Who cares, it's just a joke.

I used to hear it all the time when I was in college and active in publicizing social issues. The apathetic majority's response to activism was usually along the lines of "Get over it. It's just a joke." or "There's too much political correctness. Get a life!"

What's ironic is that I've said that myself about some issues, usually issues I care little about. I suspect the same is true of many other people. You don't care until you do, so to speak.

Five or six years ago, Abercrombie & Fitch came out with a line of T-shirts that had slogans that made fun of Asians. An example: "Wong Brothers Laundry-- Two Wongs can make it white." One company official even said that they thought that Asians would love the shirts. Well, many Asians didn't, and made some noise, demonstrating outside Bay Area stores. The response from White America, and White-washed Asians? The typical "It's just for fun" bullshit. We got the same response when a hateful email was posted to a fraternity listserv at my university around the same time. I think the problem is that if you let jokes based on stereotypes become socially acceptable outside of friends, then it becomes much more pernicious.

Anyway, recently, Abercrombie came out with yet another slew of offensive T-shirts. This time, the shirts were offensive to girls. Slogans included "Who needs brains when you've got these?" (across the chest), "Give me something to scream about" and "Blonds are adored, brunettes are ignored". So some high school girls have organized a "girlcott" and have even met with top Abercrombie executives.

Personally, I think they're kind of funny and don't really care one way or the other about the T-shirts. Maybe they should just get over it-- it's just a joke.