You Had One Job – Forever 21/ ‘Black Panther’ Edition

We know that the holidays are just around the corner and some people’s focus is probably a little bit split, but this is the kind of screw-up that someone probably should have noticed. The Black Panther was one of the best films in the MCU and it is an actual contender for the best film Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards. With Disney behind the wheel, you know that no licensing opportunity will go unused.

Enter Forever 21. The Shopping Mall staple has a new sweater that celebrates the film for the holidays. The festive jumper even features ‘Wakanda Forever’ across its chest! What could go wrong? It’s a great looking sweater, for a great movie, that was the first Black-led superhero film in the MCU franchise. It had a black director and a nearly all-black cast (other than the two ‘Tolkien’ white guys).

Well, here’s what went wrong. When Forever 21 started marketing the new top, they thought it was a good idea to model it on the palest, whitest, blue-eyed, bleach-blonde dude they could find. In a sane world, there’s nothing wrong with that, but we live in a world where people were mad that that Ruby Rose wasn’t ‘lesbian enough’ to play Batwoman. Sufficed to say, several corners of the internet have begun to speak up with their own brand of displeasure. For our part, we think it’s pretty funny. What do you think?