Macy’s pulls racist tshirt

Posted: July 24, 2007 at 11:06 am

Macy’s pulls racist tshirt

A new shirt from Macy’s has been pulled from shelves after activist declared the shirt racist. The brown shirt with white lettering said “Brown is the New White.” I suppose that if the shirt had said “brown is the new black” even more people would have been offended. Perhaps being affiliated with “the man” or the only remaining category of people that are politically correct to make fun of was the most offensive.

According to Macy’s, one of its goals is to provide an exclusive line of clothing geared toward Latina shoppers looking to express cultural identity through fashion.

However, one such item might have actually offended potential Hispanic customers, so the company pulled it during the weekend.

The T-shirt, which reads “Brown is the New White,” is offensive, according to Hispanic marketing expert Dr. Ed Rincon.

“Macy’s doesn’t know a whole lot about what Hispanics want in the way of clothing. It also says that Macy’s doesn’t understand Hispanic culture. More importantly, it says that Macy’s doesn’t understand the Hispanics that lives in the U.S. and the kinds of products they are looking for,” Rincon said.

However, Rincon said some Hispanic customers might enjoy and even purchase the shirt.

The company apologized for its decision to sell the shirt, releasing this statement:

“We are constantly looking for unique and differentiated merchandise that will resonate with our customers as hip, current and trendy. We also continue to work in developing business relationships with minority vendors to serve the growing diverse customer base. We apologize if customers have found some of the merchandise offensive and have removed the style that they found objectionable.”
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