Jacked from Styleite.com because I couldn't have said it better.
Online clothing descriptions are generally boring, so Modcloth tried to jazz up the product info on this $275 Lauren Moffatt skirt by describing it as the perfect thing to wear when volunteering in Tanzania.
Yes, Tanzania, the African nation with one of the world’s poorest economies in terms of per capita income. You know, the country that has a GDP smaller than the United States’ last economic stimulus package. Clearly what would really fix Tanzania’s deep-set economic troubles is a coterie of rich blogger-friendly Western consumers to come over wearing outfits that cost more than most of its citizens make in a month and give them advice. And they’d totally do it in a heartbeat, because solving the world’s problems just gives everyone the warm fuzzies, doesn’t it? Plus it’s totally a great excuse to travel! Think of how tan you could get!
Continue for description after the break:
This is the entire product description:
Volunteering feels good, doesn’t it? It’s also a great excuse to travel, and this time your huge heart is taking you to Africa! Embody the vibrant personalities and positive spirits of the locals when you wear this dynamic maxi skirt with an gold exposed zipper! Created by Lauren Moffatt, a favorite amongst fashion bloggers, this skirt’s wide, blue waistband matches its bottom hem, and every other olive brown, bright red, ivory, and blue vertical line is decorated with tansy-colored flowers. Wear it wonderfully with a solid-colored top, oversized beaded jewelry, and shoes that are just as pleasantly unexpected as its silky lining and the colorful bouquet that diagonally blooms above the hem of this skirt, and you’ll be loved by Tanzania locals for more than just your helping hands!
Normally this is the point in these kinds of posts where we get pissed off and spout wise about racism and the world and how people like whoever wrote this sad description make the fashion industry look like its completely blind to the world’s problems. But we couldn’t possibly say any of that better than Get Off My Internets commenter joiezabel, who wrote the following:
ok, this one is personal. i grew up in senegal, west africa. my parents were linguists there for over 20 years. and this…well, this is just completely offensive, not to mention culturally insensitive. the monthly income in dakar, the capital of senegal (a very cospopolitan french colony), is less than the amount of this (cliche) skirt. no wonder other countries want to bomb the shit out of us. … i am seriously appalled and will NEVER buy anything from modcloth ever again.
But apparently not everyone shared her indignation. The product description worked so well on Modcloth customers that the skirt is already completely sold out.
UPDATE: Modcloth has offered the following apology via our comments section. The updated description for the skirt can be found here.
Aire here from ModCloth. We truly apologize for the offensive description. The ModCloth writer who described this skirt spent many years volunteering in and out of the country, and it was with those fond memories of her experiences that she created this description. We’re always striving to promote cultural diversity, and and we want to stress there were no offensive motives. We also did not intend in any way to suggest that higher-priced items are part of the volunteering process, and we’ve renamed and described the item in response to your feedback. We’re also revising our editing policies based on this incident. ModCloth and its employees are dedicated to giving back any way we can. Please feel free to email our Charitable Giving Committee to find out more about how we help those around us, givingcommittee@modcloth.com. Again, we understand there were hurt feelings, and we’re sincerely sorry for making this mistake.
Source: [Styleite] [Get Off My Internets]
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