Washingtonian Ends “I’M NOT A TOURIST. I LIVE HERE.” T-Shirt Campaign, Which Did Not Show any African Americans

“Although White residents may now make up 44 percent of the District’s population, Washington, D.C., once coined “Chocolate City,” is still majority African American with 47.7 percent of residents identifying as Black, according to the U.S. Census,” writes Micha Green, AFRO Washington, D.C. Editor.

Green responding to a Washingtonian magazine campaign, in part, stated that “Washingtonian Magazine completely disregarded the District’s majority population in a recently launched social media campaign.  In a series of photos located in various places around the city, people are seen wearing shirts that read, “I’M NOT A TOURIST.  I LIVE HERE.”  Every single person featured in the campaign – a campaign about living in a predominantly Black city – is White.

“As soon as the campaign dropped, Black Twitter and Washingtonians immediately chastised the magazine and its tone deaf marketing.

“The controversy surrounding the shirts and campaign quickly escalated, prompting Washingtonian to delete the campaign and apologize.

““As a native Washingtonian, I am very sorry that our latest  ‘I Am Not A Tourist’ marketing campaign did not represent the wonderfully diverse city in which we live,” Washingtonian Magazine CEO and president Catherine Merrill Williams wrote in  a statement,”.

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