By the third time I re-read that sentence, it began to make sense even in this context.
― pplains, Monday, 28 May 2012 03:54 (eleven years ago) link
it seems like whatever the joke the ppl in the photos are in on it http://picsofaznstakingpicsoffood.tumblr.com/
― Mordy, Monday, 4 June 2012 01:39 (eleven years ago) link
I knew an (azn) girl who bought a DSLR just to take pictures of food for her food blog
― chris paul george hill (dayo), Monday, 4 June 2012 01:54 (eleven years ago) link
i'm gonna say racist; but then again people should stop taking pictures of their food, so i give it a cautious pass if it shames any asians into stopping
― Nhex, Monday, 4 June 2012 04:43 (eleven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uw6ZkbsAH8
maybe a lil' racist, mostly hilarious
― un® (dayo), Saturday, 9 June 2012 01:42 (eleven years ago) link
shackle shoe: is this racist... you decide.
http://i45.tinypic.com/1fztxu.jpg
http://www.freep.com/article/20120619/NEWS07/120619061/Adidas-withdrawing-shackle-shoe-Jesse-Jackson-criticism?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cp
The designer, meanwhile, says the inspiration for the shoes was a cartoon character and toy from the 1990s called My Pet Monster, which is purple and blue and is restrained by orange shackles.
That explanation did not convince Lola Adesioye, who writes in the Guardian that the whole episode reflects badly on Adidas:
"There's no doubt that Jeremy Scott, despite his assertions to the contrary, was making a statement about the enslavement of human beings. If he wasn't, he would not have used a shackle-like ankle cuff – with all of its implications.
the guardian: "that's racist"
"Blogger Rachel Tension writes on Stylite.com that pulling the shoes was “an unfortunate decision that says more about people’s propensity to 1) see racism where racism isn’t necessarily hanging around and 2) be really dumb on the internet"
blogger: "that's not racist, also u r dumb"
― sleepingbag, Tuesday, 19 June 2012 21:21 (eleven years ago) link
that's a good one. I'll have a nuanced take on it in just a minute
― frogbs, Tuesday, 19 June 2012 21:24 (eleven years ago) link
why would anyone want to wear those
― a dense custard of infinity (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 19 June 2012 21:26 (eleven years ago) link
looks like something the bondage-pants crowd would enjoy
― "Holy crap," I mutter, as he gently taps my area (silby), Tuesday, 19 June 2012 21:29 (eleven years ago) link
Lola Adesioye didn't really say that they were racist. Her take was that they would obviously remind a lot of people of the slave trade but that they said more about consumerism than race.
― Temporarily Famous In The Czech Republic (ShariVari), Tuesday, 19 June 2012 21:31 (eleven years ago) link
i'm not sure this is racist. are people just angry at jeremy scott for being a 'weird' designer?
― real men have been preparing manly dishes for centuries (elmo argonaut), Tuesday, 19 June 2012 21:41 (eleven years ago) link
or for being dumb and not realizing the connotation of putting leg shackles on a human?
― mh, Tuesday, 19 June 2012 21:43 (eleven years ago) link
was my pet monster racist
― la musica de harry frogbs (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 19 June 2012 21:57 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/20/sports/horse-racing-discovers-new-drug-problem-one-linked-to-frogs.html?_r=2&hp
― la musica de harry frogbs (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 19 June 2012 21:58 (eleven years ago) link
Jeremy Scott is the toolbag with the stupid hair, right
This is basically "not racist but COME ON"
― Victory Chainsaw! (DJP), Tuesday, 19 June 2012 22:35 (eleven years ago) link
is the first thing that someone thinks going to be "oh, my pet monster!"
because I seem to remember that toy but didn't until prompted
― mh, Wednesday, 20 June 2012 01:31 (eleven years ago) link
actually, I think I HAD that toy
― mh, Wednesday, 20 June 2012 01:32 (eleven years ago) link
It had a catchy jingle iirc
― hot knives, wind was blowin' (Ówen P.), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 02:08 (eleven years ago) link
it was honestly the first thing _I_ thought of.i think it's the same color and design.
― Authorities don't know who shot the 50 Cent the goose. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 02:30 (eleven years ago) link
Me too
― la musica de harry frogbs (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 02:35 (eleven years ago) link
we're not racistwe're oldpossibly old and racist but mostly old
― Authorities don't know who shot the 50 Cent the goose. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 02:38 (eleven years ago) link
^and other lyrics from "Lulu"
― Authorities don't know who shot the 50 Cent the goose. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 02:39 (eleven years ago) link
I guess if it was really my _favorite_ monster I'd sure remember it better
― mh, Wednesday, 20 June 2012 03:02 (eleven years ago) link
― Victory Chainsaw! (DJP), Tuesday, June 19, 2012 5:35 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i also thought of my pet monster initially
nb it was actually he-man
― catbus otm (gbx), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 03:03 (eleven years ago) link
I thought Adidas was being cheeky about Nike's sweat shops.
― pplains, Wednesday, 20 June 2012 04:04 (eleven years ago) link
None of my monster toys wore shackles.
http://cdn.necolebitchie.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/My-Pet-Monster.jpg
― nuts spats (Austerity Ponies), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 13:29 (eleven years ago) link
http://cdn.hypebeast.com/image/2009/10/adidas-originals-jeremy-scott-2010-preview-7.jpg
― nuts spats (Austerity Ponies), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 13:30 (eleven years ago) link
http://images.partyamerica.com/images/products/en_us/detail/P445596_dt.jpg
― nuts spats (Austerity Ponies), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 13:32 (eleven years ago) link
ha, who could conceivably stand behind that
― Authorities don't know who shot the 50 Cent the goose. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 15:48 (eleven years ago) link
Why do shackles remind one of the slave trade more than of just any pre-19th century prison?
Also, those 'shackles' don't look so comfortable.
― Love Max Ophüls of us all (Michael White), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 15:55 (eleven years ago) link
when people think of prisons in the US the first thing that comes to mind is the staggeringly disproportionately imprisoned black population, if I had to hazard a guess
― mh, Wednesday, 20 June 2012 15:58 (eleven years ago) link
it's not so much "shackles" as it is "shackles on basketball shoes, equipment for a sport currently dominated by black men" that is evoking the slavery imagery
― Victory Chainsaw! (DJP), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 15:58 (eleven years ago) link
I just see basketball players, they could be black, white, purple like "my favorite monster"...
― mh, Wednesday, 20 June 2012 16:02 (eleven years ago) link
I think it's a stretch to see these as racist or even particularly insensitive but I can see the consumerist angle and there might be some patronizing 'kids killing each other over Air Jordans' tired shit going on. Over all, my response is 'meh'; not remotely interested in them and I don't trust the man's aesthetic all that much. That urban toreador look above seems a little desperate.
― Love Max Ophüls of us all (Michael White), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 16:08 (eleven years ago) link
purple like "my favorite monster"...
lol
Yeah, the intent could be totally innocent* (I think it is). Not racist, but a weird example where the external context does all the heavy lifting and flips perception.
*in no way satorially innocent
― nuts spats (Austerity Ponies), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 16:09 (eleven years ago) link
^r
"No, no, we're not here because of the racism claims. We're just the fashion police. Hands behind your back!"
― Love Max Ophüls of us all (Michael White), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 16:11 (eleven years ago) link
if these were marketed as basketball shoes i would better understand that association but these are definitely hype streetwear? btw i immediately thought of my pet monster
― real men have been preparing manly dishes for centuries (elmo argonaut), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 17:24 (eleven years ago) link
― Victory Chainsaw! (DJP), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 17:26 (eleven years ago) link
yeah i'm really not trying to minimize anybody's reaction to what they find offensive about these shoes but i kinda see this as a natural progression in the work of a kooky designer who has been putting massive cartoon wings on sneakers for a while now
― real men have been preparing manly dishes for centuries (elmo argonaut), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 17:28 (eleven years ago) link
this goes back to one's ability to edit IMO
like, sure this design makes sense in the context of the Jeremy Scott aesthetic, but what are these shoes going to look like when 17 year old black teen puts them on (ans: just as stupid as it did when JS put it on, with added unpleasant, unintended overtones)
― Victory Chainsaw! (DJP), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 17:34 (eleven years ago) link
maybe if the shackle wasn't completely superfluous-looking to the rest of the shoe, like say if it was actually attached to the opening of the shoe and served as a final fastener to keep the shoe on rather than as a decorative piece with a long ass chain on the back, it wouldn't have evoked as negative a reaction
― Victory Chainsaw! (DJP), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 17:37 (eleven years ago) link
If your feathers were a little lighter, I'd say you were thinking too hard on this.
― pplains, Wednesday, 20 June 2012 18:13 (eleven years ago) link
"What if the shackles on the shoe commonly worn by African-American athletes were created from a puffy silver band found at the top of the shoe, above the laces? Then maybe only spacemen from Mars and stardust explorers would be the only ones offended. "
― pplains, Wednesday, 20 June 2012 18:15 (eleven years ago) link
What if we just didn't market athletic shoes with shackles in the first place.
― pplains, Wednesday, 20 June 2012 18:16 (eleven years ago) link
Are you selectively reading here or were you just jonesing so hard to tell the black dude how he should react to something with racial overtones that you're skipping over the points where I am saying "regardless of intent, it shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone that these shoes would cause an uproar"?
― Victory Chainsaw! (DJP), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 18:20 (eleven years ago) link
Agree. The mental connections from sports shoes to black men, and from chains to slavery, are pretty damn short hops that were bound to occur.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 20 June 2012 18:26 (eleven years ago) link
I can't beleive you just used the verb 'to bind', Aimless!
― Love Max Ophüls of us all (Michael White), Wednesday, 20 June 2012 18:27 (eleven years ago) link