Go GAP!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/someone-wrote-very-very-racist-comments-on-a-gap-ad-and-gap

As part of the "Make Love" campaign, GAP has been diversifying the models that they feature. This article focuses primarily on Sikh model Waris Ahluwalia. There was an overwhelming positive reaction to this advertisement from Sikh and non-Sikh individuals applauding GAP for their use of diversification and showing the beauty in everybody, not just in muscular white males or skinny white females. Unfortunately, due to the uneducated, uncultured society in America, somebody vandalized this advertisement in the subway system. GAP, however, did not let these blatantly racist actions bring down the message of their campaign. It was so cool to see how GAP even made the photo their Twitter and Facebook cover photo! I think this is a perfect example of how an anti-activist group/individual can light a fire under a movement, bringing more attention to it and hopefully educating people further on why this action is wrong.

One thing that really stood out to me was a quote made by Arsalan Iftikhar as he said, "More than anything else, though, the moral of this story is to prove yet again that we certainly do not yet live in a 'post-racial America' since minorities like South Asians (or other brown folks perceived to be Muslim or Arab) cannot even grace fashion advertisements without having nasty racial epithets hurled their way… I want to live in an America where a fashion model can be a handsome, bearded brown dude in a turban who is considered as beautiful as a busty blonde-haired white girl in see-through lingerie."

We do not live in a post-racial America! If we did, then we would see our society like the melting pot it is supposed to be. Instead, it is a tossed salad that is not blended very well at all. So what do my fellow feminists think?