I didn’t get a response but Abby got one and then she forwarded the post that went out to the whole list.

It was just been brought to our attention, that this year’s UWWG t-shirt logo design appears to some to be depicting a black clown and thus offending some as being a racist design.

We truly apologize to anyone who felt this! This was not the intent of our design in any way! We have since taken the t-shirt picture design off our website, and the design is being slightly redone to correct this.

The problem and misinterpretation of this years shirts by some, was basically due to the design colors as viewable on the website, were much darker than what the colors the silk screen and actual shirts will really be. What was to be a light silvery grey, appeared much more greyish black on the website. And thus our clown appeared to some to be depicting a black clown.

And some apparently even mistook the clown as being a black monkey clown. What are really the clowns big feet, apparently to some looked like a monkey’s tail. Please note – the clown, as are all the rest of the artwork on our shirts, are all standard “clip art’ that the print shop downloaded from available clip art programs.

Also, please note – the colors for the UWWG t-shirts on our website are for a rough visual only. The actual hues and colors will vary due to the graphics used by the print shop to send the shirts designs via e-mail, ones web browser, etc… The print shop actually design the logos in black and white only. And then we discuss and decide what colors to make the design. The colors we choose for the design are not added to the logo design until later, when they make the actual silk screen.

At our requests, the Print Shop “colorized” the original black and white design for our website purpose only, just to give everyone a rough visual of the colors. The colors that appeared on our website, were slightly different shades and hues of the colors as they will appear on the actual shirts. I should have made that clear on the website and to our members. I apologize for this lack of communication on my part, and any hurt feelings and heartache it may have caused.

To avoid any further misinterpretations, the design is being slightly redone. Once the design has been corrected, we will re-post it on our website.

Again, I apologize to anyone who may have felt offended. That was truly not the intention of mine or anyone associated with our UWWG Gatherings.

So I thought that was happy news.

By the way, our letters were gracious and assumed (of course!) that the pic was unintentional and then when Abby got the first response, which was a bit (understandably) defensive and a little bit like maybe they thought she should lighten up, Abby forwarded this comment from KatjaMichelle:

Good for you for writing a letter. I think part of the reason people think racisim is so rare is that people (me included) don’t speak up when they see it. As for me I’m black(ish) and I see a clown in blackface, but if you say its supposed to be a monkey I’ll take your word for it. I’m not sure “offended” is the right word for what I felt. My reaction was for along the lines of “seriously?!” with an eyeroll. I definately would not purchase that shirt but I’m so used to the ignorance I probably wouldn’t have written a letter either. Do I think the artist or organizers were trying to discriminate? No, but by not noticing I certainly don’t feel welcome at the event. If it were something I were attending I would spend the entire time wondering which of my fellow attendees I needed to be wary of.

I think it really brought home that whatever our intentions are, if someone is offended by what we do and if we’re going to lose out on that person’s participation (and by extension one can assume the participation/comfort of others at this large gathering) then it needs to be changed. The homeschooling world is terrifically white and we don’t need to be making unintentional mistakes that make it even harder for people of color to feel comfortable being a part of our community. So I think this was a very positive step.

I’ll say right up front that I think the racism that I see (indeed the little monkey clown thing) is unintentional. I betcha the t-shirt was designed by a kid and I am 99.9% sure that the kid who designed this didn’t say, “I think it would be awesome to use this unschooling conference as an opportunity for some ironic old school racism.”

(This is a t-shirt for the unschoolers conferences that happens up in Sandusky. Again, click to see bigger. I’ll also give you the heads up that the gathering is mostly made up of white families.)

I think what’s going on here is privilege because someone should have caught this and said, “Whoa! This is not the kind of message we meant to send and certainly could be extremely offensive to our black families. Let’s err on the side of caution, shall we? And not let our good intentions allow a logo that could be misconstrued.”

So basically, those of you who said, ok I can see it but it wasn’t intentional — do you think it’s ok for the conference logo? If someone does say, “Hey this image offends me” should they change it? Or is it enough to say, well, I see where you’re coming from but we didn’t MEAN for it to be offensive so please assume our good intentions and buy the t-shirt anyway. Do good intentions cover all ills?

Because I think missing the potential of this image to be insulting is privilege but I think making excuses for it once you can see it is racist.

Personally the image looks way too much like this or this or this for me to feel comfortable buying one of the conference t-shirts and I think someone should have caught it and the fact that no one did is disappointing to me.

And you know, assuming that some enterprising young unschooling kid designed this, what a wonderful opportunity to talk about historical images of racism and how what was meant to be (I assume?) a happy clown could turn into a PR nightmare with some bad choices at the printers. I’m sure the organizers (because again, I’m assuming this was unintentional, too) would appreciate the heads up and the chance to make good. Which is why I’m gonna write and say something.

We’re having a discussion at potluck. Lemme know in the comments! Thanks! (on and click to make bigger)

• Our family just joined Costco. First we had to make a trip to price out a bunch of items (writing down the price per ounce/pound/whatever) and then we came home and sat down to really think about it with the aid of old receipts and a calculator. Then I went back and we joined and I shopped. Yes, that’s two trips to Costco on a weekend, i.e., two trips into the mouth of hell. Seriously. Costco on a weekend is chaos to the nth degree only with samples. But on the products we buy a lot (popcorn, chicken breasts, brown rice to name a few) the prices are better than what we’re paying now and the quality is higher, too. (Organic brown rice! Multigrain unbleached flour for $.25/lb!) The key will be not splurging but I’m not a splurger. Give me a budget and I will wring every bit of value I can out of it.
• Today Madison asked me if I thought she would marry a white man or a black man. I said I didn’t know, what did she think? She said she thought she might like to marry a black one. I said ok then. It was kind of a random conversation.
• Speaking of random conversations about race, the other day Madison was asking about other people who we know and if they’re biracial. So we were naming biracial people. One of them is AmFam’s daughter M. Madison knows two M’s and she calls one (who is blonde) White M and she calls AmFam’s M (who has brown hair) Black M. (Only with their names not their initials, natch.) Anyway, during the course of this biracial discussion she said, “Maybe I should call her, umm, Hispanic M instead of Black M because she isn’t Black.” Noah said, “She’s not Hispanic either; she’s Chinese, remember?” And Madison smacked her forehead like, “Oh yeah! That’s right!” Then we got to a friend who is biracial and is also adopted and Madison was surprised to hear that he’s adopted. “Oh he has a birth mama, too?” she said. “I wonder if his birth mama misses him like MY birth mama misses me.” I said without a doubt.
• Then on Friday we were talking about inviting Pennie to something and I said I’d call her but then Madison said, “Umm, don’t you think you should check with me first?” I said, “I can invite Pennie to stuff without checking with you, can’t I? After all, she’s my friend!” and Madison said, “But she is my real mama so I get to invite her!” Then when we went to invite her Abby had already beat us to it. Dang that Abby!!!
• The kids went to a harvest festival on Friday and each won a pumpkin. Every year I forget to get pumpkins and every year the kids don’t notice or don’t notice until way after Halloween when they remember they like roasted pumpkin seeds. I’m glad that this year the pumpkins were secured without my extra effort.
• Today is the first day I feel normal and not exhausted. On the other hand, my neck is wrenched so I’m not entirely myself. But I’m more myself than I was yesterday. Honestly I think my life is just stressful enough that low-grade lousy is kind of a permanent feeling I’ve got. I was thinking about this driving home from Costco. I think I need to readjust my expectations so I’m not so unhappy and disappointed all the time because I can’t get everything done and I can’t get any time to myself, etc. etc. I think I’d be less frustrated if my standards were lower. I’m not giving up, mind you, I’m just giving in (for now). Or at least as much as I can. I’m tired of crying most every night and then having a great big breakdown most every weekend. I’m tired of trying to fight against the tide of my impossible life.
• We’re heading over for Lucia’s birthday party in about twenty minutes (my niece turned five on Thursday!). Madison picked out a purple Barbie for her and a purple sparkly Barbie dress. She really wanted that dress for her own Barbies but she told me, “More than one person can like purple.” She was telling me that because yesterday she was believing quite the opposite and was so unhappy with everything that she could get Lucia and could NOT get herself that we left the store with her in tears and had a long discussion about generosity. Today’s trip to Target with Daddy was much more successful because she is able to do that self-talk. I said to her, “Remember how you talked yourself into not being afraid going across the bridge? You’re going to have to talk to yourself at the store about being generous for Lucia’s birthday.” And she did and she was (more generous). I’m proud of her. She even picked out a sparkly purple bag, which I’m sure she coveted for her own self.
• Brett will not get to enjoy the party because Brett has to work. But he got to go on a jog this afternoon so he’s ok with that even if it means missing cake. So it all evens out.