While the reference is obvious, I’m only offended that the image is an eyesore making a somewhat counter intuitive point (the towers were definitely brought down and I don’t know why a school mascot would be trying to bring down a particular class of students in the first place). It’s about as newsworthy as any local controversy and the race of whomever wore the shirt is irrelevant.
I would even say the end result is more patriotic than potentially offensive.
Aren’t they the same people railing against the Australian KFC commercial currently being discussed in GD?
googles
Yes, they are. They’re really, really dumb.
I hadn’t heard anything about that. Odd.
See here. Take strong drink.
I have to say I agree also. It’s only because these students are of Arab descent that people are thinking they are wearing the T-shirt to celebrate the terrorists. When I first started reading I thought maybe the students had designed the shirts that way in memory of the victims of 9/11 or as some sort of message that America will triumph over terrorism.
I can’t do this. I can’t. The SDMB is going to drive me out my fucking mind. I want everyone denying that the shirts symbolize 9-11 to line up right here in this thread and repeat after me. * “That shirt obviously fucking references 9-11!”*
Now, with that nonsense put out of the way once and for all, I agree with all those that have said, it is no big deal at all, just some kids trying to be all rebellious and race is a non issue.
I’m sorry, but it’s really obvious that the shirt design is referencing 9-11, and that makes it gross. It’s not something that should be sanctioned by the school, and that’s what it would be doing if it allowed these shirts to be worn on school property.
But newsworthy? No.
I’m with the “obviously referencing 9/11” folks and also agree with the “it’s just kids and no big deal” brigade but I can’t understand why people feel it isn’t newsworthy. I’m interested to know what the mores are in modern schools and no-one questions the newsworthiness of stories that make schools look bad. It’s just that in this case the school handled it appropriately. I see a lot less newsworthy stuff in the media every day.
See, I can’t really tell if it is gross, because I am not exactly sure what the message is. Are you? I can’t tell what exactly they are trying to say…I mean, is it a tribute to the victims? A proud stand to say to would be terrorists that we won’t be ‘brought down’? I don’t know.
I don’t think I have every cursed so hard in this forum, but oh boy, the thought of people straight facedly typing that those shirts are not meant to symbolize 9-11 almost pushed me over the edge. It is just plain obvious.
I don’t see where anyone said that. We’ve said that it’s not obvious that the shirts are meant to symbolize 9-11.
Oh. I may have overreacted due to my being up at 2 in the morning posting. Couldn’t sleep. Carry on.
I went to that school (it looks like the photo). That is the mascot (Thunderchickens are GO!) As I remember my classmates, they like all teenagers were confused and still trying to develop their identities. The Arabic kids (who are Arabic, Persian, Chaldean, and Iraqi) say and do offensive things, and also on other days wear T-shirts that state “I am not a a terrorist”. Cut them a little slack, these 11’s t-shirts are kind of tacky, I think they were probably supposed to mean that high school can’t bring them down, and the kids didn’t really think about how a young Arabic male in the t-shirt would appear to non-Arabic Americans.
Dearborn was a little weird on 9-11. Mostly multi-ethnic shock and sorrow, a LOT of the middle-eastern grown-ups even more so: they had come here to get away from that sort of thing. There were a few jerks who ran out and celebrated, you can find pictures if you care to google.
Since the school’s thunderbird mascot is portrayed as one of the attacking 9-11 planes, it lends a truly nasty bit of identification with the hijackers. If this was not the intention of the designers, then it is incompetence on their part in the designing that this shirt would elict such a reaction in the viewer.
Actually, since this design was made by a bunch of 16 or 17 year olds, my guess (and I stress the word guess) as to the message is anti-authoritarian with respect to the school itself, e.g., teachers, school administration, etc. won’t bring down the guys wearing the shirts. I see the possible patriotic message, too, but I think that’s giving these kids too much credit.
The word “us” in “You can’t bring us down” plainly refers to the eleven, i.e. the “towers.” It is not remotely reasonable or sensible to infer identification with the hijackers. The identification is explicitly stated as being with the eleven.
This whole thing reminds me of “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.” Everyone is sure they know what it means – it’s obvious! – except no one can agree what it means. Basically its a cipher that reflects the viewer.
I always thought that it was obvious that bong hits 4 Jesus didn’t mean anything, except that the sign-holders liked bong hits and appeals to authority.
I don’t think anyone claimed to know what “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” meant. There certainly weren’t many people saying it was obvious.
In this case, there is no cypher. The “us” cannot logically or grammatically refer to anything but the eleven.
I think that’s what they were going for but it’s not all that obvious to the rest of the world. In general, using tragedies to support your cause, even when you mean well, is probably not the smartest idea. Not that they had nefarious intent, but even when it’s done well, you know people are going to misunderstand. This wasn’t done horribly but not all that well either…not really the best choice for a sweatshirt.
You didn’t overreact. They’re backpeddalling now that the idiocy of their position has been exposed. It is obvious that the shirt references 9/11. It is obvious without photorealistic depictions of the WTC. It is obvious wihtout a detailed interview with the kids. The shirt is not reminiscent of 9/11. It does not unintentionally evoke an association. It’s obvious.