Brown is the New White? Macy's Teaches Racism 101
Filed in archive Latin Culture , Latin Issues on July 26, 2007
Mi Blog Es Tu Blog reports that "macy's department this week said it will no longer sell a T-shirt" which says "Brown is the New White". The T-Shirt was made for Latino shoppers.
Macy's apologized, and the T-Shirt will not be sold anymore:
"We apologize if customers have found some of the merchandise offensive and have removed the style that they found objectionable."
I followed a link from the original article and found this:
"The T-shirt, which reads "Brown is the New White" is offensive, according to Hispanic marketing expert Dr. Ed Rincon."
It would have been funny, if it wasn't ridiculous. Do you need a "Hispanic marketing expert" to explain that this remark is offensive? I'm sure the air-headed who came up with this sh*t, thought it was clever, and Laura reports that some are claiming "the T-Shirt is actually pretty cool" - but they all have missed the point.
"Brown is the new white" implies that white is better, is more cool, more desirable. And that's Racism 101.
Tags: Brown+is+the+new+white Macys Tshirt Latin culture racism offensive apology Brown white latin brown+w
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I thought is was hilarious, because it implies a switch of power: white power to brown power.
Which is true, given the growing population of Hispanics and thus market power. The humor comes in the irony that a place like Macy's would carry an item that is self deprecating. Also the artist, who is based in Mexico City is pretty cool. His line, nacoshirts, is trying to challenge the current demoralizing slang and turning it to a positive, like 'Black is Beautiful.'