greetings fellow peoples
hm.. i'm a pretty chill guy and i usually dont things too seriously but discussion about the a&f tshirt issue on this list inspired me to speak up. i think when the tshirts were released people started getting pissed off but they really didnt know why. their knee jerk reaction was getting angry just because they knew it was the right thing to do.... but they really didnt what they were exactly getting mad about.
if you break it down, abercrombie's shirts would have specifically perpetuated stereotypical images of asian americans to regular patrons of a&f, which caters to to young, upper class whites [made obvious through the price of their clothes and the homogeneity of their models].
the wong's laundrymat tshirts specifically encapsulates the ethnic hierarchy that the american economy is built on [with ethnic minorities stuck in the service sector]. think about it, the majority of multi-billion dollar companies are able to make their riches by exploiting the over-worked and under-paid service sector. the more people they're able to screw over, the more money they make.
psykoral's commented on how it would be just as funny if tshirts were released about "poor ass white people." doesnt it say something that there are very little or no tshirts that make poke fun at low-income whites? imagine the reaction an ethnic minority would receive from a white person if he/she were wearing a tshirt like that. such tshirts would not be marketable or socially conscious.
the reason i'm writing this email is because it really disturbed me when i read, "It was only a matter of time before a shirt like this was to be released... " on the d-list.
someone on the list was saying it was wrong for such a big company like abercrombie to come out these tshirts. but would it really be anymore acceptable for a smaller clothing company portray negative ethnic images on their clothes?
i think the important thing to do in situations like these is to just think... to not pass by and ignore the issue.
--andinh
ps. i hate being a sociology major.
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