American Apparel Gives One Of The Dumbest Apologies You’ve Ever Read

American Apparel has not exactly been getting the best press over the last few weeks. Dov Charney, the company’s founder and CEO was fired for alleged sexual harassment in June. Then last night the company’s Tumblr posted a photo of the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster because their employee thought it was fireworks.

Soon after the company tweeted this statement:

I understand that accidents happen, although if you’re running a large company’s social media account, you probably shouldn’t blindly repost every image you think is cool. When something like this happens simply apologize and move on. The problem with American Apparel’s apology is that it gives one of the dumbest excuses for posting the photo. “Our employee was born after the tragedy and was unaware of the event.” Come on.

I wasn’t alive when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, but that doesn’t mean I’m ignorant to the fact that the event took place. I’m not a fan of the constant outrage and public apologies that everyone has to make nowadays, but it’s the world we live in. Saying “I wasn’t born then, so how would I know anything about that” feels like the Dave Chappelle bit where his friend gets pulled over and says, “I’m sorry officer, I didn’t know I couldn’t do that.”