Ivanka Trump has recently been labeled as either a victim of hate speech or as she has recently had her brand removed from various stores, including Burlington Coat Factory, Belk and most notably Nordstrom. Nordstrom, so far, has received the most criticism for dropping her products. According to the New York Times, Most of the other stores that still sell the Ivanka Trump brand are throwing her products out, or are being told that "All Ivanka Trump signs should be discarded.”
A lot of changes are happening right now, and all kinds of people and things are being blamed instantaneously. However, sometimes people or groups are doing what they feel is the right thing to do. Back in November when Nordstrom was selling Ivanka's products, people accused the company of making a political statement. A few months later, when Nordstrom made a decision based on what would be good for the company itself by dropping the brand, people also assumed that the company was trying to make a political statement. However, the company made a very professional apology by stating "“Over the past year, and particularly in the last half of 2016, sales of the brand have steadily declined to the point where it didn’t make good business sense for us to continue with the line for now," according to the New York Times.
While it's quite sad to imagine having your brands you were proud of for being in numerous big companies, there are some big facts that people are forgetting. The first is that she didn't start her business career as a nobody, starting out with the normal struggles most business majors face today as they enter the real world. Ivanka Trump had her father, multi-millionaire Donald Trump to aid her, as well as her family's then famous, now infamous name to help her easily get recognized.
While this does not directly mean her brand should be ridiculed, it does mean that she had an easier time being successful. The thing about celebrities or semi-celebrities starting businesses outside what they originally did to get famous, is that it can often be unfair to people that have to start as a nobody compete against many other not-yet-known folks, and have to worry about people like Ivanka Trump easily surpassing their chance at finding success. Ivanka Trump may have worked hard, but she most likely knew that she would eventually get her products right where she wanted, already being recognized in the world as a person before they even did.
The second reason people are over dramatizing these brands' choices of removing Ivanka's brands, is that they simply do not want to stand for the disrespect her very-controversial family promotes. Each store probably had it's own reason for doing so, but many may have essentially decided that they want to not only respect a lot of customer's viewpoints, but they want to keep a good image, as most other companies do. They do not mean to appear to be victimizing Ivanka; they simply do not support her family's values.
