NOW SLIPPERS ARE RACIST!

AS winter approaches, there’s nothing nicer than warming your tootsies in a pair of fur- lined moccasin- style slippers.

Many of us will be looking forward to a pair among our Christmas presents.

But the comfy footwear is RACIST, hotheads have decided!

A shoe firm has apologised for making moccasins because it is not owned by Native Americans, who pioneered the design of the traditional footwear.

Popular brand Minnetonka issued a statement admitting the company had made money through ‘ appropriation’ of Native American culture over the last 75 years.

“We deeply and meaningfully apologise for having benefited from selling Native- inspired designs without directly honouring Native culture or communities,” the statement read.

Apology Minnetonka, which is based in the US state of Minnesota and has been making its popular shoes since 1964, timed the apology to coincide with Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

CEO David Miller said he was issuing the statement to acknowledge that the company is not a Native- owned business and pledged to do more to support Indigenous communities in the future.

Miller explained that the company first

By BRAD CHADWICK news@ sundaysport. co. uk

publicly conceded its use of Native culture in the summer of 2020 and added that he now wanted to make a public apology.

Cultural appropriation is the term used to describe when “a person or group adopts visual elements of an oftenpersecuted ethnicity’s identity without acknowledging it.”

It has become a hot topic in recent years.

White people wearing traditionally- black hairstyles like cornrow braids, or people dressing in Red Indian headgear or as Mexican Dia De Muertos figures for Halloween have all sparked anger.

Critics of that outrage say people accused of cultural appropriation are often “appreciating” other aspects of a culture, not mocking it.