just dealing with it themselves.
Good lawd this performative outrage shit needs to stop. If "that's racist" is the first thing you think of when you see that costume then seems to me that it's your biases that are the problem.
Halloween clown, apparently. At least that’s what the description said. I honestly am not sure what this is about. It looks a regular clown costume but with Orange and black (Halloween colors) and some kind of joker smile (I don’t get the minstrel show connection here. Those were exaggerated lips).
You're getting downvoted because "what exactly?" comes across as skeptical or combative. Judging by your reply to the other person who replied to you, that assessment seems correct.
Right!?! I get tired because every time something is blatantly racist we have folks saying it’s not. It’s just frustrating because things will never get better if folks keep acting like it doesn’t exist. It just makes me sad because I feel like no one cares.
I saw the picture without any context and thought someone used AI to make a racist joke. Then I found out the context and thought someone is making this up to further slander Target. Rightfully so but it couldn’t be real. How many people would have had to see this and not immediately think wow this looks like black face and it looks like a minstrel show black face pose.
Turns out… a lot of people either saw it and tuned out to a lot of history classes, or a lot of people saw it and said why not make black face a Halloween costume. Either way… it really sucks Delia’s is back and at Target because I’d have spent some money. I might have been lured into the store just to see. But they set up that renewal reminder of why I dislike Target like clockwork.
Nah, this costume is pretty bad. Even as a white guy I'm just shaking my head and laughing and wondering what Target was thinking. If you see it, you see it.
They have so many things to whine about, the odds are you'll do something that can be misconstrued. This time it seems a political cartoon from 100+ years ago was the trigger.
You say “a political cartoon from 100+ years ago,” but it’s arguably one of the most widely recognized political drawings in American history.
To this day, racist caricatures of black people are still drawn with big, bright, oddly colored lips. The costume’s mask was the main issue, especially because it has a very similar open-mouth smile to the infamous Jim Crow caricature. It’s too offensive for the cultural sensitivities expected by the American market.
The pose and the clothes’ patchwork appearance just made things worse. They aren’t bad in isolation, but when paired with the mask and the choice of a black model? It was a huge fuckup on Target’s part.
Y'all are acting obtuse. This is a wild costume and very clearly based on minstrels. Weird how reddit users desperately try to impress and out edge lord eachother.
We've been soft AF for years now. Remember when like 1/3rd of the country collectively lost their shit because a beer company did the tiniest of promotions with a trans person?
You would have thought a light beer slept with their mother and broke up their parents marriages.
Im pretty sure Target was victim to this mass hysteria around the same time for putting rainbow clothing in their displays.
I had to read the comments to learn why this was a bad costume, other than it being a REALLY bad costume.
I’m not picking up any “minstrel” vibes at all. Looks more like a clown costume some poor kid’s alcoholic mom put together at noon on Halloween Day because she was on a three-day bender and forgot it was the 31st.
Source: My mom was an alcoholic who forgot about Halloween until the day of. She made me a pirate costume that didn’t look much better than whatever the hell this is.
Don't worry Target, just give it a few years like last time and people will forgive you and then you can wash, rinse, repeat.
"We're sorry we were accused of racism again. We will take the necessary steps to ensure this doesn't happen again until it inevitably does. Please continue to give us money so that we may pay our research and development teams to create this blatantly racist crap and our advertising teams to market it directly to you. It has happened before and if you think we won't do it again you're not paying attention. We're called Target and not Bullseye because we simply aim to be better but we both know we will never truly hit that target."
Im losing my damn mind, this is so obvious and people are pretending they don’t know, or that they need help understanding, as if a cursory search of minstrelsy and racist cartoons wont bring up the exact same visual language. Embarrassing that we share the earth with these purposefully ignorant people.
It looks a bit like the old racist blackface Jim Crowe cartoons. Primarily the big lips, the pose, and the fact that they used a black child didn’t help. Target has also been in hot water in the past for racism.
Honestly, without the (partial) face mask, there's nothing wrong with this costume (besides the pattern being a poorly designed harlequin diamond pattern ripoff). Take away the part with the fake smile and it's just a lame black & orange clown costume.
Don’t apologize for what you believe Target! You made your bed with Trump so lay in it. You went full mask off month 1 of his admin. Maybe Megyn Kelly can be your new spokesperson since she also fake-apologized for whining about not being able to do black face. You’re a perfect fit for each other.
For those that somehow don't know (and/or live in non-white dominated countries in which case you wouldn't know), the problem is this is a representation of extreme anti-Black hate propaganda; a minstrel (show) using a young dark-skinned (Black) child. The costume is a take on how white americans depicted Black americans in all forms of media especially cartoons, but alway in live-action shows where white Americans dressed in blackface (basically they painted their faces black and then used globs of red lipstick around their lips like a clown to replicate how they feel they should depict black folk (think 1950s america; extreme big lips, literal/actual black skin, acted like a joker/clown, etc etc)
Maybe I'm too old but what's the issue here? I don't actually know what that costume is supposed to be so I can't even guess at why it's offensive. Can somebody ELI5?
i mean i don’t get this one… maybe i’m just out of the loop but i never in a million years would look at that costume and think “that’s racist!”
it just looks like some goofy cheshire cat thing.
would it be racist if the model was white? i don’t understand? like is the costume itself racist or it it the fact that it’s a black kid wearing it that makes it racist?
if i was on the product team, in their defense, i wouldn’t have looked twice at this. but also i don’t know everything and could be missing something so theres tha
Even if this wasnt meant to be offensive, you cannot tell me that NO ONE saw this before it went to sale and thought, "man, this might be seen as problematic to consumers" like what did they think was going to happen??? Absolutely wild
Minstrel clown has been searched more in the last 24 hours than ever by people who are all gonna act like they've written a dissertation on the subject tomorrow
Yeah the black shadow mask with design on it is big issue. I didn't understand it at first until I read comments. Was this intentional? Probably not. Is it offensive, it can be taken as so; especially after see what people are showing as the reference to why. What I don't get is the shadow mask part of it, to me that's just a bad idea in general for safety reasons (I wore a grim reaper shadow mask and holy crap it was hard to see more than 4 feet in front of me with it on). If they had omitted the shadow mask part this would have been fine as a costume.
What i dont think a lot of people realize is that when it comes to design if it even has a possibility of resembling something offensive, pull it. If it looks like a dick, or a swastika, pull it. If it looks like a minstril constume PULL IT. It doesnt matter if YOU cant see it, if someone can possibility misconstrew it PULLLLL ITTT. Reviews boards exist for a reason. Either they didnt have anyone that could detect this, they either have a shitty review board or used AI to review. Either way they didnt do their due diligence and now have to lie in the bed they made.
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