A company behind a new range of Afro style washing up sponges has been slammed for being racist.
Campaigners have attacked British makers Paladone for its latest range of dish cleaning products which caricatures black soul legend Diana Ross as having a brillo pad for a hairstyle.
The offending items, which have just gone on sale across the UK, have been likened to reproducing golliwogs or the Black and White Minstrels by reinforcing negative stereotypes.
The Unite Against Fascism general secretary Weyman Bennett said: ‘What are we going to have next, toilet brushes like that?
‘This is not appropriate for the 21st century to show images like that. It reinforces negative stereotypes and ideas.
‘Negative stereotypes’: The range of dish washing products have been branded racist
‘Although it’s aimed at being humorous, sometimes it’s not funny.
‘We’ve spent 40 years removing racist imagery out of general politics, removing golly wogs, removing black and white minstrels, and it would be a shame if it crept back in.
Mr Bennett, who has been campaigning for almost thirty years, warned: ‘It opens the door for people to produce racial stereotypes and that’s not something we want to see in our society.
‘We’ve worked very hard to make sure that doesn’t happen.