Shame on you Ralph Lauren for marketing a Genocidal Era of the Native Americans

July 1524 was the first known kidnapping in America. Italian Explorers kidnapped a Native American and brought him to France. 1709 a slave market was erected at the foot of Wall Street in New York City African Americans, Native American men,women and children were declared property of the highest bidder.1850 California Legislature responded to starving Native Americans by turning them into slaves and the law permitted White people to indenture Native Children which led to  widespread kidnapping. 1879 the first students, a group of Lakota Children arrived at The United States Training and Industrial School, the goal was to remove young Natives from their culture and refashion them for mainstream American society. In other words Natives were to be brainwashed and forced fed a culture not their own, to become the white man.

The new Ralph Lauren campaign is full of all the humiliating reminders of an era of destruction to the Tribal Nations. Why would a company want to promote such racism and hatred toward the first Nations people and on top of which attempt to profit off of their genocidal history. Perhaps Ralph Lauren does not have a complete understanding of the era in which they are depicting as the educational system has never painted a transparent picture of the history in which torture, rape, abuse, slavery, kidnapping and murder were accepted forms of behavior for those of white privilege. To bring things home for Ralph Lauren this history is the manual Hitler used as a basis for his final solution for the Jewish people.

Native American people love to see their Nations promoted in the fashion industry but in a way that respects the culture and history of who they are as human beings the very same way anyone else would request to be represented. If you want and choose to utilize Native Americans in a promotional way perhaps taking the time to speak to Natives and ask how you can do so that honors their history instead of promoting genocide.

The First Nations People ask you to remove these photos from your current campaign and replace them with photos that do not promote a history that is painful and humiliating full of racism and hatred. Would you use  photos of the Holocaust in a clothing campaign? I do not believe that you would.