THESE DAYS, racism is not as blatant as it once was. Gone are the days when a person could call someone a chink without being looked down upon, or make fun of slanted eyes without looking ignorant. Now, racism and prejudice exist in the form of stereotyping. Things such as all Asians know karate and all Asians look alike have become widespread stereotypes.
Although it is now harder to distinguish between racists and non-racists, the fact that blatant racism is on the decline is an initial success. After all, blatant racism is equivalent to blatant hate, and by comparison, some of the people who are subtly racist don't even know they are being so. That is what happened with Abercrombie & Fitch's racist T-shirt campaign, and conscientious people need to spread a greater awareness for this subtle type of racism. People must not trivialize these stereotypes, and instead must work toward getting rid of them by spreading awareness.
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As a way to appeal to the Asian community, the T-shirt designers of Abercrombie & Fitch decided to use Chinese stereotypes to promote their new brand of T-shirts, which they believed added "humor and levity" to their clothes, according to Hampton Crambey, an Abercrombie & Fitch spokesman ("Abercrombie & Fitch Asian T-shirts Trigger Boycott," www.thesandiegochannel.com, April 18). Caricatures of Chinese people appear on the T-shirts, allegedly designed to amuse people. Dressed in rice farmer's pointy hats with overly slanted eyes, the caricatures of Asians are coupled with what is meant to be clever lines, such as "WONG BROTHERS LAUNDRY SERVICE: TWO WONGS CAN MAKE IT WHITE."
The outrage over T-shirts such as these requires little explanation. Although this certain quote is particularly offensive to me for obvious reasons, it is demeaning to the Chinese race as a whole. It pigeonholes the Chinese experience into broad stereotypes of the Chinese working at the laundromat and an exaggerated physical appearance. By relying on such gimmicks as marketing tools, Abercrombie & Fitch sent a negative message to the public by subtly reinforcing known stereotypes. Stereotypes, while softer than overt hate, are nonetheless racist, and stereotypical images risk promoting falsehoods about a complex culture through their over-generalizations.
Abercrombie & Fitch since has pulled the T-Shirts from their shelves in the wake of the public outcry that deservedly followed. Abercrombie & Fitch apologized. Apparently, they are ignorant rather than hateful, because they had positive intentions when creating the T-Shirts. According to the San Diego Channel article, Carney has stated, "The thought was that everyone would love them, especially the Asian community. We thought they were cheeky, irreverent and funny and everyone would love them."
By taking a stand against this ignorant behavior, the Asian community has done itself a great service, because teaching sensitivity to stereotypes is the only way that racial acceptance will occur. It no longer can be acceptable for unreasonable stereotypes to exist, because even though many of these preconceptions are not hateful, they nonetheless promote falsehoods about a culture that moves far beyond the rice paddy fields and laundromats. It is disgraceful that some see these images as representative of an entire group of people, and such stereotypes should not be downplayed.
Some say stereotypes are used in good fun and jest. Lisa Tan of San Diego certainly thinks so. She actually liked the shirt, and stated in the San Diego Channel article, "I don't know why anyone should be angry or upset. It's a fun shirt." However, people like Tan only are kidding themselves, and people such as these are racially ignorant if they can't tell how such a shirt is offensive. They need to realize how they are becoming reinforcements of stereotypes that many minorities are trying to break. When a member of an offended race encourages a stereotype placed upon him, he gives validity to that bigotry, and he represents his entire race in a horrible light.
American society has come a long way from the culture that it once was, and minorities, for the most part, do not have to live their lives under a veil of direct prejudice and hatred. However, just because racism does not exist in its most blunt form does not mean that it isn't still there. The most subtle forms of racism are almost just as bad as the overt ones, and they must not be neglected if Americans are ever to live in an unbiased society.
(Kevin James Wong's column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at kwong@cavalierdaily.com.)
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