Racism | this woman's work

Also on an update on unintentionally offensive logos

Nov 172009

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.

This is an interesting discussion

Race 27 Responses »

Nov 142009

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.

Do you think this is racist?

Race 32 Responses »

Nov 132009

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

Reconsider Columbus Day

Race 3 Responses »

Oct 112009

Racism in the Time Traveler's Wife

Race 10 Responses »

Oct 302008

When I was a teenager and first getting my feminism on, I used to have a test for movies and books. Where am I? Where am I in this story? Who could I get to be? Asking myself this helped me identify why reading some books (Philip Roth, Jerzy Kosinski) left me feeling so … empty/scared/lonely/depressed/angry. Because very often the who I could be (the woman or women in the book) were empty stereotypes. Those stereotypes left me feeling worse than if I hadn’t been there at all. In other words, having women’s roles limited by sexist stereotyping felt worse to me than reading a book where women didn’t even appear. Because I could read a book, say, The Chocolate War and know that the lack of women was about the focus of the book and not about the unimportance of me and women like me in all of our technicolor detail.

It’s not that I’m arguing for a complete lack of representation but I am saying that token representation can feel just as bad if not worse. Because I would read those books and think, “Is this all I am to men? Is this all they see of me? Is all the scope I’m allowed to be?”

I sometimes still use this tool to point sexism out to, say, Brett who doesn’t have a lifetime of evaluating media under his belt. For me, understanding the limited range of my imaginary role-models helped me not to take that subtext on as my own. Seeing that my empty feelings after one of those books or movies had to do with the limited imagination of the artist let me reject it.

Let me say right off that as a writer, I didn’t like The Time Traveler’s Wife. I thought it was a lumpy story full of unnecessary detail that detracted from the narrative. I felt that the complex structure of the plot didn’t make up for the unfinished main characters, stilted dialogue or self-indulgent trivialities. I wanted to like it but I didn’t. I felt about it the same way I felt about Mr. Holland’s Opus; I cried at the sad parts even while cursing the master manipulation at work. I knew I was being strung along but gave into my base emotions anyway.

Still, you can’t argue with numbers and the sales attest to the skill of the author. People loved this book. Writers whose opinions I admire loved this book. Readers who read with a discerning eye loved this book. Besides which, Becca has done a good job in reminding me always that to sit down and write a book is an endeavor worthy of admiration in and of itself. So there’s that.

Thing is, The Time Traveler’s Wife is also really racist and that I can’t forgive.

Let’s dip in, shall we? (after the cut)