Black Friday video causes controversy for businessman Dermot
LOCAL businessman Dermot Kavanagh of Smyth’s Homevalue on Rafter Street found himself in a spot of bother last week, after a Black Friday video he made for the business’s social media account went viral for all the wrong reasons. In the video, Dermot can be seen with his face, arms and legs painted completely black with a sign around his neck reading ‘Black Friday Bargains’.
While undoubtedly the intentions of the Enniscorthy shopkeeper were innocent enough, he was blasted in certain corners of the internet for the racial connotations of ‘blacking-up’. The video was uploaded to the store’s Facebook page and had been taken down by Friday, however, not before numerous people had downloaded it and shared it, calling the store out on what they perceived was something inherently racist.
Dermot has become somewhat renowned for his hilarious viral videos, however, this one did not prove to be a hit for many online.
Following the removal of the video, an apology was issued via the store’s Facebook page which said: ‘We would like to sincerely apologize to anyone upset or offended by our recent video post. While naive on our part, we in no way intended to impersonate or insult anyone based on their race, however on reflection we can see how it would be perceived that way and for that we are very sorry.’
The vast majority of comments seemed to show support for the local businessman and said that the coverage the video received from national news outlets was an example of political correctness gone wrong. One of his supporters pointed out that had it been ‘blue Friday’ or ‘red Friday’, he likely would have painted himself those colours and it was clear to them that no offence was meant.