A shop in Surrey has been accused of racism over an image that appears to show black people working on a tobacco plantation overseen by white men, after a friend of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex saw it while shopping.
Misan Harriman, the chairman of London’s Southbank Centre and a photographer who has taken portraits of the Sussexes, said he was speechless when he spotted the image behind the counter in Farrants in Cobham while shopping for his daughters on Tuesday, adding he was lucky they were not in the shop with him.
In a video posted on Twitter, Harriman said the large sepia image covering a wall behind a till seems to show black people who were either enslaved or indentured workers with their white masters or overseers.
“This shop in the middle of a Surrey high street thinks it’s normal to have that type of imagery next to where I could go and buy toys for my children.”
In a post on Facebook, he added: “This is in a family store, this imagery is massive triggering and racist. And there is no conceivable reason it should be there!”
On Wednesday evening the shop announced on Instagram that it had removed the image and apologised “unreservedly”.
“We will keep this brief,” the post read. “The image that has caused offence has been removed. We apologise unreservedly for any and all distress that it caused.”
Earlier it emerged that the former Netherlands and Chelsea football player Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink said he had complained in 2020 about the same image in Farrants, which was founded in 1896 and has a specialist tobacco room selling cigars and accessories.
Hasselbaink said on Instagram that he had complained to Farrants’ owner, David Worsfold, three years ago and was told the store would replace the image.
On Wednesday, Hasselbaink wrote: “I think it’s time you followed through on your word from 2020 and replaced this image.”
In an Instagram story, he added: “As a family we refuse to go into this shop until this painful image is removed!!!”
In another video posted on social media on Wednesday, Harriman said it was unacceptable that it had not been removed given that people had explained the “generational trauma and damage that is caused from imagery like this”.
“You now know that it’s dangerous,” he added.
Posts about the image on social media by Harriman, who is also an ambassador of Save the Children UK, have been shared thousands of times, mainly attracting messages of support and outrage.
Harriman added that he was heartened by many of the messages. “I’m glad to say that many people have refused to look away.”
He also addressed comments on social media that the image might not show enslaved people, as it might have been taken after emancipation. The photographer said: “Indentured servitude happened for decades after any kind of emancipation or end of slavery.
“Many history books have covered it and the power dynamic of those two white men who dressed very cleanly, look very comfortable, next to the broken, soulless, black men that are actually working that plantation.
“The optics … that power dynamic is there clear as day. In all, something needs to change, and that image needs to go, and I hope the people of Cobham will come together and make sure that image is taken down – it’s unacceptable.”
