2 posts tagged “stereotype”

Not necessarily related to adoption, but still great to watch...

I saw this shirt in Urban Outfitters the other day and felt compelled to take a picture. I knew that there was something offensive about it, but it took me a long time to figure out what it was. This is very different from the Abercrombie T-shirt scandal from a few years ago--there are no blatantly racist stereotypes depicted. In fact, this shirt is posing as a critique on our flawed society; a typical "Urban" thing to do.  "Adopting is the new Black," acts as a slam toward celebrities and their followers who, in recent years, have been adopting children like its their job. But do the creators of this shirt realize that they, too, are playing to the idea that adoption is nothing more than a fad or a charity-- something that will disappear along with last years gaucho pants? By attempting to be avant-garde and anti-pop culture, the designers are reducing a problematic way of thought into a marketable catch-phrase. Sure, we need to blame the larger institution and the greater society for demeaning the adopted identity in the first place, but simply recognizing that fact doesn't make this T-shirt any funnier.

Not your best work, Urban.