(Trinidad Express) The management of Tribe Carnival has distance itself from racist statements posted to Facebook by one of its frontline models.
The woman in the video has been involved in the promotion of the Harts Carnival band.
Harts Carnival band is owned and operated by Tribe.
In a statement, Tribe management stated, “The position of Harts Carnival Band and the wider group of bands in the TRIBE family is straight-forward and uncompromising – we do not ad will not tolerate any kind of racist or prejudicial language or behaviour. The recent video of a young lady using offensively racist language does not reflect our values. Her utterances have caused great distress and more importantly hurt to many.”
Harts Carnival has removed photographs of the model from its advertisements.
Tribe management stated that the model in the video which has been shared multiple times on social media was used for an advertising campaign. “Despite the statements being made in her private capacity and her subsequent public apology, we have taken the position to immediately remove all images of this model from our advertising platforms, including the website, social media and physical signage.”
The video triggered a furore on social media calling on the woman to apologise for her racial remarks.
The model later posted an apology to her Facebook page.
She wrote, “I am so sorry to everyone I hurt and offended. I have friends of every skin tone and I love them deeply. I have never judged or discriminated against someone’s ability or worth on the basis of colour (or anything else). My eyes have been opened to the roots of that word and how ignorant I was to use it.”
The woman added that she was opened to discussions on race and equality in Trinidad. “….and I hope that this will make me a better person in the long run and that others can learn from my horrible mistake. Again, I am so sorry,” she said.
