Five year old boy target in new high profile racism case
Angelina Pools, the mother of a 5 year old boy who is the model in a Zeeman advertisement, is taking action against comedian Guido Weijers. Last week Weijers shared an edited photo of her son, that has been circulating on the internet, on his Facebook. The image suggests that the boy is a monkey.
Pools told her story on the talk show of Humberto Tan. She is upset that someone edited the picture of her son so that it suggests that people can buy a plus bear or monkey (her son) at Zeeman for 5.99 euro. "I got to see it and thought this is not true. But it is true and Guido Weijers, among others, put it on his Facebook." On Weijers' Facebook page the post received more than 100 thousand likes and was shared almost 16 thousand times. Pools asked Weijers in an email to remove the image. The management of the the comedian sent the following response to the editor of RTL Late Night: "Guido did not make a single joke on the photograph, and never wanted to offend your son. Such a sweet child definitely does not deserve that and I think everyone on social media agrees, therefore we will not react further so that the peace can return." To Pools the fact that Weijers did not make the image himself, is no excuse. "He is a famous Dutchman who simply shares a laugh with others at the expense of a five year old. I emailed him and it is still on his profile. If you have compassion, at least remove it." Guido Weijers' management informed the editors of Tan that he could not appear on the program due to a performance. "I wish this little boy rest and carelessness and will therefore not contribute to further media attention to this matter." he let them know. Pools indicated that she will be taking steps against Weijers and others. She also wants to find out who originally created and shared the image. "I'm going to report them, because I think this is a form of racism and as a mother I want to do something against it."
