Early last week, fast fashion brand Gap Kids came under fire for a photo-shoot for its new kids clothing line, Gap Kids X ED, which featured a white girl using a younger black girl as an armrest. Turns out Twitter missed a detail- the two girls are actually sisters.
The picture formed part of a campaign for Gap Kids x ED, Ellen DeGeneres’ new activewear kids clothing line.
The two girls stuck in the Twitter controversy are Fanny Grace Lubensky, 12, and Lucy Dinknesh Lubensky, 9, who are part of a youth performance group Le Petit Cirque. Fanny is Smith’s biological daughter with husband Steve Lubensky and Lucy was adopted from Ethopia by the couple back in 2008.
The girls’ mother, actress Brooke Smith who is best known for her role as Erica Hahn in Grey’s Anatomy, responded to an article on digital magazine The Root which called out Gap Kids for its “racially-charged controversy”.
@rebel19 Yes but at the same time I also think it’s a bit of a reach.
— Brooke Smith (@Iam_BrookeSmith) April 5, 2016
@TheRoot girl with arm resting on her shoulder is her sister She didn’t talk in video because she was 2 shy. everyone needs to calm down.
— Brooke Smith (@Iam_BrookeSmith) April 3, 2016
@therealpeela I totally hear you. This is one of many photos that was taken. Perhaps they should just use the others then.
— Brooke Smith (@Iam_BrookeSmith) April 3, 2016
@Ojoyd I’m all for an open + honest discussion of race in America. Difficult to do in twitter land but open dialogue is always a good idea.
— Brooke Smith (@Iam_BrookeSmith) April 5, 2016
@rebel19@GapKids I know my daughter is black. Why should she have to represent anyone other than herself?
— Brooke Smith (@Iam_BrookeSmith) April 7, 2016
Gap, based in San Francisco, has pulled the image and issued an apology, saying: “We appreciate the conversation that has taken place and are sorry to anyone we’ve offended.”
