A LJ friend of mine, Tom Goldman, told me about these shirts being sold at Abercrombie & Fitch (aka the patis smelling store). Tell me what you think about them:

- Picture of a Chinese man holding a pizza. "Pizza Dojo -- Eat In or Wok Out" - Picture of two Chinese men. "Wong Brothers Laundry- Two Wongs Can Make It White"

If they made shirts with black people on them with fancy little Ebonics slogans, would they be as "funny" or acceptable to sell at A&F?

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002

Answers

I don't think those were funny, but mostly because they weren't very clever. Sometimes those things are offensive, I guess, though I can't think of much that they could say about white people, females, tall people, Midwesterners, etc. that would bother me. Sometimes jokes based on stereotypes are funny. I know a couple darn good dumb blonde jokes (the one about the jigsaw puzzle always gets me chuckling). Usually people are smart enough to figure out what's true and what's just exaggeration. And if someone is stupid enough to see a "Two Wongs Make it White" t-shirt and believe that all Chinese people really are in the laundry business, then we're talking about a level of stupidity that no number of politically correct t- shirts can correct. So yeah, it might have been insensitive of Abercrombie to make those t-shirts, but I don't think I'd stress on it too much. And, to answer your other question, there are already are a lot of t-shirts that use and mock Ebonics and stereotypes of black people. I see them all the time around here. The people who wear them the most? African-Americans. It's nice to laugh at yourself, I guess.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002

When Tom told me about these shirts and asked my opinion on them, I told him I wouldn't wear them because they were Abercrombie. I probably would think that something like that were funny if I saw it on an Asian person. Filipinos make fun of other Filipinos all the time, but get kind of miffed if other ethnicities do it. (I'm sure that goes for everyone though.) Tom says you really need to see the types of pictures they put on the shirts for the full effect, but I'm not so interested in them that I'd visit the A&F store to see for myself.

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002