Here’s a strange follow-up to my blog about the Arab/Palestinian keffiyeh’s transition to high fashion: up until recently the American hipster clothing store Urban Outfitters had keffiyehs for sale - only they called them “anti-war scarves,” bizarrely enough. But if you go to the Urban Outfitters webpage and do a search for “anti-war scarf” today, (click here to see for yourself) you’ll find this instead:
“Anti-War Woven Scarf
Due to the sensitive nature of this item, we will no longer offer it for sale.
We apologize if we offended anyone, this was by no means our intention.”
You can get the full story from the Jerusalem Post here.
In the past Urban Outfitters has sold T-shirts that say “Everyone Loves a Jewish Girl” adorned with dollar signs and shopping bags, perpetuating the racial stereotype of the Jewish American Princess, as well as T-shirts that say “Shalom! Jerusalem” printed over a graphic of the Israeli flag, glamourously adding to the debate over whether Jerusalem belongs to Israel or Palestine.
Well, at least they make an effort to offend everyone equally.
Digg
Facebook
del.icio.us
two comments
Not all culturally based t-shirts need to offend equally. In fact, it's nice when they can be funny without offending at all, though more of a challenge to design.
Posted by Jewish T-shirts
May 5, 2007, 2:38 PM
And yet, white people continue to buy/sell turquoise jewelry...why hasn't the native american lobby been able to get that pulled from retail shelves?
Posted by yawnz
November 6, 2008, 6:11 PM
Leave a comment
This blog post is older than 90 days old. All comments submitted regarding this post will be automatically held for review by the editors before posting. Your comment will not appear on the site until it has been approved.
Our comment policy
Shameless prides itself on the diversity of opinions expressed by our writers, and we encourage and appreciate different points of view. Our intention at Shameless is to foster community and to maintain a safe and positive blogging environment; we do not consider it our duty to give a voice to anybody with an opinion.
Discussion on this site is moderated. We will delete comments that:
(We get to decide what's discriminatory, hateful, attacking, or inflammatory).
In some cases, we will cap off comments on a discussion when we feel they are spiralling out of control and fostering an unwelcoming space for bloggers and readers. Comments will be closed by the Web Editor, unless the post is by the Web Editor, in which case the Editor in Chief will close them.
If your comments repeatedly make the same point, they may be deleted. This also applies to comments made by multiple members of the same organization.
Your comments should be about the topic of the post, not its writer—although we certainly encourage praise for our writers, if you want to say something nice.