Essay 532

A MultiCultClassics Monologue presents Insensitivity on Good Friday…

• adidas has angered Asians with a limited-edition shoe displaying a character with buck teeth, slanted eyes and other cartoonish features deemed racist (pictured above). “You have to look at it as a piece of artwork,” said Barry McGee, a half-Chinese graffiti artist responsible for the image. “The way we put it all together, it becomes a collectible as art.” A social commentator said, “The problem with this is not that it’s done by bigots, because it’s not. … It’s also not that it offends people, because in many ways, that’s what art is meant to do. The problem is that these images, even though crude and clichéd, are powerful, almost indelible. They write the scripts that we expect others and we ourselves to follow. You can’t read all that into a shoe, but it’s part of a pattern.” Wonder if the shoe was produced in an Asian sweatshop.

• A new study showed today’s young people care less about social norms and standards than past generations. “It goes beyond etiquette. It’s not just about manners. It’s more obliviousness that characterizes it — just not thinking about what other people think and other people’s feelings,” said one expert behind the study. Contemporary kids claim to pay little heed to social conventions — 62 percent now versus 50 percent in 1958. The majority of today’s youth would probably kill a classmate for a pair of adidas’ limited-edition kicks.

• The Black student who sent racist emails to other minority students at Trinity International University last year pleaded guilty to felony disorderly conduct (see Essay Thirty-One). Although the student dropped out of school and has been under house arrest since the incident, a lawyer involved with the case said, “She definitely wants to finish her education and be a very productive member of society.” Well, she does confirm the research showing young people care less about social norms.

• A Kent State University sorority was placed on probation after awarding the title of “Blackest” member to a White female during a formal dinner-dance. No word if the White female could really bust a move on the dance floor.

• Tiger Woods apologized for using the word “spaz” when describing his lousy putting during the Masters tournament. A British organization remarked, “Although in the U.S. the term ‘spaz’ may not be as offensive as it is here in the U.K., many disabled people here will have taken exception to his likening a golf stroke to that of ‘a spaz.’” Yeah, let’s look to the U.K. for political correctness and social sensitivity.

• Maryland gangs have definitely bridged the digital divide, allegedly using websites and technological advances to brag about crimes, threaten rivals and more. Officials have tagged the activities as “cyberbanging.” Sounds like the stuff most American males are already doing on the Internet.