Does This Photo Make Black Women Look Bad & Is It Racist? The Company K’Tan Explains Their Ad! (Video)
by Tj Sotomayor June 24, 2014 73 commentsSo What Is Do You Think?
By: Tommy “Tj” Sotomayor
TWITTER SCREENSHOT
So, I was put in a position to see a photo, take a photo and then see that photo get floated around the internet which caused a firestorm of comments from people all over the world.
Now what you are going to see below is the response from the company that put out the ad, but please understand that with their excuse, they never put up a black woman with a husband but the funny part is, I am not mad at them. They were only putting up the image that most black women would agree with.
See the majority of people believe that black women are like children and for the most part, uncontrollable children. Even the presidents wife got on TV and identified with ratchet black women before she identified with high class ones and why was that? Because she knows there are more low end ones than anything else.
Now you can get mad at me all you want but when she yells out “Im a single mom and I want to be beyonce, then that tells you that she knows you would say some idiot crap like that. Anyway read below and see what you think.
Updated Monday, June 23, 6:30 p.m. EDT: Baby K’Tan has responded to the backlash they’ve received from people online with the following blog post:
It has come to our attention that there is a misleading photo circulating around the internet. Our company takes these matters very seriously and wishes to address them without any further delay.
The photo in question shows two Baby K’tan Baby Carriers on the shelf at an unidentified retailer. One Baby K’tan product features an African American woman holding her baby, and the other Baby K’tan product features a Caucasian couple with their baby. This portrayal has left many of our loyal patrons concerned that this is an unfair representation of African American families. Furthermore, the box bearing the African American woman was inaccurately priced lower than the box with the Caucasian couple. Let’s address these pressing matters head on:
1) We have a total of 5 different products, each featuring a different image on the front of the packaging. One box has the Caucasian couple on the front, and the other four boxes have individual mothers with their babies on the front (including African American and Caucasian women).
2) The Baby K’tan product featuring the African American woman is from our organic line which should actually be priced higher than the other product displayed.
3) The couple considered to be Caucasian is actually in fact an international couple, featuring a Caucasian mom and a Hispanic dad.
Our company was built and has prospered because of our focus on diversity and inclusion. We wholeheartedly reject any false, unfounded and baseless claims of discrimination as depicted in the above misrepresentation. We here at Baby K’tan fully support exposing any unfair and inaccurate stereotypes, racism and/or discrimination wherever it may exist.
We plan to continue including diverse parents, both individually and as couples, throughout our images. In fact, we are proud to have such wholesome and loving caregivers as the faces of our company.
Earlier:
Nothing gets past the eyes of those on social media, even if it’s not that easy to recognize at first. For example, take a look at the photo above of two baby slings made by Baby K’Tan.
Notice anything odd, or different?
Baby K’Tan’s marketing department seems to be OK with portraying the white woman with a man, as part of a couple, but having the black woman shot as a single parent. Those who have noticed the differences have taken to Twitter to show their disgust with the company:
On Baby K’Tan’s Twitter and Facebook profiles, there are photos depicting women of various backgrounds holding their children in slings.
BABY K’TAN/FACEBOOK
Some people feel that the portrayal of a black woman as a single parent on the packaging speaks volumes about how black women are perceived in advertising and society. Baby K’Tan has yet to respond to the questions directed to it on Twitter.
Question of the day: Do you think the ad is a slight to black women, or are people making a big deal about nothing?
Yesha Callahan is editor of The Grapevine and a staff writer at The Root. Follow her on Twitter.
Like The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.
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73 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationAnother flawless argument presented by Mr. Sotomayor.
Is it a lie about most black mothers? nope! do you own that company? nope! do blacks own their own baby product companies? NOPE! are you surprised that everyone degrades blacks including most blacks themselves? nope! Then why the outrage?
im black btw 😉
That’s pretty obvious because it seems like you truly care for the black community it’s just tough love
yep!
Yes Blacks should own their own infant care companies but nope, they rather take issue with what Tommy and others say about the state of Black Family, Black Love and Black Reproductive issues.
If the majority of BW are single parents, why is it wrong for Baby K’TAN to use that image in their products?
More hypercritical nonsense from Pro Blacks and Black women. Protect them from what exactly? Being portrayed as unthinking baby factories? The majority seemingly are, while the small minority (no pun) are very silent on the debate because, well, they have husbands and children. While the vast majority of complainers are single with multiple children from multiple men. Their so called “protectors” online such as Tyrone and others wanna-be Pro Blacks (only in name, not in actions) like to call Tommy a coon based on… Nothing actually using a slur started by Caucasians, believing it will somehow hurt Tommy’s feelings.
But that generally doesn’t work so they went after Lana, his mother and his daughter. That is what cowards do, they attack the weak.
Another false outrage debunked as ufok said flawlessly presented by Mr Sotomayor.
WORD!
the truth is that the stats on single mothers are the same for white women as black women same with the divorce rate but you wont see this. on the ignorant would believe the hype. statistically there are more single white mothers in the usa, but sad you dont know this. sad that you are so easily moved to belief what the white man wants you to believe. take your position next to Steven form django. open your eyes and quit with the sambo mentality. i suppose you think most blacks are on welfare too. smh Myths..myths…myths.
How are they the same? According to PEW and according to the Census, even in Los Angeles the data shows that more Black women are single and more Black women are single mothers.
As for Blacks on welfare, no more Whites are on welfare, where did you get I believe these are myths? Where is the stories if you or somebody else debunking these statistics?
The divorce rate overall is 52%. I never said it was higher in the Black Community but the rates of family formations and getting married is much lower than the national average.
If you mean per capita there are more White single mothers than Black, well that would make sense since there are more White women in America than Black. The whole point is, the alarming amount of single mothers who are Black is a problem.
No need for sambo, coon, white washed, bs, name calling. I am going to assume you are not a fan of Tommy Sotomayor just a troll?
Shame of it all is, black women did it to themselves. You were a willing participant in creating the “Strong, independent, don’t need a man” caricature that’s recognized the world over. Think about it… You spend all that time being thirsty for D-N-A from the worst society has to offer. Then, look for and get a pass for so you never have to be held accountable for any of it.
You do notice black men aren’t on their website at all. I know it’s black womens fault.
It’s worse than that Ramon, Black men engage in Pump N Dump more so than anybody else in America. Look at some of these baby’s Mommas; the majority of which most men wouldn’t be caught dead with unless they were desperately under performing men looking for easy targets.
If the majority of Black men are single and the majority of Black women are single, that is a disconnect because there are no families being formed.
That also means a select group of Black men are doing the majority of fathering these children.
Oh they hold them accountable at the Government level, when Clinton made the deal with the devil to cut and modified welfare programs as you previously and currently known them; have been the subject of constant cutting when Democrats are in power = Neo Liberalism
You must work, even if it’s a min wage job, you get baseline benefits that don’t go far enough, so they hit up the father for child support… Men generally don’t like dating Single mothers, so starting in the late 90’s society as a whole is engaged in shaming tactics of Men, especially Black men.
It’s an unholy, hot mess.
It’s actually deeper than that.
We are quick to blame men for engaging in “Pump N Dump”, but when asked, who raised these men majority of the time……It’s the mother’s. Mother’s can’t raise a boy to become a man. They can raise them to become productive citizens, but the emotional nuances and social expectations of being a man, father, and or husband the mother’s can not teach, because they have not experienced it first hand, nor is it expected of them as being women, mothers, and wives. A plumber can not teach someone on how to become an electrician, no matter how first rate that plumber is, nor how good their intentions are.
And if you was to dig into the true stories of these “single mothers” you would find that very few of them were impregnated by men of good substance. We as humans because of the complexity of you brains, the advancements we have made over the course of 2000 years alone has out paced our evolutionary process. Our minds, bodies, and social economic expectations are here in the 21 century, but human being self is still operating as it was dating back thousands of years ago.
It’s been addressed before about who are the men that mostly impregnate the large portion of single mother’s, it’s the lower middle and bottom barrel feeders of the black male race. Women are attracted to the men who displays Alpha male characteristics, but understand the important word….DISPLAY. These women turn around and begin allowing themselves to become pregnant by the display men, and now she “expects” that very man to walk the path in which she has chosen for her and the now conceived embryo.
Yes, I did say women choose to become pregnant. Not taking or using birth control while engaging in sexual intercourse is not a mistake, it is a deliberate act. Yes, it can be said that men engage in unprotected sexual intercourse, but men do not become pregnant.
How many black women are surrounded by friends and family members who are married to the man who is the biological father of all children? We become the people we mostly socialize with. Wealthy people socialize with wealthy people, rich people socialize with rich people. Rich people seldom socialize with middle class or working poor people. But why do middle class people want to be become connected to rich people? And why do rich people, their are exceptions, try to socialize and become connected with wealthy people.
Even though this is vague statistic, but something to think about. If 65% of black children are conceived or birthed out of non-married relationships that only leave about 35% of black children are. If 50% of all marriages here in the United States end in divorce that leaves only 17.5% of children who enter the adult world knowing what a husband and wife relationship is and has seen it with their own eyes. Example: 1,700 out of 10,000 enters into the adult world from a household which contained both mother and father.
Of course there are many other factors and nuances which are not taken into consideration, and as I stated before the statistics are vague and very very generalized, but it should make a person think about why our community in whole has and will continue to erode.
*Lastly, the state governments do not hit up the man for child support for the sake of the mother and child(ren). The support which is collected from both support paying fathers and mothers is pooled into a large state account. That pool draws interest and the state pockets it. Some of it is used to off-set expenses, but what is left become money for the state to what it wishes. The state does not care if the mother and or child’s health and welfare is benefiting from the payments, the state only cares about how much is in their pool and the interest in which that pool is producing.
Black women on fathers day
I’m the mother and the father
I don’t need no man
Thats why the box is catered to you. Im sure you have a ton of friends in the same position and a small handful of friends who do have a man. Typical scenario
Yeah you do, you just too much of a coward to admit it.
That’s exactly why they did that.
Does it make them look bad? To them no, but to the rest of the World, Yes. Is it Racist? No, because I hear and see Black Women that love giving birth, being alone and raising a strangers’ Babies.
The man in the white couple is supposedly Hispanic. That’s the thing about “Hispanics.” They’re a language-geography group, not a racial group. There are lots and lots of white people with Spanish heritage and speak Spanish who are hawking themselves as “Hispanic leaders,” when in reality they have no love for tropical Indians are black and mixed race people from the Caribbean or parts of Central and South America.
Its true, India “indians” look down on their darker shaded Indians, American Indians do, Italians look down on their darker shades, etc etc. I don’t know whether the company is right or wrong, but no way in hell did that man look ANYTHING but white. I also read online that some baby-sling has caused 6 infant smotherings but I don’t remember the name. Just an unrelated btw. Take care dear.
Tell the truth Pugg!
<— All bark and no bite.
why do blacks always cry racist, except when they are being racist?
when they are doing racist stuff, they feel entittled because they were slaves…
what a bunch of BS…
It is what it is, what we all know is, no boycott will happen that’s for sure. I would not be surprised if some black woman spokesman defended the company.
It’s true we do have the highest percentage of single mothers and the fathers ARE nonexistent, so what outrage can see have when we are portrayed like this? None. Smh
EXCELLENT job breaking this story T!
I’ve been noticing you’ve cleaned up the comment section, Sotobabe, however, I would imagine you let comments that disagree (respectfully of course) go through or otherwise we would appear as a bunch of “yes men” and have nobody to debate. Don’t get me wrong, I like the change a lot, I used to get hateful emails sometimes because I was told “what the hell are YOU doing on this column when I adore this column, and it IS relevant to me. Luvu Sotobabe!
I don’t believe this company is insulting anyone. They embrace diversity and have many different photos in their galleries and fan pictures.
If what you indicated is true…..then why didn’t they post the white woman alone to indicate diversity? Then again I wouldn’t expect you to have a problem with that image being portrayed because its not reflecting you in a negative manner.
The white woman is alone in another picture, and every other white woman in their gallery is alone. This picture above IS from their website, that is where I got it, Look in the customer/fan photos, second line down, second from the right.
When I look at this picture, it says to me that both black women and men are irresponsible. The irresponsibility on the woman’s part is sleeping with a man that is unreliable and selfish and irrelevant, and the irresponsibility on the man’s part is he is not man enough to be a man and take care of his offspring. Most of the time, his priorities in life is quantity not quality. Unfortunately, this is what goes on in the black community. THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE ALL BLACK MEN AND WOMEN!!!
You’re making an assumption when saying that the man doesn’t take care of his offspring. Just because he does not stay with the female who bore the child he may still get visitation and pay support (See: Derrick the Mortician, if I remember his name correctly).
THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO ALL BLACK MEN AND WOMEN!!!
(Shit, can’t remember my other login/pword but it is I: Ashamed ToBeBlack)
I’m not one of those people who take a generalization to mean all but I believe (don’t have stats but can research if you insist) but it is the WOMEN who bear the majority of the blame/responsibility for this. Yes, there are a minority among Black men who abandon their responsibility but ask yourself “Why?” They may have wanted her to get an abortion and she said “No!” They drag HIS Black ass to court to get child support and prevent him from seeing his kid and barring that force him into supervised visitation only. They make the custody exchange as difficult as possible (1 recent story had a woman trying to run over her baby daddy with the car during an exchange). Hell, if I have to risk my life to see my kid and the court won’t help, well…guess junior will just have to work that out himself.
Okay, that happens. I’m not saying that women do not do these things you’ve spoke of. However, as I mentioned earlier that both genders are to blame for the OOW children. The woman, as her role, has to make sure that she experiences enough personal time with her man of interest and make notations to herself that he’s worth her love. If she chooses to get pressured into sex too soon in the “relationship”, she should hightail her @ss out of his life and move on to someone who has built a strong foundation in his life. Many of the times in the black community, there is an absentee parent (usually the father) that cannot teach his offspring about morals and values of respecting his/her(especially her) body. The cycle will continue to run like a stream. I will never place blame solely on one gender as there is two sides to each situation. Most (not all) young black women are inexperienced at selecting the “man who qualifies for the job”. JMI
What NEEDS to happen is that women need to grow the hell up and realize that life is NOT a damned joke and that they need to start appreciating ‘Nice Guys’ and start ignoring the ‘Bad Boys’ that they usually chase after. That’s right! They need to do a 180 degree turn and reverse their dysfunctional way of thinking. Men/Boys ONLY play the ‘Bad Boy’ role because it’s what so many women/Girls go for. If the DEMAND for that bullshit ended, the supply would ALSO END. As Tommy says, it’s more WOMEN’S responsibility because it’s YOU who get to choose who gets laid and who doesn’t. WE don’t get to choose SHIT, except for who we approach and try to get closer to. So, the way I see it, it’s AT LEAST 75% on the women. Thanx for your time. 🙂
Exactly. They think everything is a joke because the government let them get away with everything for far to long. That is why the state is getting tired of black women and slowly taking their benefits away from them. That is why when you go to wal-mart, they put up signs of how much food stamps they’re cutting off.
That’s right, buddy. You and I both know what’s really going on. More power to you, my brother! =)
Furthermore, Why are you ashamed to be black?? Did GOD feel ashamed when he created you?
Prove that god exist. I bet you worship the slave masters god.
Ummm, have you ever in your life heard of and read the bible? His name is Jehovah!
Do you have proof that the bible is true? Of course you don’t. Why worship a religion that was forced upon you by the slave master?
Once again, prove that the bible is fact. You can’t because it’s not. I bet you don’t even believe or follow the old testament and just in case you try something stupid, Jesus did so called say that he was to “fulfilled” the bible including the old testament, so that means dumbass that that the old testament laws still apply. But then again, the bible is based of old stories from the book of Gilgamesh.
Notice she didn’t respond to your challenge about proving that her ‘god’ exists? I expected that, too. 😉
Ha ha, your name says it all!! You are an idiot
Sorry if your ability to read is lacking just that horribly, but.. No.
Also, your thought process (or lack thereof) says that YOU are an idiot. Just ask anyone with an I.Q. higher than yours. You know.. 99.999% of the population. ;^}
*yawn*
I worship the Ol’ Mighty U.S. Currency.
As Wu Tang say, “C.R.E.A.M.”. Cash Rules Everything Around Me.
When you die you’ll have to ask him for me as I likely won’t get the chance for another 40-50 years. I answered that same question on Tommy’s show Sunday. I also made a video (one of the first ones) answering that question. So if you REALLY want to know why (which you probably don’t) that’s where you’ll find your answers.
Question??? How do you place time on your life when you simply do not know when you’re going to expire? Do you think that because you’re young, you have 40-50 years to live? Each day could be counted as our last so, with that in mind you cannot pinpoint exactly when you are going to check out, sorry!
Hahahahaha. Thanks. You called me YOUNG with my OLD ass self. I just plan to hang around as long as I can but when that call comes you know that none of us can ignore it.
It doesn’t matter if the man is reliable and committed she will just kick the guy out. That is how it is done because it is now a definition of being a black woman. It is also fully enable in family law.
The court system sees father’s in 2 separate categories: (1) fathers who are the child’s biological parent and was married to the mother, (2) fathers who are the biological parent but was not married to the mother.
The most a non married father can get contest through the courts is joint custody. In order for the non married father to be granted full custody of the child(ren) the mother must relinquish parental rights of that child, which is very difficult to get a mother to do. The courts are more willing to place the child(ren) into foster care, than to grant the non married biological father custody without it going through a long and expensive court processes.
Your first expense is retaining an attorney which starts out at around $2500. Once the attorney has exhausted the retainer, the father much pay another $2500. One can easily rack have shelled out to the attorney $15,000 and still have the case tied up in court and the child(ren) in foster care, which may have been a worst situation than the child(ren) just staying with the mother.
Black men don’t have children……& the courts usually don’t give us custody of the children unless the mother is proven to be unfit……with that being said lets not quantify the responsibility equally if thats not the case
More than 70% of blk babies are borning out of wedlock so I don’t see a problem. I would love to know the percentage of those relationships that are officically OVER by time the baby is born. I have cousins that have babies that don’t even have boyfriends.
The black chick can afford the organic product line because her baby daddy is a baller.
society is not looking at the full picture this only represent two of the many products that is being sold by this company how about placing all their products with images in a picture to see if the diversity of people are in fact being fully represented .on the other note this may have been the intentions of misleading the public with a issue that doesn’t exist promoting an idea of one man’s opinion
Are you really serious?
yes I am why ?
Because what you said makes no sense at all & I was hoping that you were pretending to be lost rather than being that far gone.
I sat here for a minute thinking should I respond back to your hopes the answer is no should I respond back to you lacking common sense no does your definition of lost define me no . when something doesn’t make sense the proper thing to do is ask questions for clarity
How can you blame K’Tan when the portrayal on the box speaks to the fact that more than 70% of Black children are bor out of wedlock? I understand that this does not mean that there is no man in the picture but you have to ask that ugly question: “If there is a man in the picture is he even the daddy of the newborn or infant?”
This is just something to complain about…And as an individual, if you dont like how you are perceived, then change your ways..no matter what color you are..
When was the last time you actually saw a black family just out and about with each other? In the park, zoo or even a parade? I can only think of three times without thinking and I live in a city that has a high percentage of black people. Either you’re going to accept the stats or change it! It’s all up to you. BTW, I would never put my kid in one of those things. They look very uncomfortable for both the parent and the child.
Crabs in a bucket.
for every 1 negative image should be 10 promoted positive images by black businesses. even though this problem exist does not mean that this should be the image that defines us .
White people stole this idea from Africans who been carrying their children like this for thousands of years and they want to diss black women while stealing. whites.
No Black People in America failed to take this from Africa and make it profitable. White people didn’t steal this idea, they saw it for themselves in person, only 2% of African-Americans have a passport and the majority go to the Caribbean, not Africa.
Black women have spent the last 40+ years screaming about being, “strong” ,”independent” and how they don’t “need” no Man – or the more commercial phrase is “I Can Do Bad All By Myself”,
They only support ,movies that show Black Men as “criminals” or “buffoons”
Thus 80% of Black Children are born OOW to Single Black Baby Mamas -The Vast Majority of whom would not have the first clue about how to live in harmony with a “True” Black Man
So why would or should anyone be shocked or surprised at a Black women be depicted as a Single Baby Mama! – Most of them ARE – Case Closed!
@djfourmoney:disqus
It’s actually deeper than that.
We are quick to blame men for engaging in “Pump N Dump”, but when asked, who raised these men majority of the time……It’s the mother’s. Mother’s can’t raise a boy to become a man. They can raise them to become productive citizens, but the emotional nuances and social expectations of being a man, father, and or husband the mother’s can not teach, because they have not experienced it first hand, nor is it expected of them as being women, mothers, and wives. A plumber can not teach someone on how to become an electrician, no matter how first rate that plumber is, nor how good their intentions are.
And if you was to dig into the true stories of these “single mothers” you would find that very few of them were impregnated by men of good substance. We as humans because of the complexity of you brains, the advancements we have made over the course of 2000 years alone has out paced our evolutionary process. Our minds, bodies, and social economic expectations are here in the 21 century, but human being self is still operating as it was dating back thousands of years ago.
It’s been addressed before about who are the men that mostly impregnate the large portion of single mother’s, it’s the lower middle and bottom barrel feeders of the black male race. Women are attracted to the men who displays Alpha male characteristics, but understand the important word….DISPLAY. These women turn around and begin allowing themselves to become pregnant by the display men, and now she “expects” that very man to walk the path in which she has chosen for her and the now conceived embryo.
Yes, I did say women choose to become pregnant. Not taking or using birth control while engaging in sexual intercourse is not a mistake, it is a deliberate act. Yes, it can be said that men engage in unprotected sexual intercourse, but men do not become pregnant.
How many black women are surrounded by friends and family members who are married to the man who is the biological father of all children? We become the people we mostly socialize with. Wealthy people socialize with wealthy people, rich people socialize with rich people. Rich people seldom socialize with middle class or working poor people. But why do middle class people want to be become connected to rich people? And why do rich people, their are exceptions, try to socialize and become connected with wealthy people.
Even though this is vague statistic, but something to think about. If 65% of black children are conceived or birthed out of non-married relationships that only leave about 35% of black children are. If 50% of all marriages here in the United States end in divorce that leaves only 17.5% of children who enter the adult world knowing what a husband and wife relationship is and has seen it with their own eyes. Example: 1,700 out of 10,000 enters into the adult world from a household which contained both mother and father. Of course there are many other factors and nuances which are not taken into consideration, and as I stated before the statistics are vague and very very generalized, but it should make a person think about why our community in whole has and will continue to erode.
*Lastly, the state governments do not hit up the man for child support for the sake of the mother and child(ren). The support which is collected from both support paying fathers and mothers is pooled into a large state account. That pool draws interest and the state pockets it. Some of it is used to off-set expenses, but what is left become money for the state to what it wishes. The state does not care if the mother and or child’s health and welfare is benefiting from the payments, the state only cares about how much is in their pool and the interest in which that pool is producing.
Excellent!
get more sleep, you will be less cranky. its a stupid baby product no one cares about. blacks and the poor should be concerned with what is profoundly making their lives worse, tougher, poorer… Illegal Invasion by the dregs of society!
Logic 101 sorry t o you may not want to here this
But all my friends have a man
well can i ask ? we know the issues of the black women so instead of putting them down even more what up lifting the ones that need it
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