Offensive Abercrombie t-shirt creator comes clean

CNN.com currently has a top news headline that reads, Abercrombie Pulls ‘Racist’ T-Shirts. The t-shirts sport slogans like “WONG BROTHERS LAUNDRY SERVICE: TWO WONGS CAN MAKE IT WHITE”. What was the company thinking? I got an email from an old friend who works for Abercrombie: turns out the shirts were his idea! He took a few of my questions via email this morning…

What the hell were you thinking?

We were sitting around thinking of what we could do for blue-collar type graphics. We had this Asian theme going on so I was in that frame of mind. So, I said, “How about a laundry service that says, “2 Wongs can make it white”. I didn’t find it offensive. Being Asian myself, I thought it was pretty funny. I think some people are just a lot more sensitive to that kind of shit. I don’t really care, just don’t call me a chink in my face or I’ll spit in it. Word.

It seems so blatantly offensive–what was Abercrombie’s goal with this?

When we made these shirts, people asked me specifically if I was offended. I said no. But, I can see how people would be offended. I know the designer who put everything together and he’s the farthest thing from a racist. (I came up with the idea, someone else put the design together). So, knowing that he (my friend) created it, I knew it was all in fun. He was very concerned that it didn’t become a racist graphic. So, he kept asking me throughout the design process if it was ok.
Is Abercrombie pissed at you?

No one is pissed at me. I ran into a higher-up from the company at Barney’s in NY one weekend and he praised me for coming up with it. He thought it was funny. We never intended it to be racist or to hurt anyones feelings.

Do you think Abercrombie thought, “Well, he’s Asian I guess they won’t mind…”

Like I said, they contacted me throughout the design process to make sure it didn’t get ugly. In my eyes, it was ok.

Will this help or hurt your career?

I don’t think it’ll do anything for my career. It was one simple slogan. I think this is something that just got blown out of proportion. We poke fun at all kinds of things. We did shirts with Italian guys selling pizzas, fat white guys plumbing, American Indians holding tomahawks. All kinds of shit. I think it just struck a nerve and some people couldn’t handle it.

Will this be good for Abercrombie in the long run?

I think we as a company will be just fine. We heard the complaints from the people and when we realized that so many people were offended, we pulled the shirts. We’re taking a multi-million dollar loss on these shirts because they’ve already been printed.

Have you inspired any other t-shirts that will hit the shelves soon?

I don’t think I’ve inspired any shirts that will cause this much controversy. I come up with some crazy shit sometimes but it gets shot down pretty quick.

April 20th, 2002