I think if another company other then A&F made a shirt
about "poor ass white folk" it would definitly sell like hotcakes.
I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying it would sell... even to
white people. There are many products out there that do make
fun of low income whites. There are hundreds of "white trash"
jokes online, and I'm sure you can find some T-shirts even.
There are probably dozens of companies that have such products
comparable to the T's by A&F. A&F is just one of the larger
named companys that decided to put out a controversial product
inorder to make money... which is why they are getting alot of
attention, because they had a well known name beofre this product.
I can agree that this type of product would not be socially conscious,
however in this day and age people will buy anything, so it is quite
marketable.
 
In fact, I've found some shirts online making fun of low income white people...
 
Here is a pic of Melanie C. of the Spice Girls wearing a white trash T.
 
Here is a list of sites that involve White Trash T's.
 
Catch my point? My point was not that I was condoning the sales of
these products, but simply that people will buy them. And why are
these companies not being attacked by the media? They didn't
have the good "household" name that A&F had before they decided
to market such a product. Simply that. AND... for the fact that A&F
seems to market specificly to high income white teens (because of thier
marketing adds) it makes it seem even more of a racial attack.
 
No, it's not "right" when other companies do it, I hope that's not
what you thought I was implying. I was simply saying I was surprized
that such a reputable company like A&F would put out such a product,
I expected it to come from a small company that no one knew or heard
of and they didn't care about thier rep., just making money.
 
I agree with you that multi-million dollar companys are out to screw
as many people over as possible. It's true, the more people you can
screw over the more money you gain. Which is why A&F decided
to follow through with such a product. They realized the financial
gain by releasing such a product and I'm sure they were thinking
about the saying: "Any publicity, is good publicity".
 
My comment about "it was only a matter of time before a shirt like this
was to be released" was refering to the fact that people will do anything
for money. Even make fun of a certain race or culture. They have teams
of people comming up with new ideas everyday and someone had to
realize the monitary gain from selling such a product. In this incident, it
happend to be on a shirt.
 
Just to clarify, I'm not backing A&F AT ALL. I do not agree with thier
release of the product. I do not agree with selling products that make
fun of other people's race, sex or sexual preference, culture, hieght, weight
or anything of that matter... I was just simply saying I understand why
they did it. They knew it would stir up a huge controversy and in turn
make them huge ammounts of MONEY.
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 6:56 AM
Subject: Re: [D] psykoral on a&f shirts

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.



Join the world�s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. Click Here
___________________________________________________________________ The D mailing list http://www.djdenise.com/

Reply via email to