….Something else you “CAIN’T unsee”…..this is what happens when you think “DEI” is a bad thing….because if people of color…..Black people….still worked within that ad dept….I’m sure they all would’ve said….in unison….. “OH, HELL NO!”…..this is what someone wrote about this subliminal idea….. “The image at the center of the backlash is stylized product photography…….legs in a cream skirt standing on a star-shaped spotlight……black Chuck 70 X high-tops held up by the laces…….scattered pairs across a gray floor…..critics say the dramatic lighting tapers the white fabric into something that reads as a Ku Klux Klan hood…..and the dangling black sneakers read as a body”…..it started spreading on Threads this week…..where someone wrote….. “Black people are being lynched in the South, and this is the ad Converse chooses to produce?”…..actress Yvette Nicole Brown added….. “That’s a lynching, yes?”…..and, in a follow-up….. “AND a Klan robe”……photographer Zach Berger wrote….. “No, you’re not crazy……yes, the Converse ad is racist…..yes, it looks like a Klan outfit……yes, it looks like a lynching……and no, “it’s just a shoe ad”……is not a defense”…..before I continue on….I’m going with the photographer’s “not a defense”….I’ve dealt with ad agencies, proposed magazine layouts, story boards, and the worst people on the planet….. “Art Directors”….and I turned down what I considered “controversial photoshoots” due to the fact….I didn’t agree with the image they wanted to project…..an agency in San Francisco banned me from ever working with them again….because I refused to shoot a 12-year-old girl…..made up to look 21….y’all know me, I’m sure you know what I told them to kiss…..anyway….a second image from the Converse x Palmes collaboration…..which launched around September 14…..is also being called out in the same way…..a person on a ladder beside a tree, holding sneakers overhead……not everyone reads it that way…..something named…..@ogsmind rejected the lynching frame…..writing that the trees were rubber trees…..and a homage to the shoe’s materials and the labor behind them…..while adding….. “The U.S. & its history is not the center of the world”…..(whatever TF that means)……others called the reaction pareidolia…..an association pulled from the composition rather than anything the campaign put there…..(hence the word association…..this person can’t be that serious…..or that stupid)…..nothing in the Palmes or Converse materials…..frames the shot as a rubber or labor homage……and reportings so far found no evidence that the imagery was meant to reference the KKK or lynching…..maybe you didn’t find it….but many people saw it…..and that would more than definitely depend on “Who’s” doing the reporting…..anyway,…..Footwear News has since published a statement from Converse via Women’s Wear Daily……“We’re sorry…..we understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong…..we removed it from our channels and are working to remove it everywhere it appeared……this should not have happened…..and we will do better.”…..the publication noted……“As of writing, the image still remains on the brand’s Threads account.”……and thank you for letting us know you didn’t understand…..since the image is still out there for all to see…..it doesn’t matter what you do now…..you can apologize until you’re blue in the face….and your butt burst wide open from eating too many Cheetos……it’s too late for that….you showed yourself and the world now knows…..so folks, let’s hit them where it hurts…..in their pockets….maybe it’s now time we all start buying PF Flyers again…..that ad was intentional…..star on the ground….sneakers placed as if people were standing around….a Klan hood….and black sneakers dangling in the air…..they even darkened out the arm so it seems like someone’s hanging…..and this ad had to be approved before it hit the market…..yeah, “THEY” chose this image…..it won’t happen but everyone should lose their job…..Ann Miller EVP, Global Marketing is…..the head of marketing….and Nicole Graham….EVP, Chief Marketing Officer…..both of them should be held accountable for this….due to the fact, all the people in “THAT” room….every White person….Elliot Hill, Phillip Knight, Mark Parker, Venkatesh Alagirisamy, Aaron Cain, Cristin Campbell, Dr. Thomas Clarke, Dave Denton, Jane Ewing, César Garcia, Michael Gonda, Jennifer Hartley, Treasure Heinie, Rob Leinwand, Phil McCartney, Ann Miller, Amy Montagne, Tom Peddle, Cathy Sparks…..and Sarah Mensah…..who’s job is to oversee Jordan Products…..and she’s the token on the board….agreed with the ad campaign…..that’s the “Whitest” board I’ve ever seen……one Black person…..and maybe one Asian Guy?….Indian?….not Native…..the other Indian….two minorities in the room and the head of marketing….is a White woman…..the EVP’s of Asia and Latin America don’t even have….how can I say it…. “Their own kind” in those positions deciding on marketing choices…..they’re White women…..they don’t look like me and the majority of the people who buy your products…..look like me…..and not one person making decisions in that room…..looks like me….except for the Jordan woman…..so why isn’t that room a diverse team?….and why are you making an ad that is basically a racist image?…..what was your intended visual interpretation?…..what exactly what were you going for here?….what was I supposed to see because whatever I was supposed to see…..I didn’t see it…I need someone in advertising to explain the alternative interpretation to me……because I have serious questions…..

UPDATE:……Someone pointed out….there is “KKK” in the shoestrings….and since I looked at the ad again…..I “CAIN’T” unsee it…..if this hadn’t been pointed out…..I would’ve never known……now I look and I see all kinds of “K’s”……and yes, they pulled the ad after receiving such a backlash and they did issue an apology.….too little….too late I might add….ask yourself…..why did Converse choose imagery of America’s legacy domestic terrorist organization?…..alongside what looks like a person hanging from a noose?…..and many people are calling it a mistake…..ask yourself this….was it really “just a mistake?”……a second image from a separate campaign drew the same conclusion…..this didn’t just happen in a vacuum…..in April of 2026 the Supreme Court actually decided to gut what was left of the Voting Rights Act protections….clearing the way for states to redraw Black voters out of their representation under the guise of Partizan gerrymandering…..between February and July of last year….over 300,000 Black women lost their jobs…..driven largely by Nazi saluting Elon Musk’s Doge cuts….to the federal government…..the federal government is one of the most reliable paths that Black women had into the middle class…..Musk has been reported saying that…..he is awaiting a “Civil War”….among his other many racist remarks….and just days before the Converse images surfaced…..Target pulled a Halloween costume evoking blackface and menstrual caricatures…..Meta, Walmart, McDonald’s and Target….they’ve all rolled back their diversity and equity commitments that they made after George Floyd’s murder in 2020….the same commitments that built goodwill and accepted dollars from Black consumers…..company after company that owes much of its success to Black culture….has gone quiet…..or even worse, they have walked away from their promises entirely….it was in this environment with the man reshaping the federal government reportedly awaiting a civil war….and these companies chose to insert overtly racist imagery into the public consciousness…..it was also in this environment that Converse chose to put out imagery of “Strange Fruit”……it was in this environment that target chose to sell blackface costumes to kids….it was in this environment that companies who owe so much of their success to Black culture….choose silence over accountability…..so no, I don’t believe Converse made a mistake…..I believe they told us exactly what they think of the Black community…..Maya Angelou said….. “When someone shows you who they are…..you need to believe it the first time”….and if you do know…..now you know!