Slacking on the academic side

One of the reasons that it took me so long to finish my masters was because I am a huge slacker. I really had no good reason to have taken so long. And it appears that the same thing has been happening to my mixed site. I worked so hard on it last winter. Every spare moment I had I was putting into hacking it and making my vision a reality, and when it was done I took a break and that break became longer and longer and now it is just turned into lazy.
What jolted the MSR back into my every day life was an email from a person in the UK asking if I knew of any counseling resoures that I might refer them too. I put my site out there and forgot that people see it. I feel like I slipped in the responsibility that I put out for myself. Luckily I remebered that there was a site in the UK that might work for and was able to email it to this person. Hopefully it will be someplace he can connect to.
The funny thing is, that this morning I got an email from someone in Australia who runs a site for families who are Australian and African. Who knows in addition to working on college stuff maybe I will broaden my site to inclide international and cross cultural resources. It could actually make some sense seeing as my dad is from another country.

Silverware Family Update

Categories: Race/Ethnicy | 1 Comment

In response to my last post, the customer service department did get back to me.

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your inquiry. We apologize if we have offended you in any way. We weren’t going for the concept to convey “mixedness”, but simply make a joke about the the spork. If you look at all of the descriptions for the shirts on the site they are made in a joking manner. Once again we do apologize if you think we offended you in any way. We Love everyone. Thank you for checking out the site.
Regards,
NerdyShirts.com Customer Support

“we love everyone” yes but clearly they don’t see the need to think before they put things out. I refuse to believe that I would be the only person to find this offensive or just plain off.

The Silverware Family

NerdyShirts.com is a site that sells shirts targeted for those of us with Nerd tendencies.

Silverware FamilyOver all, I like the shirts they have. And one shirt in particular caught my eye, The Silverware Family.

As we can see here its a Fork and a Spoon, and their happy little Spork children.

So I clicked on the image to find out how much this shirt would be and was soooo very saddened/ disappointed/ annoyed/ angered to read the description on the shirts info page.

Its funny how some people call plastic eating utensils silverware despite them being made solely out of plastic. This shirt delves into the grotesque thought of what would happen if a spoon and fork mated. The results are shocking. Description

I liked this shirt because it looked like it would be a positive shirt. This is an example of how people still feel that mixed families are a “grotesque thought” and that people in mixed heritage families are “shocking”

I know some people might say, but its just a shirt, its silverware not real people, but I say that it is still offensive because if you change out the spoon for my dad, the fork for my mom, and two of the sporks for my sister and I you would have my family, and you would be calling us a “grotesque thought”.

I have written them to express my annoyance/anger/disappointment.

Regarding your Silverware family Shirt:

I very much like the design of the silverware family shirt. As a mixed person, I have seen the Spork concept used before to convey mixedness. I really liked the family (as it were) as they are all smiling and such. But the description??? come on seriously… “This shirt delves into the grotesque thought of what would happen if a spoon and fork mated. The results are shocking.”
While I know that this is about a Fork and a Spoon, i think your description conveys an idea that mixed race or mixed heritage families are offensive. If this description were positive I would have bought the shirt, but I am too annoyed to do so and I think you should really consider changing this description.

I hope some changes are made. Its too bad because I liked the other shirts they have.

Update: Their response