Store Keeps Up With Bad Times

Last week, Urban Outfitters displayed a "vintage Kent State sweatshirt" with holes, tears, and what seems to be fake blood stains for sale. After facing an alarming amount of controversy, the store pulled the sweatshirt from the rack. It later showed up on eBay for over $500.  Earlier this year, the store pulled another shirt- one with the words "eat less" in large lettering across the front- off the racks as well. It seems to me as though Urban Outfitters is "keeping up with the times" in all the wrong ways.

Society should be working to fix these issues- eating disorders, violence, etc. Stores should not be using them as a way to make money. Similarly, buyers should be wearing clothes that represent a better America- perhaps a shirt that reads "You Are Beautiful" would have been better. As a culture and within our communities, we need to work to respect others and fix our society's issues, not turn

Urban Outfitter's Kent State Sweatshirt 

them into jokes and ways to make money. Urban Outfitters took both items off their racks and later apologized for any controversy, though the damage had already been done.

Urban Outfitter's "Eat Less" T-shirt

Let's Stop Pretending We're Colorblind

      This is the thing that some people hate each other over. 

Let's face it- there are a lot of problems with how today's society functions. And, sadly, a lot of these problems revolve around the issue of race. A few days ago, my five-year-old Haitian brother, Donsley, came home from kindergarten crying because he wanted his hair to look like everyone else's. He then went upstairs and applied my mom's makeup all over his face and arms to "make himself pretty." Another family-friend who also has a child of color, living in a different town, has confided in our family that students have told their daughter her skin is the "color of poop." I suppose that for a five-year-old, the only black kid in the entire school, his English poor and virtually oblivious to his racial situation, is the perfect object of bullying. But are these other kindergarteners, and American children in general, racist, or just toying with race- something there parents have talked little about to them, and something they have been taught not to speak of, not to notice? This problem of racism needs to be solved, needs to be talked about, and fast. 

          Students do not experience a lot of  diversity within schools, which is 

                one of the reasons for this supposed racism among young children. 

The studies of Rebecca Bigler and her colleagues have shown that "nearly all White mothers in their research study adopted a “colormute”/ “colorblind” approach when discussing a book that was either directly or indirectly about race with their 4-5 year old children; most chose not to discuss race at all."  On the surface, this makes sense to me: don't discuss something with your child, and they won't talk about it, they won't notice it. However, children are not colorblind. In fact, children whose parents do not discuss race with them are more likely to point out differences they see in others and are more likely to appear "racist.".  

So how do we make sure the children of today are not racist, for lack of a better term? When a child notices a difference in someone, that someone's skin is darker than their's or that their hair is more straight or more curly, acknowledge that they are right. Talk to your kids about race so that they are educated about the topic, not left wondering why it is such a big deal. 

Let's stop pretending we're colorblind, because we're not. There is black and there is white, and everybody can see that. We need to teach are kids that these differences are okay, that they are normal. Not discussing the problem doesn't make these issues go away, and it doesn't make everybody's skin the same color. I'm not saying the problem will go away when we start talking about it, but I'm sure that it will start to get better. 

Is "The Bachelor" Scared?

Every Monday, as many as 12 million viewers tune into the reality television series The Bachelor (or The Bachelorette) on ABC. The show follows a single man or woman in their search for "true love" among 25 twenty-something, conventionally attractive contestants. The show is controversial in and of itself- the vast majority of the contestants are white, young, and conventionally attractive. The fact that a single man or woman is shown simultaneously dating 25 potential suitors- and on television!- has caused extreme controversy. And, in 26 seasons, there has not been a single non-white bachelor or bachelorette featured on the show. An article in The Hollywood Reporter stated that a group of Nashville residents have planned to file a lawsuit against the television series: "The potential plaintiffs point out that over 10 years of the show and 23 seasons, the programs have not featured a single person of color as the featured Bachelor or Bachelorette."

Now here I am- an adamant  viewer of the series and firmly anti-racist- utterly confused and not knowing what to think about The Bachelor. What kind of audience is The Bachelor trying to attract? Why, after 26 seasons, haven't they featured a single bachelor or bachelorette of color?  And- most importantly- would people stop watching the show if there was a non-white bachelor or bachelorette?

What are the producers of The Bachelor/The Bachelorette so afraid of? Other shows have featured non-white characters as their stars- Black-ish, The Prince of Bel Air, The Cosby Show, Family Matters. Is The Bachelor Nation, as the series is commonly referred to, scared to change? Scared to lose money? Racially discriminate? I'd naively like to assume the former, that the producers of the show are not in and of themselves racist, but simply trying to appeal to and maintain a larger audience. However, this may be worse. This transfers the blame from the television series to its viewers- are Americans as a society afraid of seeing a non-white bachelor or bachelorette?

Perhaps this law-suit is a much needed call for change. American society as a whole needs to realize that though there are many issues raised from The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, race should not be one of them. In fact, I'd argue that we should be more concerned that we are teaching the American youth that dating 25 suitors at once is acceptable, that to find a spouse one must be young, conventionally attractive, skinny- virtually flawless. Above all this, we are teaching our youth that to find a spouse, you must also be white. The Bachelor Nation is only playing into this undying circle of discrimination and social normality.

As a member of a biracial family- two of my siblings are adopted from Haiti- I hope to see the day
when having or not having a person of color as the bachelor or bachelorette does not raise question, when the producers of popular television shows are not afraid to have a non-white star.



Another opinion on the topic- from a Bachelorette contestant himself