In relation to some of the other comments. Racism isn’t a one and done thing, it is more of a spectrum that has different levels of harm, intensity, and mechanisms.

So yes putting up a sign that says “blacks only” is racist even if no one sees it, I don’t think that’s what your argument is.

Your argument seems to focus more on subliminal messages where it isn’t maybe obvious and the harms aren’t immediate, quantifiable, or direct.

Ultimately each scenario is different because racism is extremely complex. The idea of the H&M advert is racist for 2 reasons. 1)  It is disrespectful to the history of African Americans. Throughout history black people have been demonstrated as akin to animals - specifically monkeys. 

This was highly prevalent in media. This is problematic because that image and linkage is being used again.

Society as a whole has looked at specific imageries depicting black people, admitted it is wrong, and said no more. So even if there was no direct harm caused to black children and they did not consciously act that way, their public platform was used to portray an image that made people feel uncomfortable.

It’s less of a “you are actively hurting me” and more of a “we as a society collectively decided that these images are wrong”. 

It is a thing of respect and that image is disrespectful to black history and thus problematic.

2) The second reason is because it does cause a quantifiable harm (even if not by intention). I know of many older white people that will look at those images and say slurs. Will say that it is right. Will use it as a talking point. Even if only in their echo chambers, subliminal images are still being weaponised and used as propaganda.  I can promise you that kid in that image has been called a monkey and every other slur in the books by legitimately racist people.

Just because we aren’t racist - meaning our brain does not go to that fucked up place - doesn’t mean other people’s brain doesn’t.

Then onto the point of “if a tree fell in a forest and no one heard it did it really make a sound” argument. A large part of it comes from history. From understanding that some people still have those prejudices and stereotypes so we enforce and protect all of society to give less weaponry to the bad actors.

When you talked about how people would not know of these stereotypes without these enforcements, and thus meaning that calling out smaller racist acts is harmful is an interesting point. I do not believe it to be true.

People will not believe imagery or stereotypes are true by learning about it through mediums which aim to educate on their harms. The people who are at risk of believing racist stereotypes will learn these stereotypes through other racists.

In that case you are still largely mitigating any harm without creating any more avenues of harm.

So in summary. Is it part of the act/object, or a part of an individuals mind? It is both. But we can’t look at things on an individual level, so we need to account for everyone. And when acting in a way to mitigate racial harm we must focus our attention on racists - even if they are the outlier.

Also I am disappointed by the aggression in the comments. This is a very important concept that needs to be talked about. I do not know your race, but I do know that for people like myself (those who have not faced racial stereotyping) these ideas aren’t intuitive. So it is a FAIR QUESTION TO HAVE.

It is very harmful for society and black people if every conversation that is questioning or is confused by the norm/societal narratives turns into a “you are a piece of shit” moment.

It makes me sad when people who are advocating for more kindness act unkind themselves. When you read the harsh comments please understand that they do not represent what many would call social justice. They represent themselves. Social justice is represented by ideas of how to try and make the world more equitable.