Think about it

It became clear to all that the abrasive sports commentator Howard Cosell was deep into his dotage on the night of September 5, 1983, when, broadcasting a Monday Night Football game on ABC, he said, "That little monkey really gets loose, doesn't he?" to describe the play of Washington Redskins wide receiver Alvin Garrett.

Now, most of us became aware of the horror of using such a foolish, demeaning term to describe an African-American man such as Garrett long before 1983. There are pejorative terms for every race, ethnicity, religion, whatever grouping one can belong to. Cosell's protests that he called his own grandchildren "monkeys" did not do much to stem the tide of disapproval, and 1983 turned out to be his final season braying about MNF games.

People are uncomfortable around people using language like that, and you'd like to think that people would think about it before they use it. But no.

The H&M clothing stores were selling this hoodie with the belittling slogan pictured above until someone noticed how insulting it was, and now they are breaking their necks to take these hoodies off. Off their shelves and catalog pages, that is. The company's statement is a masterpiece, in case there are any students of corporate stilted speech out there: 

“It’s obvious that our routines have not been followed properly,” H&M said of the monkey hoodie. “This is without any doubt. We will thoroughly investigate why this happened to prevent this type of mistake from happening again.”

George Carlin used to talk about how you could go into a novelty store and buy fake vomit and dog feces to leave around on someone's desk for "comic" purposes, and he always pointed out that someone was at their desk, at work, when they came up with the idea to make and sell fake dog droppings.

Someone was at work when they decided to make and sell such an offensive hoodie, and someone needs to go away and think about that for a while.