Gap Releases A Racist Tee, Then Takes It Back

And we thought Navajo panties were bad.

Gap recently pulled a t-shirt from their GQ collaboration featuring the historical phrase "Manifest Destiny", after it was seen as racist by Native Americans.

According to the Change.org petition calling for its removal, the tee "promotes a belief that has resulted in the mass genocide of indigenous people, and it serves to normalize oppression."

The petition continues:

"This shirt is marketed to teens and young adults, and it gives no context for the racism and inequality that persists in our society, to this day, as a result of this doctrine. We are asking that this shirt be discontinued, and that an apology be issued."

Gap was obviously listening because they have since removed it and released an official statement that read:

"Thank you for your feedback regarding the 'Manifest Destiny' t-shirt. Based on customer feedback, we will no longer offer the t-shirt in our stores or online."

The designer of the shirt, Mark McNairy, wasn’t so accommodating. He tweeted, "MANIFEST DESTINY. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST".

McNairy quickly deleted the tweet and issued a semi-apology, tweeting:

"I AM SORRY FOR MY SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST COMMENT. IT HURT ME DEEPLY TO BE CALLED A RACIST AS THAT IS NOT ME. I REACTED WITHOUT THINKING."

The company is still getting negative comments since they haven’t actually apologized yet…

Hopefully, we can expect an apology to come soon.

[Image via Gap.]

Tags: gap, gap gq collaboration, gq, manifest destiny shirt, mark mcnairy, mark mcnairy twitter, racist shirt