Late last night, after grading papers, I checked my socials. The first thing that popped up on my feed stopped me in my tracks. It was a Converse ad featuring South Korean singer Yu Ji-min, known as Karina.

It is currently 1:23 a.m. ET, and I can see that Converse has taken the ad down. But it is a little too late. The cat is already out of the bag. By the time you see this post, it will be morning.

Let's play a game of I Spy, shall we?

At first glance, what do you see when you look at this image?

Let me tell you what I see.

I see a hooded white silhouette.

I see black Converse dangling like "strange fruit."

I see it all positioned above a single white star, imagery reminiscent of the Bonnie Blue flag, a symbol that has been adopted by white supremacists.

Maybe each element can be explained away individually. The star is part of the Converse logo. The shoes are simply being held. The white garment is just styling.

But creative direction is not only about what each element means separately. It is also about what those elements communicate when placed together. And together, this image evokes some of the most recognizable symbols of white supremacy and racial terror.

Whether this was intentional, as I strongly suspect, or the result of profound cultural incompetence, the impact remains.

Do y'all remember when Burberry sent a hoodie with a noose-like drawstring down the runway in 2019? The brand apologized and removed it, but here we are again, asking how imagery this loaded makes it through concept development, creative direction, photography, brand review, legal, marketing, and final approval.

And what about the Black people who work for Converse and also Nike?

Regardless of where this campaign originated or the identity of the artist featured, it appeared on the brand's main platform. What is it like to open your email, walk into work, or log onto social media and see your employer release imagery that evokes racial terror? What does that communicate about your safety, your voice, and your value within the company? And then, you are expected to return to work and continue representing that same brand.

And please, I do not want to hear, "Oh, you're reaching," or "But what if Black people were at the table?" The presence of Black employees does not absolve a company of institutional failure. That is a separate conversation for another day.

Fashion and retail are political. Imagery is political. And when a brand with this much reach releases something like this, "We didn't mean it that way" is not enough.

So again, I ask you: What did you see?

It is also not lost on me that our reaction is part of the marketing campaign.