"Amid mounting protests, college clothier Abercrombie & Fitch on Thursday 
said it will pull a line of T-shirts from stores nationwide after complaints 
that they depict racist caricatures of Asian Americans.

The $25 T-shirts show cartoonish Asian characters with slanted eyes and 
conical hats who serve as pitchmen... 
  
One portrays a man pulling a rickshaw with the words "Rick Shaw's Hoagies and 
Grinders. Order by the foot. Good meat. Quick feet." 

Another shows two Asian men at "Wong Brothers Laundry Service" and carries 
the logo "Two Wongs Can Make it White." 

A&F, which markets shorts, T-shirts and other casual apparel to youths 
between the ages of 18 and 22, said it made the decision after receiving 
"hundreds and hundreds" of complaints about the T-shirts...

The items have been on the shelves for nearly two weeks, but the firestorm 
hit within the past couple of days, mostly a result of rapid-fire e-mails 
delivered to dozens of people at once.... A& F received "hundreds and 
hundreds" of complaints... 

...Asian American activists in San Francisco picketed one downtown store 
Thursday evening and presented a letter demanding that the shirts be pulled 
from shelves and that the company publicly apologize.

"Word of the shirt line spread quickly this week via e-mail to college 
campuses, including Stanford University and UC Irvine, where students plan to 
discuss the matter at a meeting Sunday night."

"The shirts were also a topic on several Bay Area-based Web sites."
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MY COMMENTS:

Several thoughts struck me. Tell me if you think I'm wrong.

1 . The Transgression?? 

Speaking separately about the Words and the Cartoons.
The Words are weak prepubescent Humor, but Racist???.
Cartoons and Caricatures of Rickshaw Pullers or Laundry Owners.?? Bad??

Let me try to put myself in the place of the Asians:

What if there was a T-Shirt that portrayed an Italian looking man pushing a 
Fruit & Vegtable Cart with the words "Tony Pushacart. You buya tree, You 
getta ona free"
(My Grand Father Tony, was a Push Cart Peddler)

Or an Italian couple at " Mama Mia's Pizzeria " and carries the logo "You 
gonna Love our Pizza Pie, even if it no hit you in the Eye." 
(You know, "When the Moon hits your eye like a big Pizza Pie, That's Amore")

Or an Italian looking guy with a logo "Tony Baloney's Hoagies and Grinders. 
Buya by the feet. Get Gooda meat. It gonna be a cheap."  

These examples seem similar to the Asian, but it doesn't bother me. Am I 
becoming Desensitized?? Or have Asians come So Far in their Defamation 
battle, and becoming So Strong, that they can afford to be like the Blacks, 
and the Jewish to LOOK for slights???

2. The Reaction.

The activists picketed ONE downtown store, presented a letter demanding that 
the shirts be pulled from shelves and that the company publicly apologize. 
Word spread quickly via e-mail to just a few college campuses, that was 
followed up with what was described as a "firestorm", but was really only a a 
couple hundred e-mails delivered to dozens of people at once.

A&F Pulled ALL the Shirts, and issued an Apology the NEXT DAY!!!!!!

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE POWER OF THE INTERNET!!!!!
Both the spreading of the Transgression, and the sending of the Complaints.
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ENTIRE ARTICLE:

ANSWERING PROTESTS, RETAILER TO PULL LINE OF T-SHIRTS THAT MOCK ASIANS
By John Glionna and Abigail Goldman, Staff Writers
Los Angeles Times 
April 19, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO -- Amid mounting protests, college clothier Abercrombie & Fitch 
on Thursday said it will pull a line of T-shirts from stores nationwide after 
complaints that they depict racist caricatures of Asian Americans.

The $25 T-shirts show cartoonish Asian characters with slanted eyes and 
conical hats who serve as pitchmen for companies such as restaurants, dry 
cleaners and bowling alleys.

One portrays a man pulling a rickshaw with the words "Rick Shaw's Hoagies and 
Grinders. Order by the foot. Good meat. Quick feet." Another shows two Asian 
men at "Wong Brothers Laundry Service" and carries the logo "Two Wongs Can 
Make it White." A&F, which markets shorts, T-shirts and other casual apparel 
to youths between the ages of 18 and 22, said it made the decision after 
receiving "hundreds and hundreds" of complaints about the T-shirts.

The items have been on the shelves for nearly two weeks, but the firestorm 
hit within the past couple of days, mostly a result of rapid-fire e-mails 
delivered to dozens of people at once.

Thomas D. Lennox, A&F's senior manager of investor relations and corporate 
communications, said the company decided to pull the roughly five styles from 
its Web site and stores Thursday.

"It's not, and never has been, our intention to offend anyone," Lennox said.

"These graphic T-shirts were designed with the sole purpose of adding humor 
and levity to our fashion line," he said.

Tom Goulet, manager for customer services at the company's New Albany, Ohio, 
headquarters, said A&F would note in its catalog and nationally circulated 
magazine that the shirts were no longer available.

But though complaints have been many, Goulet added that A&F was also 
receiving a sizable number of calls from people who wanted to buy the shirts.

At one Abercrombie & Fitch store in San Francisco on Thursday, sales of the 
shirts remained brisk and a man who identified himself as a store manager 
said he had received no word from company headquarters to stop selling the 
shirts.

"I don't understand what the big problem is," he said. "The first kid to come 
in and buy these shirts this week had the last name of Wong."

Nearby, people rushed to rummage through shirts that filled a table as though 
a Kmart blue-light special had just been announced.

When asked if the shirts were selling well, one female clerk responded, "Oh 
my Lord yes! We don't have any more in back stock. They're jumping off the 
shelves."

But not everyone was pleased. Asian American activists in San Francisco 
picketed one downtown store Thursday evening and presented a letter demanding 
that the shirts be pulled from shelves and that the company publicly 
apologize.

Word of the shirt line spread quickly this week via e-mail to college 
campuses, including Stanford University and UC Irvine, where students plan to 
discuss the matter at a meeting Sunday night.

The shirts were also a topic on several Bay Area-based Web sites.

"We think it's inappropriate for this company to make a profit from these 
really negative, harmful and hurtful images of Asian Americans doing work 
they have been historically forced to do," said Jane Kim of the Chinatown 
Community Development Center.

"These are the kind of images we saw in California newspapers a century ago. 
I think the company needs to do some major community relations work," Kim 
said.

"Maybe they need to invest in some of the work the Asian community is doing 
rather than peddling these really hateful images," Kim said.

Goulet said Asian Americans misunderstood the marketing campaign, which in 
the past has poked fun at women, Irish Americans and snow skiers.

"Anyone who buys our clothes knows we don't target any particular race," he 
said.

"We pretty much make fun of everybody. But if we've learned anything from 
this it's that perhaps we need to get a little community feedback before we 
rush to market," Goulet said.

Abercrombie & Fitch is familiar with controversy.

But until this incident, most complaints came not from A&F's target 
young-adult customers, but from parents, who objected to what they considered 
overly sexual images in store ads and marketing materials.

With this group of shirts, however, the company has angered some of its core 
audience: college students.

One of the shirts recently removed from the market shows a smiling Buddha 
figure with the words "Buddha Bash: Get your Buddha on the Floor."

Another shows a caricature of an Asian man bowling, with the words: 
"Wok-N-bowl."

"The Buddha is a religious icon that's central to the Asian culture," said 
Kim.

"What makes us so angry is that even if they say they're going to pull these 
shirts from the shelves, the images are already out there. The damage has 
been done," she added.

Started in 1892 with one store in New York City, Abercrombie & Fitch has 
grown into a national chain with $1.3 billion in annual sales in 311 
stores--31 in California, three of which are in Los Angeles.

At A&F's store on Market Street in San Francisco, customer Henry Kemp shook 
his head in disbelief as shoppers bought as many as half a dozen of the 
shirts.

"It smacks of Charlie Chan and the coolie stereotype," he said.

"I can't believe that anyone would buy these shirts, especially in this 
politically correct town," Kemp said.

Pam Noli, whose company offers seminars on racism at Bay Area public high 
schools, was buying several of the shirts to use in her demonstrations. "It's 
outrageous," she said.

"When people say there's no longer any overt racism today, all I have to do 
is pull out one of these T-shirts," she said.

"How could a company be so insensitive in the year 2002 to think this kind of 
smear campaign could fly?"

Nearby, Kemp sarcastically told a salesclerk: "Hey, why not start a whole 
theme with T-shirts that insult every race? You people could become instant 
millionaires!"

As he bought several of the shirts, Derek Clark said the critics needed to 
lighten up.

"I'm buying these for my Asian friends, and we may wear them on our bowling 
team this year," he said. "I mean, please, everybody gets picked on these 
days. Why should Asian Americans be any different?"

Lela Lee, a 27-year-old Los Angeles cartoonist best known for her "Angry 
Little Asian Girl" character and merchandise, said images like the ones on 
A&F's shirts inspire her work.

"We're used to depictions of Asians as kung-fu fighting, 
fortune-cookie-speaking, slanty-eyed, bucktooth servants," she said. "We're 
really tired of it."

*

Times staff writer Leslie Earnest contributed to this report from Costa Mesa. 
Goldman reported from Los Angeles.