Seriously? Ohio Republican Uses Chinese Take-out Containers To Attack Democratic Opponent

This is a shame. And one of the most ridiculous political ads we've seen in a long time.

Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Renacci is actually using racist mailers featuring Chinese take-out food containers, chopsticks, and ridiculous stereotypical font to smear his Democratic opponent, Rep. Betty Sutton.

The mailer describes Sutton's "menu" as "Something not so 'sweet', but very 'sour'", with "Lots of pork," and having "No fortune cookie."









Read more here.

High School Students Wear Blackface, Imitate Chris Brown Beating Rihanna

 

Having attended many a pep rally during high school, we remember what took place: the marching band got students excited. There was a ton of clapping and stomping. Student leaders gave speeches. Cheerleaders waved pom poms. Football players ran around. And then came the blackface.

Yep, that's how it happened at our high school. Chanting, clapping, blackface. In that order. Every year. Without fail.  

Well, not exactly.  

But last Friday at Waverly High School in New York, students performed a skit while wearing blackface. They trotted out and beat each other, seeking to recreate a version of Chris Brown's highly-publicized 2009 beating of Rihanna.   

School superintendent Joseph Yelich has received many complaints. "Ultimately, our administrators are going to need to meet with the whole student body to set clear expectations for our behavior and the impact it has on all people," he said.

Still, some note that students performed in blackface at last year's pep rally. And both times, students, parents, media, and administrators sat idly by during the festivities. No one stopped the skit. They merely cheered it on, took pictures, and posted them on Facebook.

Read more here.  

Watermelon and Noose Used to Tell President Obama to "Go Back to Kenya"

Creator Blake la Beck of Morgan Hill, California says that the display speaks for itself. 

Racist Memorabilia For Sale on Etsy

Golliwogs

Are you shopping for a golliwog? Perhaps a holiday gift for your racist friends and family members? Well look no further than Etsy. You know - "your place to buy and sell all things handmade."

You can buy a cute fabric mammy golly. (Emphasis on the word "cute.") You can also find a a Shoeshine Black Boy. (This one has a "Sambo type smiling face cute." Yes, "face cute" not "cute face".) There's an Aunt Jemima figurine and even a Black Cannibal Headhunter. There are over 70 items for you to choose in all.

Don't want "vintage"? You can even knit your own golly with a patten sold on the website.

A few hundred people have signed a petition asking Etsy to enforce its own policy of barring hateful items from its site. The policy, which went into effect in January 2011, says it will be "specifically disallowing items that denigrate people or promote hate." The policy says:

 We no longer allow items or listings that promote, support or glorify hatred toward or otherwise demean people based upon race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation; including items or content that promote organizations with such views.

The petition says:

Perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects of this issue is that that one would be hard pressed to find racist items of any other demographic on Etsy, which begs the question, Why is it okay to sell items that dehumanize and denigrate those that fall into the category of ‘black people'; and would there be the same lack of response were these items offensive toward the LGBTQQ community, or Asian community, or any demography that is "more likely" to be shopping or selling on Etsy?

We couldn't have said it better ourselves. The petition is here. Join SBW in our Two Person Boycott.  

Abercrombie & Glitch: Fake Abercrombie Website Brings Back its Racist Past

An impostor Abercrombie & Fitch website fooled consumers by selling fake "Abercrombie & Fitch N***er Brown Pants." Links to the website quickly went viral thanks to the social media network Facebook, and A&F soon shut down the fake website.

But there is a reason so many people believed the website was real.  

We can't forget your racist hiring policies and the offensive products you were selling just a few years back, Abercrombie.

Let's review Abercromie's history:

1. Hiring only white people. In 2009, A&F settled a $40 million class action lawsuit for forcing all minority employees to work in the stock room while allowing white employees to be on the sales floor. CBS News reports that a former A&F employee stated, "A corporate official had pointed to an Abercrombie poster and told our management at our store, 'You need to have more staff that looks like this.' And it was a white Caucasian male on that poster."

2. Selling Racist t-shirts using pseudo-Chinese character font. I can't imagine who approved the Two Wongs Can Make it White, Abercrombie & Fitch T-Shirt. In April 2002, A&F launched a line of racist shirts with offensive Asian stereotypes. The shirts featured Asian caricatures engaging in forced stereotypes of kung fu fighting and offensive religious references to Buddha. In response to these shirts, Los Angeles based cartoonist and "Angry Little Asian Girl" creator Lela Lee told the LA Times, "We're used to depictions of Asians as kung-fu fighting, fortune-cookie-speaking, slanty-eyed, bucktooth servants. We're really tired of it."

3. Selling Sexist t-shirts. Back in 2005, A&F produced sexist shirts and received some push-back from teen groups who staged "girlcotts." A&F shirts had slogans such as, "I had a nightmare I was a brunette" and "Who needs brains when you have these?" printed across the chest.

4. Sexualizing young girls.  And let's not forget about the A&F "push up padding" bikinis for children that came out in 2011. Enough said.

Given Abercrombie's sordid history, it was not implausible to believe the N-word pants were real. Needless to say, SBW maintains its Two Person Boycott of that store. We encourage you to join us.

How Not to Be Racist #1: A C-word in the Armor

I'm glad someone said it!  No point in beating around the bush.  Racism is racism.  Let's just be honest. 

Representative Judy Chu, Democrat from California and the first Chinese American woman elected to the United States Congress, addressed a racial slur used recently on the ESPN website regarding Jeremy Lin.  

ESPN fired the editor who described the New York Knicks basketball sensation as a "Chink in the Armor" last week. 

After being fired on Sunday, Anthony Federico, claimed that he was not trying to be "cute or punny."  He also said that he had used the phrase hundreds of times in ESPN headlines while he worked there.

Representative Chu called the situation "appalling" and "extremely sad."  She said, as most people with common sense would find, that Federico used the racial slur on purpose and denied claims that his use of the C-word was an innocent mistake.

Since his firing, Federico has apologized to Jeremy Lin and any others who may have been offended.  He said that he did not intend the headline as a reference to the racial slur.  

For some reason, I feel like no editor could defend his use of the N-word as a mere accident and have people agree with him. 

Chu also called boxer Floyd Mayweather the "heavyweight champion of insensitive remarks" due to his tweet that said “Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he’s Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don’t get the same praise.”   

Somehow this strikes me as a bit hypocritical.  [See article titled Boxer Floyd Mayweather in Obama's Corner.]  This type of praise is similar to the way millions of people find it of note and are swept into the hype when Black politicians rise to prominence - such as a certain Black Senator from Illinois who appeared on the national scene beginning in 2004.

Chu properly highlighted that the C-word has been used since the 1880s to demean Chinese immigrants and is still used on playgrounds to demean Asian and Asian American children today.  Thus, neither Federico nor ESPN may claim ignorance. 

“The ‘C’ word is for Asian Americans like the ‘N’ word is for African Americans,” Chu told MSNBC on Monday.

While I've heard many debates in which people have fervently argued that the N-word holds a special place in American history and is like no other slur, I think it is safe to say that the C-word does as well.  Although the history behind the words may be different, both originate in prejudice, hate, and fear.

How about this?  No N-word, C-word, G-word, W-word, S-word or any other racial slur.  It doesn't seem that hard to me.  And if you are confused, click here for a list of racial and ethnic slurs that neither you nor your racist friends should be using.  In 2012.  No excuses.  No exceptions.  Now I'm all for the First Amendment even if such speech is offensive.  However, the rest of us don't have to like you, give you a platform to spew your bigotry, or consider you to be an intelligent human being.  

Read more of Chu's zingers here.