Friend of Meghan and Harry outraged as shop uses photo of Black men on plantation to advertise tobacco

A shop in Surrey has sparked outrage for featuring a “racist” photograph of Black men working on a plantation above a tobacco display.

The image was spotted by a friend of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex while browsing for toys for his daughters.

Misan Harriman, the chairman of London’s Southbank Centre and a photographer who has taken portraits of the Sussexes, said the picture was “massively triggering”.

The blown-up sepia image covering a wall behind a cash desk of the shop in Cobham shows “Black enslaved workers overseen by their white masters” and includes the words “we sell tobacco”.

The photographer took a video of the display and then proceeded to immediately exit the shop as he spoke to the camera in disbelief.

“I saw the most triggering thing, I’ve just come in to try and get toys for my girls, and I just saw the most incredibly triggering imagery; luckily my children are not with me,” he said in the video posted on Twitter.

“This is supposed to be a family store that has imagery of, if not enslaved, definitely 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.

“ How on earth could anyone have shopped there and found that image acceptable.”

It isn’t the first time the picture at the shop, founded in 1989 and which has a specialist tobacco room selling cigars and accessories, has been criticised. Former Netherlands and Chelsea football player Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink complained about it in 2020.

Hasselbaink said on Instagram that he had complained to Farrants’ owner three years ago and claims he was told the store would “replace” the image.

On Wednesday, Hasselbaink wrote: “Stories come and go. This needs some attention (Farrants), I think it’s time you followed through on your word from 2020 and replaced this image.”

Author and friend of the Sussexes Omid Scobie retweeted the post, saying: “This is disturbing. And it’s clearly been on display for years (the attached Google image is from 2015). You won’t have been the first to point it out, so I’m curious to know what @Farrants_Cobham have to say?”

Social commentator Michael Morgan wrote: “What!? They’ve been told how upsetting the picture was before now. I suggest we all urge our followers to boycott @Farrants_Cobham our money clearly isn’t good enough…”

In another video on Instagram, Mr Harriman said: “What I would say about community and matters like this, is that I don’t judge people for having a different lived experience or just being busy.

“But, when the generational trauma and damage that is caused from imagery like this is shown, and you now know that it’s dangerous.

“That’s when the choice matters, whether you wilfully ignore it, or you refuse to look away, and I’m glad to say that many people have refused to look away.”

He added that it is irrelevant if the image actually displayed indentured servants or slaves.

“Indentured servitude happened for decades after any kind of emancipation or end of slavery,” he said. “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 dynamic, 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.”

A representative of Farrants said they would not be commenting.