The above pictured t-shirts caused some Asian-Americans to become very upset with Abercrombie&Fitch. The company launched a line of shirts that included depictions of Asians in stereotypical ways and what was written on them was stereotypical of the way Asians spoke. Asian Americans protested and wanted boycotts of the shirts. The company soon got rid of the shirts and thought that they wouldn't cause any controversy. They thought Asian-Americans, like other people, would fnd the shirts amusing and humorous. However, not all people agreed with the company's sense of humor. I chose this item because it relates to the CMCM of this week in which the Cleveland Indians logo has upset some Native Americans, but other people don't seem to understand the racism behind the logo. It also has to do with Johnson's chapter 6 section on intentions and causing harm.
The CMCM by Oscar Arredondo depicts the Cleveland Indians baseball team as racist and stereotypical of Native Americans. Similarly, Abercrombie&Fitch's depiction of Asians is racist and is a stereotypical depiction of Asians. This also relates to Johnson's Chapter 8 Getting Off the Hook: Denial and Resistance in his book Privilege, Power, and Difference in that people often play down racism and sexism by saying they never intended to cause harm. On p. 116 he gives the example of the white man who showed a picture of a group of black people eating watermelon, a stereotype of blacks, even though he didn't think any harm would come of it. Similarly, Abercrombie&Fitch seem to be "getting off the hook" by denying they ever wanted to cause any harm; they say they did not intend to cause harm to Asian-Americans, but they did even though they did not mean it.
I thought the t-shirts were quite stereotypical in the way they presented Asians. Some of the t-shirts, such as the ones pictured above, were flat-out stereotypical. However, there were some in which the stereotype wasn't as clear to me aside from the fact that the depiction of the Asian person on the shirt was racist and stereotypical. I thought the shirts were very much like the Cleveland Indians logo situation in that people accept the image because they do not understand the stereotype behind it, and it takes a member of the group that is harmed to point out to the rest of us that some images are simply unacceptable.
Image citation:
I thought the t-shirts were quite stereotypical in the way they presented Asians. Some of the t-shirts, such as the ones pictured above, were flat-out stereotypical. However, there were some in which the stereotype wasn't as clear to me aside from the fact that the depiction of the Asian person on the shirt was racist and stereotypical. I thought the shirts were very much like the Cleveland Indians logo situation in that people accept the image because they do not understand the stereotype behind it, and it takes a member of the group that is harmed to point out to the rest of us that some images are simply unacceptable.
Image citation:
Shirt Stop. Snopes.com. Online. Available: http://www.snopes.com/racial/business/tshirts.asp (July 08, 2007).
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