The people protesting these shirts make me sick. If you have enough time to waste protesting a cartoon on a T-shirt get out and do something that is actually important. They could use all that extra time to raise money for the homeless or for cancer research or something. I am sick of people thinking that they are so much more important than they really are. IMHO, it is people like this, who make a big stink about every little non-PC thing, that keep racism alive. I never would have even considered these T-shirts to mean anything if it were not for these people making them mean more than they were intended to mean.
Learn to define yourself. Learn to laugh at your self. Learn to laugh at the stereotypes of the group(s) that you are associated with, and the world will be a better place.
I think, horhay, that minority groups have historically learned to laugh at the stereotypes of the groups with which they are associated, primarily as a survival technique. In many instances, they’ve appropriated these images as a means of trying to put a positive spin on a negative image.
However, that’s not the same as giving members of other groups Carte Blanche to join in on the “joke”. Then it often becomes derisive (despite what may have been innocuous intentions).
[sarcasm] Those damn, whiney Asians! Always complaining about something. First we have them complaining about… about… Japanese internment camps! That was like 50 years ago, man. Now this. Give us all a rest already![/sarcasm]
People are different. Not all white people are the same, not all black people are the same, and not all Asian people are the same, but if you are white black or Asian, there are certain stereotypes that go along with those categories that people might make fun of regardless of weather or not you fit those stereotypes. So why let that bother you? If you define yourself, instead of letting a stereotype define you, then you should be able to see the humor in the stereotype.
The important thing is for parents to teach their children to respect the differences in people and realize that people are capable of achieving the same things regardless of race. It is the education of children and the actions of people that are important to ending racism.
Who is worse? Someone who truly believes that all races are equal, but they make fun of racial stereotypes, or someone who is totally PC, but they don’t really believe what they speak?
IMHO, our society would be a much better place if I could see Chris Rock making fun of whitey, and have a white girlfriend that he loves and respects; if I could hear a white person making a joke about a black stereotype, and then see him later hanging out with his good black friend; if I could see someone wearing this Abercrombie T-shirt sporting an Asian stereotype, while walking down the street with Asian people that they genuinely love and respect. Joking about stereotypes is just using words. It is your actions that matter.
If people are truly not racist then making fun of a racial stereotype is no different than making fun of the stereotype that all plumbers leave their ass crack hanging out, or that all people who smoke weed are lazy slobs. Its just another group of people out of thousands to find something funny about.
Valid point; however, there are two dangers in Scenario #1 (in which jokes about racial stereotypes are overlooked due to the assumption that we all know they’re supposed to be harmless):
Racial stereotypes like the ones on the A&F shirts are a little too reminiscent of the not-so-distant past, when such stereotyping/images did indicate that members of the group in question were considered inferior (and thus were objects of ridicule).
Unfortunately, there are people in the present who still think this way. Sure, it’d be all well and good if everybody understood that we’re all equal, and that these images are now laughable, but Honey I just had a man in his 20s tell me very seriously that he’d never have guessed I was Black (actually, he said “Colored”) because I don’t speak jive.
No joke. I think it was even supposed to be a compliment.
So my point is that until everybody GETS the joke, it’s wise not to tell it.
I just wonder who at Abercrombie & Fitch thought it might be a good idea to market shirts with insulting Asian caracatures on them. What ideas did they turn down at that brainstorming session in favor of this one?
“Hey, Todd, why don’t we make some Watermelon-Eatin’ Darkie shirts?”
“No, Trip, I think the Hook-Nosed Jew line might go over better now, they’re all in the news these days.”
“What ever happened to my proposal for our line of Mincing Faggot Light Loafers?”
What’s wrong with stereotypes? That is what countries sell as tourism. If you go to Holland they seem to promote the stereotype of pretty girls using clogs as they walk around the windmills and tulips.
Does that mean I think all Dutch girls go around in clogs among windmills and tulips. No because I am intelligent and I now some of them are naked in the windows of the red light district. Sheesh.
Take away the stereotypes and you’ve ruined the tourist industry.
If you can’t use a bit of self-deprecating humor you might as well go commit suicide.
I’ve argued long and vehemently against PC on this message board. Still, I found the shirts offensive and not funny.
I remember watching a movie made from a series of old Batman serials. These serials were made druing or shortly after WWII. At one point, Batman is looking for an evil Japanese, so he goes to the “natural” spot – a Chinese Laundry. I.e., the movie-makers were so prejudiced, they didn’t even notice the difference!
These T-shirts remind of that period. I’m glad they’re being withdrawn.
Actually, no. So long as the naked ladies are in the windows, the Dutch tourist industry will be fine.
In other news, Auntie Em is dead on. If A&F was a Hong Kong-based company, at least part of the protestors’ position would be eroded. There is a huge difference between humor at the expense of myself and humor at the expense of others.
I agree. My girfriends sister has been spending this past year in Thailand. She said they have a lot of similar shirts making fun of American stereotypes over there.
As usual sailor you don’t get it. A tourism campaign advertising spending time with the Masai people is not the same as a company that that caters to upper middle class white kids, a “SpearChucker” brand of ‘urban wear’. But I think you know this already.
What about all the other Asian style shirts that seam to be very popular these days? You know the ones…they have dragons and Asian writing all over them, maybe little Asian looking huts, why are these not protested? They seem more offensive to me than a cartoon. They totally exploit Asian culture and symbols, but no body seems offended by them at all…
A friend of mine works for That 80’s Show [insert opinion as to whether or not this is stable employment here…], and said that the Asian character on the show, who is Korean, has been getting hate mail saying things like, “Your people killed my grandfather in WWII!”
Now, in order to try to prevent this post from being a hijack, I will use this little anecdote to back up december’s point that things haven’t changed much since Batman (or something like that).
Actually these days I am getting more than my fair share so I can’t complain. And I’m getting it with a couple of Chinese girls who both happen to think the Tshirts are funny.
>> A tourism campaign advertising spending time with the Masai people is not the same as a company that that caters to upper middle class white kids, a “SpearChucker” brand of ‘urban wear’.
So you can’t caricature people of other races but you can caricature white people? Is that it? Am I getting it now?
You know what I find offensive? The whole Hawaian stereotype with topless girls with hulas, etc. Is that offensive, degrading, stereotypical or what? Let’s get upset over this for a while and have some fun.
What’s the stereotype presented in that? What’s the negative imagery?
Exploitation is fine and good. Nobody gets offended by a t-shirt with the American or Canadian flag on it, even though those symbols are being “exploited” for profit. Negative stereotypes are bad.
I understand where you’re coming from. However these types of shirts are being worn among mixed groups, right? If so then I feel they have no basis to complain when someone else wears a similiar shirt. It seems rather silly to me that it would suddenly become offensive because someone with a different color skin wore the shirt.
