What the FUCK were they thinking putting this on a shirt???
Manifest Destiny is one of the most laughable, embarrassing phases in American history, and is the textbook example of giving a snappy title to a corrupt philosophy.
Jesus H Christ… seriously. How about, “Slap a Jap!” while we’re at it…
Here’s a discussion of Manifest Destiny in Panama from a Panamanian newspaper.
That’s where this is different. The individual words, or even their literal meaning isn’t offensive. It is the name of an offensive US policy from times past that everyone will study to some degree in school, so every American is likely to use this phrase in an academic context. I don’t think anybody will consider that the same context used by the T shirt wearer, who I think likely will be unaware of what it means.
He probably didn’t intend the words to be taken at face value, but so what? McNairy went to the trouble of designing the shirts and Gap went to the trouble of approving the design and ordering and paying for the shirts, and there was plenty of time in that process for either or both of them to Google the words “manifest destiny” and think about what they mean and what their customers might think. They’re selling clothes. It’s not unreasonable to say that if you decide to use some kind of historical slogan or icon in an ad campaign or on a piece of clothing, you should find out what it actually means and what people might think about it.
When I Google “Manifest Destiny” I get, aside from the news stories about the current Gap controversy, a lot of articles about the historical significance of the phrase – basically that high school styuff I wrote about above. Even in the current Wikipedia page (unless they update it by the time you read it) there is nothing about how explosive or controversial this phrase is outside the US.
In other vwords, if the guys making the decision to make up a “Manifest Destiny” shirt had the same background as I do, even if they checked this out on the internet, they wouldn’t realize what a powder keg it was.
Yeah, heaven knows talking about being on a mission from God to take over continents can’t possibly be controversial.
19th century political ideas and slogans pretty much aren’t. It’s when people use them in the present day that they become controversial. People get worked up over Live Issues. I don’t think you’d stir up a lot of hate with a shirt that read “54 40 or fight”, even if you wore it around Canadians. Or “Taxation Without Representation is Tyranny” in Great Britain.
I mean… seriously. My goodness. I can’t believe people here are still saying, “I just don’t get what’s the big deal!”
And if my “Slap a jap!” one was a bad analogy, how about a t-shirt that said “The Final Solution”
How could something as benign as a final solution be offensive??
How about slogans that were inherently white supremacist? You think those are pretty okay for everyone now?
I mean, I get that you were surprised by this. But you’re still defending it, as if your personal ignorance of its offensive character somehow negates its offensive character.
My junior high history teacher never framed it as divine authority to establish an empire. Possibly, if I had been more interested in history in college, I’d have learned a more nuanced view but what I was taught in 7th grade re: manifest destiny was that americans had a strong drive in the spirit of lewis and clark to explore and tame the vast uncharted wilderness of the west. I’m not saying that the designer or Gap were right in making the shirt. I’m saying I think a better response would have been, “Psst, it’s clearly been a while since you cracked a history book. That phrase is a little more ethnocentric than you might think.” rather than “Jesus christ, might as well say slap the japs you dumb turkeys.” because I think that at least in regards to non-Native American or latino populations the critical view is not the mainstream view.
From the Wiki page:
Bolding mine.
That Wiki article should have been absolutely full of red flags to anyone who read it. Do you really want to use a slogan which is implicitly racist, has been use to oppress Native Americans, and has links to Nazi ideology? I mean, seriously now.
[QUOTE=Cal Meacham]
In other vwords, if the guys making the decision to make up a “Manifest Destiny” shirt had the same background as I do, even if they checked this out on the internet, they wouldn’t realize what a powder keg it was.
[/QUOTE]
They should have, even if all they did was read the Wikipedia article. And you would think that a company as large as The Gap would do some test marketing beyond white Anglo-Americans. I can’t believe they ran it by many Native Americans or Latinos.
Not even close. Hell I’m an Italian (well half anyway) from Jersey. Throw all the Guido Wop shirts at me you can find. Not going to offend. I laugh at Westboro. Being offended and RO are pretty foreign to me. I’m sure there is something that would offend me. Just can’t think of it.
Well, yes. If your critical evaluation of American history stopped in 7th grade, you will likely miss a lot of nuance regarding it.
For Latin Americans Manifest Destiny is very much not just a 19th Century slogan - for many it represents US neocolonialism right up to the present day as well. It’s a live issue.
I had no idea it was controversial outside the U.S., but I don’t think that’s central to what is going on here. The controversy is not just because it’s a hot-button phrase. It’s because the guy kind of slapped “God bless white people, wipe out Native Americans!” on a t-shirt without realizing some people might object to it.
Kind of an understatement there.
Ok, edit it to read “very serious.”
Colibri, I’ll assume some slip of the click instead of reporting you for fabricating a quote.
Agreed. Did you have another point to make or were you just restating the first part of my previous post?
My point, which I think has been pretty clear, is that if you regurgitate something without actually thinking about it, you have a reasonable chance of offending people. That’s what GAP did (either that or they did think about it, which is worse). Saying you didn’t learn more about it in 7th grade is hardly a defense that makes the offense less.
It’s not fabricated. It’s from Cal Meacham’s post and was obviously attributed to you because of a coding mistake. I fixed it.