abercrombie: pretty funny stuff

[kasia]

so how would you react if you saw a fellow asian sporting abercrombie?

the reason i'm asking is b/c i showed a co-worker the offensive t-shirts yesterday and just two minutes ago, i heard him ask an asian girl in the office, "what's that shirt you're wearing?" "abercrombie," she replies. "oh. you haven't talked to her yet, have you?" he asks (i can feel him pointing towards my room). "no. why?" "oh. abercrombie is anti-asian." "oh! oh! i know that." and she walks away annoyed...

knowledge is contagious :wink:

[princess]

its a sight im used to, so i wouldnt say anything. it just bothers me that so many asians sport cK, abercrombie, etc. why support companies that are racist? cant they stand up for themselves and refuse to buy their products? take a stance. what kind of message are they sending to others? that theyre spineless? ugh so frustrating. as u can see im pretty passionate about this topic. just my view, tho, and i dont see the point of trying to beat it into their heads.

[deez nuts]

[quote:1e04c58ed1="princess"]its a sight im used to, so i wouldnt say anything. it just bothers me that so many asians sport cK, abercrombie, etc. why support companies that are racist? cant they stand up for themselves and refuse to buy their products? take a stance. what kind of message are they sending to others? that theyre spineless? ugh so frustrating. as u can see im pretty passionate about this topic. just my view, tho, and i dont see the point of trying to beat it into their heads.[/quote:1e04c58ed1]

Excuse my ignorace, what did cK do? I haven't heard anything bad done by cK, except for the heroine look scandal and young underage looking model sexpot scandals awhiles back.

[princess]

oops haha edit. too early in the morning for me. redone: tommy. sorry my bad. :oops:

[achtungbaby]

[quote:ba578be86c="princess"]its a sight im used to, so i wouldnt say anything. it just bothers me that so many asians sport cK, abercrombie, etc. why support companies that are racist? cant they stand up for themselves and refuse to buy their products? take a stance. what kind of message are they sending to others? that theyre spineless? ugh so frustrating. as u can see im pretty passionate about this topic. just my view, tho, and i dont see the point of trying to beat it into their heads.[/quote:ba578be86c]

Maybe it's just a stereotype I have, but I tend to think younger teens think less in the sense that their dollars can equate to having some sort of control over these situations, and more like, "yeah, it sucks, but what can I do?"

[odomo]

Personally, it pisses me off when I see them wear abercrombie...they seem kind of ignorant. In my area, most of the asians are "whitewashed" so i guess thats their reason. :x

[CrX3183]

I so understand Odomo on that one because it's the same over here. Those whitewash asians are so annoying.

[deez nuts]

[quote:14aed65c5f="princess"]oops haha edit. too early in the morning for me. redone: tommy. sorry my bad. :oops:[/quote:14aed65c5f]

It's all good Princess, just thought I missed out on something.

[princess]

[quote:6a61b8f840="achtungbaby"]

Maybe it's just a stereotype I have, but I tend to think younger teens think less in the sense that their dollars can equate to having some sort of control over these situations, and more like, "yeah, it sucks, but what can I do?"[/quote:6a61b8f840]

yeah its sad how they underestimate themselves.

Chasiubao_Boy: hah well thanks for helping me to correct myself =)

[quote:6a61b8f840="CrX3183"]I so understand Odomo on that one because it's the same over here. Those whitewash asians are so annoying.[/quote:6a61b8f840]

well its their preference to choose to be more "whitewashed" than others. many, or most, of us are to some extent. also, in some cases people cant help being whitewashed because theyre in an area where theyre not very exposed to elements of their original asian culture.

[ChinaLama]

errr the Tommy Hilfiger remark is a MYTH. he was never on Oprah, as the myth claimed.


plus it's pretty hard to believe a major clothes retailer would say something so blatantly racist that would offend like more than half his market.

Anyway, i dun remember the exact link, but it's under Racial Rumors on

www.snopes2.com or www.snopes.com


But before I read it was a rumor, I believed it too. :roll:

[achtungbaby]

I happen to think A&F was deliberate.

http://yellowworld.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=25&mode=thread&order=1&thold=-1 and

http://yellowworld.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=27&mode=thread&order=1&thold=-1

If it was a complete mix-up, if *no one* in that publicly-traded company ever thought they might offend someone by releasing something so blatantly racist, then I would imagine someone would definitely been put down; instead, about a month later, they come out with their thongs for 13 year olds, to raise more of a ruckus.

On top of that, the explanations given over at snopes were pretty weak -- it focuses more on "common sense" logic (why would anyone offend ppl like this on purpose?)...

[DaBestSpooner]

you guys know that sarah silvermann is now an abercrombie model.

http://www.giantrobot.com/forums/showthread.php3?threadid=10171

[ChinaLama]

the snopes explanation is for the Tommy Hilfiger remark, not the A&F. I think their main evidence is that Oprah didn't have T.F. on her show. Since the rumor was that he said what he said on Oprah...

[kasia]

[quote:3c031ed951="ChinaLama"]the snopes explanation is for the Tommy Hilfiger remark, not the A&F. I think their main evidence is that Oprah didn't have T.F. on her show. Since the rumor was that he said what he said on Oprah...[/quote:3c031ed951]

i did some investigation on this as well. although tommy hilfiger was never a guest on the oprah winfrey show nor did he make the statement that his clothes were not meant for "niggers and chinks", he did say something about him being surprised that people of some many ethnicities are wearing his clothes. racist or not racist? that's your call.

[ChinaLama]

thats true. his remark could be veiled racism.

but it could also be because he thought his stuff was designed for upscale suburban kids that are mostly white. Then he was genuinely and perhaps pleasantly surprised that his clothes picked up in urban areas w/ many minorities.

so in this case maybe it's best to give him the benefit of the doubt. plus i dont want any guilt over this cuz my only tommy hilfiger jacket is comfy. 8)

[deez nuts]

A&F in the past has used contraversial marketing tatics. A couple years ago, they were going broke, they put out that catolog (lots of buck naked people, only availabe for those 18+) and sales went up.

I agree with achtung this is the same exact marketing ploy. If that's the excuse A&F is using, why the hell are they picking on Asians. I'll tell you why, because out of all the minorites we are the most docile. Do you think they have the gall to use an image of black people picking cotton, as a logo on a t-shirt? Or an image of hispanic day-laborers?

Is it a smart marketing ploy? I suppose if sales have gone up dramatically. Is it racist and tasteless to use one minority group as free publicity to generate sales, hell yeah. We are also generating free publicity for them by discussing this in an Asian forum, are we not? I mean publicity is still publicity, even better when it's free.

Honestly, their clothes aren't all that great and are on the pricey side. I rather spend a little more and buy something at Bloomingdale's or Saks.

[angelnympho]

i still sport abercrombie. err, not like im a walking ad for it or anything. i afew a few shirts that i like and will continue to wear. i'll continue to browse and peruse the store, but i never liked it very much to begin with. my opinions toward them havnt changed one bit since the whole *scandal* crap. honestly i dont think it was as big of a deal as people made it. i actually thought the shirts were kinda funny. i wanted one before they pulled them off the shelves.

stone me if you want, i dont care. i wasnt offended.

[achtungbaby]

[quote:ca00a113dd="angelnympho"]stone me if you want, i dont care. i wasnt offended.[/quote:ca00a113dd]

It's cool, as long you know you're supporting racism and are conscious of it, what else can anyone say?

[kasia]

[quote:93c125d798="angelnympho"]stone me if you want, i dont care. i wasnt offended.[/quote:93c125d798]

nobody is going to stone you for not understanding. i believe that you weren't offended only because you are not aware of the repercussions we may face by allowing these stereotypes to perpetuate.

so what if we're depicted as chinky-eyed foreigners, you ask? for one thing, it makes it very easy for the larger society to dehumanize us--to view us as forever as aliens who don't belong.

and what harm would that really do? when tension grows between the united states and an asian country, we'll be easy targets for the hatred. the japanese internment--those were japanese-americans that were interned. a more recent example? wen ho lee. the stereotype of the sneaky slanty-eyed chinaman served to put him in solitary confinement for 9 months.

think about it.

[angelnympho]

i wasnt offended because i honestly didn't think it was racism i was supporting. i know a few people in the fashion industry, one of which is korean and does designs for abercrombie. i dont think im supporting racism, but either way, im not like, actively supporting abercrombie. i didnt wear much of it before, and i still dont, it hasnt changed anything for me whatsoever.
the girl i know who does some abercrombie designs said she was suprised about the reactions as well. it wasnt supposed to be a big deal.
a lot of races get picked on in america. irish people always being thought of as drunks and such... *shrug* <-- and i think that's on a few abercrombie shirts, as well.
as long as they didnt say "kill asians" or something like that, it was really just supposed to be funny. and i thought it was pretty funny. actually, i know how huge the whole asian thing is in the fashion industry right now, and it was just abercrombie's way of jumping on the bandwagon. i would have worn them had they not been pulled off the shelves. and i know a lot of others who probably would have, too.
its just strange to me that when other races are getting picked on nobody says anything.. and then suddenly, when somebody does something about asians, everybody jumps up. why laugh at other races if you cant handle other people laughing at yours?

i realize that this is a very *politically correct* web forum. and its probably no place for a person like me, but hey... oh well.

[SunWuKong]

[quote:e4485ce3ae="angelnympho"]
as long as they didnt say "kill asians" or something like that, it was really just supposed to be funny. and i thought it was pretty funny. actually, i know how huge the whole asian thing is in the fashion industry right now, and it was just abercrombie's way of jumping on the bandwagon. i would have worn them had they not been pulled off the shelves. and i know a lot of others who probably would have, too. [/quote:e4485ce3ae]


certainly there are different degrees of how racist something is, but personally what bothers me is that A&F was obviously trying to see how much they can get away with. it's the same shit everywhere, people are always testing just how marginalized asian americans are. and every excuse they make to rationalize their actions can usually be dissolved when you consider that they are very careful not to do the same to the african american community.

[deez nuts]

[quote:1ed657ef92="SunWuKung"][quote:1ed657ef92="angelnympho"]
as long as they didnt say "kill asians" or something like that, it was really just supposed to be funny. and i thought it was pretty funny. actually, i know how huge the whole asian thing is in the fashion industry right now, and it was just abercrombie's way of jumping on the bandwagon. i would have worn them had they not been pulled off the shelves. and i know a lot of others who probably would have, too. [/quote:1ed657ef92]


certainly there are different degrees of how racist something is, but personally what bothers me is that A&F was obviously trying to see how much they can get away with. it's the same shit everywhere, people are always testing just how marginalized asian americans are. and every excuse they make to rationalize their actions can usually be dissolved when you consider that they are very careful not to do the same to the african american community.[/quote:1ed657ef92]

Well said monkeyking. Like i said, they would have thought twice about putting an image a of a black person picking cotton as a logo.

[kasia]

[quote:5ee4b7bf8a="angelnympho"]why laugh at other races if you cant handle other people laughing at yours? [/quote:5ee4b7bf8a]

i don't laugh at other races.

[quote:5ee4b7bf8a="angelnympho"]i realize that this is a very *politically correct* web forum. and its probably no place for a person like me, but hey... oh well[/quote:5ee4b7bf8a]

on the contrary, nowadays it is *politically correct* to be noncontroversial.

[SunWuKong]

[quote:8b2872cf82="kasia"][quote:8b2872cf82="angelnympho"]i realize that this is a very *politically correct* web forum. and its probably no place for a person like me, but hey... oh well[/quote:8b2872cf82]

on the contrary, nowadays it is *politically correct* to be noncontroversial.[/quote:8b2872cf82]



hahhah very good point!!!

[angelnympho]

[quote:1147b363ec="kasia"][quote:1147b363ec="angelnympho"]why laugh at other races if you cant handle other people laughing at yours? [/quote:1147b363ec]

i don't laugh at other races.

[quote:1147b363ec="angelnympho"]i realize that this is a very *politically correct* web forum. and its probably no place for a person like me, but hey... oh well[/quote:1147b363ec]

on the contrary, nowadays it is *politically correct* to be noncontroversial.[/quote:1147b363ec]

im confused. politically correct to be noncontroversial? ... clarify! i just mean that im not a very politically correct person. and most people here are very... *asian activist* and stuff like that. whereas, i am not.

anyhow, im just saying, its generally not taboo to pick fun at other races. there's a big difference between making a joke and practicing racism.

[kasia]

kinda like this...

when you're hanging out with a bunch of your college friends and you're cracking jokes about people of a certain race, it seems, nowadays, that the socially-acceptable (and thus politically correct) thing to do is laugh.

to say something near provocative, like, 'hey, i think that's racist,' would cause jaws to drop. most people would look at you and think, 'what is she, some sort of [i:e7ac97799a]activist [/i:e7ac97799a]or something?'

so those of us who make abercrombie statements (such as 'why are you still wearing abercrombie?) do so at the risk of being ostracized by others.

the phrase is kinda tautological though--but maybe b/c i'm interpreting it incorrectly. 'politically correct', to me, is analogous to 'socially acceptable'.

so i guess nowadays it's politically correct to not be so politically correct? :?

[SunWuKong]

[quote:27dbfcc066="kasia"]kinda like this...

when you're hanging out with a bunch of your college friends and you're cracking jokes about people of a certain race, it seems, nowadays, that the socially-acceptable (and thus politically correct) thing to do is laugh.

to say something near provocative, like, 'hey, i think that's racist,' would cause jaws to drop. most people would look at you and think, 'what is she, some sort of [i:27dbfcc066]activist [/i:27dbfcc066]or something?'

so those of us who make abercrombie statements (such as 'why are you still wearing abercrombie?) do so at the risk of being ostracized by others.

the phrase is kinda tautological though--but maybe b/c i'm interpreting it incorrectly. 'politically correct', to me, is analogous to 'socially acceptable'.

so i guess nowadays it's politically correct to not be so politically correct? :?[/quote:27dbfcc066]


yeah, i don't know about anybody else, but if i were to raise asian american issues in discussion with white friends, they are prone to suggest (although they tread very carefully because they know i have strong opinions in this regard) that maybe asians are being too sensitive about certain issues.

[deez nuts]

[quote:ecffdb937c="kasia"]kinda like this...

when you're hanging out with a bunch of your college friends and you're cracking jokes about people of a certain race, it seems, nowadays, that the socially-acceptable (and thus politically correct) thing to do is laugh.

to say something near provocative, like, 'hey, i think that's racist,' would cause jaws to drop. most people would look at you and think, 'what is she, some sort of [i:ecffdb937c]activist [/i:ecffdb937c]or something?'

so those of us who make abercrombie statements (such as 'why are you still wearing abercrombie?) do so at the risk of being ostracized by others.

the phrase is kinda tautological though--but maybe b/c i'm interpreting it incorrectly. 'politically correct', to me, is analogous to 'socially acceptable'.

so i guess nowadays it's politically correct to not be so politically correct? :?[/quote:ecffdb937c]

There is a difference when you are at hanging out with your friends and crack racist jokes and slurs. When my friends call me a chink, gook, coolie is totally different than some random guy doing the same thing. My black friends have no problems with me using the "n" word and my latin friends have no problems with me using the "s" word. However in public or amongst people we don't know or just met, we refrain from using these slurs.

I don't think you can compare or justify a marketting campaign at the sake of alienating one ethnic group. I'm sorry, to compare what goes on between your friends and what A&F did, is beyond comparison in my book.

Even my black and latin friends think its fucked up what A&F did to Asians.
My black friend responded, "Man thats fucked up, those crackers would do anything to sell them weak ass clothes. And we all know it's mostly white folks that wear that moist shit." I think he took it harder than me.

It was a cheap shot, plain and simple. Whether your tolerance level can stomach it; it is your judgement, your call and your opinion.

[kasia]

i wasn't comparing a&f's actions to what friends would say amongst one another.

i was merely pointing out the difficulty of calling people out when they are a&f clothing. for example, would you let your friend or co-worker who is sporting a&f know how much you disapprove of a&f if it would embarass them?

by giving the friends example, i was trying to point out the irony of how it seems socially unacceptable to be too socially aware.

...or am i missing something?

[deez nuts]

Sorry my bad, only read the quotes not your whole post, =/.

[kasia]

[quote:01c1e950aa="Chasiubao_Boy"]Sorry my bad, only read the quotes not your whole post, =/.[/quote:01c1e950aa]

it's cool. i'm glad you feel so strongly about it :wink:

[angelnympho]

so the definition of politically correct is... socially acceptable? mmm.. cool. you learn new things every day. :) perhaps thats why i had no clue what the heck that comment meant...