Racism at Kmart

[Boomer]

It's been years since I set foot in Walmart, so I've taken my business to Kmart instead. Today, unfortunately, they really pissed me off and I'm wondering where the heck I go shop now.

I was sorting through Halloween costumes in search of props, and I idly glanced at the children's costumes -- all marked with conspicuous Kmart branding. There were photos of litte white boys and girls dressed up as doctors, nurses, characters from Hogwarts, you name it.

The ONE Hispanic kid among all the photos was modeling a convict costume! He was the only non-white featured in the entire line of costumes. There were no blacks, Asians or other minorities featured at all.

Grrrrr.

[bobbieinok]

1. weird.....lots of blacks work at KMart in Tulsa

[Southpaw Bookworm]

3. Working there

Is a whole different ballgame than running the place. I'd be more interesting in seeing the racial makeup of their purchasing and product development department.

[Boomer]

6. It starts at the top

This is obviously an executive corporation issue, not something that employees or even store managers at the local level would be able to control. They simply accept the merchandise shipped to them by corporate.

But executives at corporate either didn't see this racist stereotyping as a problem or they were sloppy and didn't notice. Either way, these costumes are probably distributed all over the country and all over world, with THEIR branding on them. That makes them responsible for the message, even if a third party actually did the promotional design.

If all the kids had been white, I probably would have just shrugged at the usual low-key racism of exclusion which is all too pervasive. But to take just ONE Hispanic kid only for this costume showed a level of intent that just really got my goat. No different if it had been a black kid. The "other" is the one that gets to be a felon, not all those nice white kids who are doctors and police officers.

[DAGDA56]

2. I'm guessing it's more of an oversite than overt racism...

...the costumes are probably made in China, Honduras or Bangladesh, and the marketing and packaging is outsourced to some other country where the photos are taken. Obviously, somebody at K-Mart Corporate should have been able to make the same observation you made, but they didn't. I suspect they would actually appreciate it if your brought it to their attention.

[Boomer]

7. Let's hope so!

Because I wrote a letter to Kmart on their corporate website this evening.

I'm sure this is an outsourced product, but when you put a company brand on a product, you'd better make damn sure you know exactly what you're promoting. Someone dropped the ball on this, and I'm very curious to see whether Kmart responds.

Edited to add:
The racism may not be overt on Kmart's part, but it was definitely overt on the part of whoever actually produced the packaging material. You can't tell me it's just a coincidence that the only ethnic kid pulled into the photo shoot was marked as a felon. Sheesh. What maroons.

[DAGDA56]

9. We're in agreement that somebody likely dropped the ball...

...who knows, heads may roll come Monday...and I suspect you'll get a response (if from some mid level VP in charge of PR)...glad you took the action.

[lfs5]

4. Visit the Bush web site--wallpaper and screen savers--

The only non-white face you'll see is on a wallpaper for "compassionate."

Says more about THAT campaign than any of us need to know. What I wonder is how his black, Hispanic, Latino and Oriental supporters are able to rationalize that kind of obvious racism!

[DAGDA56]

5. They all get together over coffee at the Black guy's house and agree...

...simple (ok, yeah it is sarcasm)

[LuCifer]

8. I see they forgot the other two K's

Any store that ends in MART usually blows! That's my rule of thumb anyway.

Lu Cifer

AIR AMERICA STARTS IN SEATTLE MONDAY! HEY RIGHTIES, WHAT WAS THAT ALL Y'ALL WERE SAYING ABOUT 6 MONTHS AGO ABOUT AAR DESTINED TO FAILURE? KISS MY BOOTY!!!

[69KV]

10. The big 3 - Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Target

..are all Repuke supporters, anti-union, selling mostly imported products made by cheap sweatshop labor, and donating heavily to Repuke politicians. Wal-Mart is the worst of the three but that doesn't mean the other two get my business either.

[Boomer]

11. Depressing and damn inconvenient

Sigh. I live in a small town, where options are limited enough as it is. My partner and I always shop local merchants first, because if there's any difference in the price we pay for goods, we figure the extra money goes into our own community.

But there are some products that simply aren't available from local merchants, like Halloween props.

[Name removed]

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