H&M Sweatshirt Controversy

Recently, this image has been spread throughout the media and has caused lots of controversy all over the world. This boy was modeling for H&M and was seen in a sweatshirt with the words, "coolest monkey in the jungle". People took offense to this because the boy is black and the negative connotations that the phrase could bring up because of the color of his skin. But, the parents of the boy had said that they never saw anything other than their son modelling for the brand. They didn't see what others saw as controversial, and the mom said that she would've never made this kind of connection herself. To me, I see how some people could take offense to this and see it in a bad light, and I understand why so many people are upset but when I saw this on Instagram I wasn't as mad or upset as I've seen others get. I didn't really make the connection right away even though I knew the reason people were mad was because, "Oh they used a black model described as a monkey in the jungle, that's racist". But why do we think this way? Is our default setting to take offense to anything that may be the on the edge? Did H&M do this on purpose or did they not care about the race of the child modeling and make an honest mistake? Yes, this sweatshirt may have been too close for comfort and H&M shouldn't have taken the risk, but I do not think it is as bad as people are making it out to be. H&M stores in South Africa have closed down because of protests after this ad was released. Maybe the media has shaped our minds to believe and see the worst in anything we see like this, and maybe it is our default setting in being overly defensive to anything that's slightly racist or very controversial. If we as a society didn't see color, maybe no one would've taken offense to this ad. Or who knows, maybe someone at H&M did purposely use a black model specifically for this sweatshirt.