Archived_Member16
SPNer
'No More Towelheads,' 'No More Ragheads' CafePress Shirts Upset Sikh Coalition
Huffington Post ( USA ) - Updated: 2/17/12
Members of the Sikh community are upset after finding shirts with the phrases "No More Ragheads" and "No More Towelheads" being sold on the merchandise website CafePress.
The slurs, which refer to people who wear turbans, could potentially incite violence and bigotry toward Sikhs and potentially members of the Muslim community, Rajdeep Singh, the Sikh Coalition's director of law and policy, told The Huffington Post.
Singh said he recently read an article describing the popularity of merchandise with similar messages. Disturbed by this, he decided to conduct a search for himself and stumbled across the shirts.
On Feb. 17, the Sikh Coalition drafted an open letter to Bob Marino, CEO of CafePress, asking the company to stop selling the shirts, issue an apology and enforce a better internal controls system to prevent similar merchandise from being sold in the future.
The group also attached a petition that received nearly 2,000 online signatures on Friday.
While some might see the shirts as harmless, Singh says it's hard to see past the messages.
"That's not just demeaning, that's threatening, and that's the problem," Singh told HuffPost, pointing to hate crimes and violence against members of the Sikh community in the post-9/11 environment.
Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Skihs have reported a rise in verbal and physical attacks against members of their community, The Blaze reports.
Just this week, the FBI were called in to investigate vandalism on Muslim and Sikh buildings in Detroit, according the the Associated Press.
Singh says he hopes the group's efforts gain support beyond the Sikh community.
"This isn't a concern of just the Sikh community, it's a concern of people anywhere," he said.
The Huffington Post made several requests to CafePress for comment but has not received a response. As of Friday afternoon, the shirts were no longer available on the website.
According to a description on its site, CafePress "offers sellers complete e-commerce services to independently create and sell a wide variety of products."
A variety of other shirts with controversial messages have ruffled the feathers of several organizations in recent months.
In August, J.C. Penny stores responded to public outcry regarding girls' shirts embroidered with the message: "I'm too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me."
The company eventually pulled the product and issued an apology stating they "agree that the 'Too pretty' t-shirt does not deliver an appropriate message."
Urban Outfitters also stopped selling a women's shirt with the phrase "Eat less" in 2010, after some said the company was promoting unhealthy habits.
LOOK:
source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...ragheads-cafepress-shirts-sikh_n_1285240.html
Huffington Post ( USA ) - Updated: 2/17/12
Members of the Sikh community are upset after finding shirts with the phrases "No More Ragheads" and "No More Towelheads" being sold on the merchandise website CafePress.
The slurs, which refer to people who wear turbans, could potentially incite violence and bigotry toward Sikhs and potentially members of the Muslim community, Rajdeep Singh, the Sikh Coalition's director of law and policy, told The Huffington Post.
Singh said he recently read an article describing the popularity of merchandise with similar messages. Disturbed by this, he decided to conduct a search for himself and stumbled across the shirts.
On Feb. 17, the Sikh Coalition drafted an open letter to Bob Marino, CEO of CafePress, asking the company to stop selling the shirts, issue an apology and enforce a better internal controls system to prevent similar merchandise from being sold in the future.
The group also attached a petition that received nearly 2,000 online signatures on Friday.
While some might see the shirts as harmless, Singh says it's hard to see past the messages.
"That's not just demeaning, that's threatening, and that's the problem," Singh told HuffPost, pointing to hate crimes and violence against members of the Sikh community in the post-9/11 environment.
Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Skihs have reported a rise in verbal and physical attacks against members of their community, The Blaze reports.
Just this week, the FBI were called in to investigate vandalism on Muslim and Sikh buildings in Detroit, according the the Associated Press.
Singh says he hopes the group's efforts gain support beyond the Sikh community.
"This isn't a concern of just the Sikh community, it's a concern of people anywhere," he said.
The Huffington Post made several requests to CafePress for comment but has not received a response. As of Friday afternoon, the shirts were no longer available on the website.
According to a description on its site, CafePress "offers sellers complete e-commerce services to independently create and sell a wide variety of products."
A variety of other shirts with controversial messages have ruffled the feathers of several organizations in recent months.
In August, J.C. Penny stores responded to public outcry regarding girls' shirts embroidered with the message: "I'm too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me."
The company eventually pulled the product and issued an apology stating they "agree that the 'Too pretty' t-shirt does not deliver an appropriate message."
Urban Outfitters also stopped selling a women's shirt with the phrase "Eat less" in 2010, after some said the company was promoting unhealthy habits.
LOOK:
source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...ragheads-cafepress-shirts-sikh_n_1285240.html
