Athletic clothing brand Lululemon fired one of its art directors after he shared an Instagram post promoting a bat fried rice t-shirt, a racist reference to the coronavirus.
People Magazine reports the Canadian company let go Trevor Fleming saying the t-shirt went against its culture and values.
“The t-shirt design is not a Lululemon product,” the company told People. “We apologize that an employee was affiliated with promoting an offensive t-shirt, and we take this very seriously. The image and the post were inappropriate and inexcusable and we do not tolerate this behavior. We acted immediately, and the person involved is no longer an employee of Lululemon.”
According to USA Today, some customers threatened to boycott the brand unless the company acted.
“I can’t believe that you support Racism. CANCELLED,” Instagram user yuuki.9h commented.
“There have been 100+ daily attacks on Asian Americans since the start of #COVID19. To see people adding to the hurt & racism hurts my heart,” Kamauri Yeh tweeted.
Reuters reports the protest grew internationally with the hashtag Lululemon insults China being viewed 204 million times on the Chinese social media platform, Weibo. Fleming’s Linkein account shows his employment with Lululemon ended this month. He did not respond to Reuters request for comment.
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