Seatowngrrl.com

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.

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

Over 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 

Diversification is a wonderful thing. This is an ad from the Wall Street Journal about a week ago.

I put off writing about this picture for a few reasons. The first reason was that I wanted to calm down a little and compose some coherent thoughts instead of just ranting as to how offensive I think this add is. I know that I will have to justify my reactions because not everyone sees it the same way that I do.

The first thing I thought of when I saw this add was ’seriously????! Do people not see how this could be offensive?’ This sentiment was echoed by a couple other people who I showed this to (one mixed, and the other the mother of mixed children). Black dog + white dog = diverse dog (ie mutt). That someone is equating being diverse (aka - mixedness) with mutts. I assume that they took one dog and then photoshoped it.

The second thing I thought of is that they are implying that the world is a black and white place, and that diversity is strictly a combination of the two.

Why if the add is talking about diversifying a portfolio and they wanted to use dogs, why did they not round up a bunch of dogs from a bunch of different breeds? Why didn’t they have a cockapoo, and a puggle as well as some other breeds. Or have different sizes and colors. If the add was like that I would have no problem with it, because it would imply diversity, and showing the multitude of possibility, which in my mind is what it means to represent diversity.

I would love to talk to the person or people who put together this add, and ask them why they thought this was a good idea.