Racism Attack on American Sikh, GAP Protests Vandalism

GAP responded to racism in the most interesting way possible.

When the clothing and accessories giant came to know that one of its ad campaigns had suffered a racist attack, it was time for some reaction. GAP made the ad campaign called "Make Love" with a Sikh model named Waris Ahluwalia. Mr Ahluwalia happens to be a well-known designer and actor. The Indian-American has a company called "House of Waris" in New York. Mr Ahluwalia has a history of collaborating with artists and designers.

It was Arsalan Iftikar who noticed that there was a racist graffiti on a GAP poster that featured Mr Ahluwalia with a female model. Mr Iftikar is the founder of TheMuslimGuy.com. He is also the senior editor of The Islamic Monthly. He took a photo of the defacement and posted it on major social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Someone changed the caption to "Make Bombs." "Please stop driving taxis" was also scrawled on the poster.

Mr Iftikar's tweet with the pic was brought to GAP's attention. GAP immediately contacted him to find out where the disfigured ad was located, The Huffington Post reports. Mr Iftikar posted the photo to show that world how non-White people are presently treated in the U.S. Mr Iftikar's comments reveal that he definitely does not possess a great deal of faith in the American attitude toward the Asian community in the country. However, GAP, an American company, had to prove it otherwise.

GAP changed its Twitter cover pic into the one where Mr Ahluwalia is seen with the female model. It was the company's way of showing how much it detests racism. It is also a strong way of objection to the vandalism. The company's gesture was immediately appreciated. Some of the Sikh people in the U.S. have initiated a campaign called "Thank you, Gap."

The company received a letter from the Sikh community, which says that the company had raised the Sikh profile in the country by opting for a Sikh model for the ad campaign.