This morning I found a link to this site from a reader in my inbox! The Swirl Syndicate is a website dedicated to multi racial slogan tee's for teeny tiny people. The brand wants to show the richness of having mixed heritage with slogans 'I'm swirled', 'cafe con leche' and 'she's my mommy, not my nanny'......I'm in two minds about the slogans though I get the tongue in cheek references I'm not sure about having my baby's ethnic origin emblazed across his/her chest. To me the tee's defeat the purpose and boarder on racial stereo typing whilst highlighting 'otherness', would it still be cute if a white baby wore a 'Caucasian' t-shirt? I think teaching children cultural pride starts at home and parents have a duty to amerce there child in it's cultural heritage whatever that may be. However the Tee's are really popular and lots of parents adore them.
what say you?
Personally I wouldn't want to walk around flaunting that I have mixed ethnicity on a T-shirt. Visually it's obvious, and like you said Belle, it would be weird if white people wore a "Caucasian" shirt or black people wore a "Black African ancestry" T-shirt etc.
ReplyDeleteOf course the Swirl Syndicate tries to make it funny & cute by using words like "swirled", and I think it's a matter of taste if any parent would like their kid wearing such a T-shirt.
When it comes down to it all people are mixed with something, throughout history. I don't see the point of making such a big a deal out of it on a shirt. In the end we're all just people with the same needs, regardless of skin color, hair texture,, size, height, weight, sexuality - like you said, why highlight "otherness"?
The kid in the "black and white and <3'd all over" Tee, doesn't even look happy it it!
ReplyDelete