Lululemon Apologizes After Employee Promotes 'Bat Fried Rice' T-Shirt
Popular athleisure brand Lululemon has let one of its employees go, art director Trevor Fleming, after they posted a controversial "bat fried rice" shirt on Instagram, sparking outrage from people who felt it added unnecessary fuel to already existing racist sentiments against the Asian community in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $60 shirt, designed by California-based artist Jess Sluder, was shared last Sunday on Fleming’s personal account. Featured on the long-sleeve white T-shirt was a graphic of a Chinese takeout container that said “no thank you,” with bat wings coming out of the box. It caused outrage with social media users who questioned if it was insensitively referring to the origin of COVID-19, which is said to have likely come from bats but remains unclear of how it spread to humans. Yet, thanks to a widely circulated tweet, many used it as an excuse to accuse Chinese people of dirty eating habits. It led to increased anti-Chinese sentiment around the world for all sorts of unfounded reasons.
Many were offended by the T-shirt and shared their thoughts online. “Lululemon insults China” trended online, with a hashtag viewed more than 204 million views on the Chinese social media platform, Weibo, and threats to boycott Lululemon, according to Reuters. Fleming has so far not responded to requests for comment from the outlet. Sluder’s now-deleted post of the T-shirt was originally captioned “Where did COVID-19 come from? Nothing is certain, but we know a bat was involved.”
According to Reuters, Lululemon officially took action by firing Fleming and responded to a comment on social media saying, “We acted immediately, and the person involved is no longer an employee of Lululemon.” The brand also posted a statement on the official Lululemon Weibo account, saying that the T-shirt was never a Lululemon product and the company was firmly against “any discriminatory behaviors.”
Teen Vogue reached out to Lululemon for comment.
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