Terry: You raise a good point; however, it must be noted that those of us who work at Spencer’s don’t control our inventory and we receive new shirts and supplies all the time. So while nothing may have offended you when you started working there, it’s entirely possible that we will receive something over the course of time that will offend you. So I can see that point - every since the new CEO took over, we’ve been getting more political humour, which I think is fantastic, but then it’s all political humour I agree with. If we started getting pro-Bush shirts, I might be offended too (not that I can imagine much of a market for such shirts )

Dr. Gail: That’s along the lines of the way I see it too. I made a brief diary about this on DailyKos and was SWAMPED with offended people leaving my comments. I think my favourite was the guy who said he felt sorry for my wife or girlfriend, because I was clearly such a belligerent sexist (you can read the post and the comments here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/28/51729/1583/192/485928 ).

Kyle - I think you’re spot on. What gets me is that these people who are outraged genuinely believe they are helping the situation. But you know what it says to me, when people jump down my throat for sexism or racism - and bear in mind, I have been a dyed-in-the-wool, sieg-heiling RACIST in my past, I am familiar with what constitutes real racism in a way that many of these people never will be - it says to me that these people believe that they need to stand up for these other people because those people can’t stand up for themselves. And that is a far more insidious “ism” than any wordplay T-shirt ever could be.

The analogy I’ve been making is the Irish alcohol joke. It’s a standing joke in every country on the planet that the Irish are ridiculous alcoholics; that we drink more in a weekend than most people do their whole lives; that we’d run the planet if nobody had invented whiskey; and so on. Now, most of us have had at least a brush with somebody who suffers from actual alcoholism, and it is in NO WAY a laughing matter. It is a terrible disease. So why is it ok to make that joke, but not the bros before hoes joke? The answer is that nobody thinks the Irish need defending - we can stand up for ourselves. In a very real sense, this artificial outrage is making things worse for African-American’s and women. Remember - less than 100 years ago, “Irish need not apply” signs were common in every city in America. Part of the rapid progress has certainly been the fac that the Irish look whitebread, by and large, but I feel at least part of the progress is also because we’re treated as regular citizens by the language - we’re entitled to our own sense of outrage and nobody gets outraged on our behalf, which means nobody is thinking of us as second-class citizens.

As for the shirt itself, you know, and here’s what to think about. DrGail’s point reminds me of the point of the pastor who is now heading up the Church the Clinton’s belonged to when they were in the White House. Briefly, that there’s a kind of language barrier that we’re all kind of afraid of crossing when we discuss things like race and gender.

I am reminded of an instance years ago when I was out having beers with a friend, and I described my youngest brother as a “Mulato”. My friend raised an eyebrow over the rim of his beer glass and said, “You know you’re not supposed to say that, right? It’s a derrogatory term.”

I didn’t know, it was just a term I learned when I was much younger and I kinda missed the memo that pointed out it was now a slur.

On the flip side, there’s a difference between using words out of ignorance, out of parody (which this t-shirt does), and out of actual hate. What strikes me about the t-shirt is it reminds me of a usage of the same phrase in an episode of House, and in both cases it seems more like the vernacular is being parodied more than the people involved. Indeed, I think the true comedy of the shirt itself comes from applying such a colloquial term to what is often a very up tight and strict sphere of influence that has an incredibly tight control over its linguistics.

I think what causes the humor here isn’t calling Hillary a “ho” but this comic juxtaposition of essentially two different worlds.

In the end though, I think when we come to talking about these touchy boundaries that divide us, I think step one has got to be, look, we’re going to offend each other, but the real goal is to say what we really think, and then listen to what others actually have to say and digest what they think. You can never promise to not be offended, but you can make an effort to take the offense in stride and work through it.

But because we don’t do this, because we get in a situation where red flags pave the barrier between races, people are only sharing what they really feel amongst their own, or, we’re just preaching to the choir.

An excellent example in a different topic is Israel. People are so quick to claim any statement made that is in the slightest bit critical towards Israel is anti-semitism and in such a way, we can’t realistically talk about Israel and its role in the middle east and it shuts us off from solutions that could stabilize the region.

But if I chose to work there, knowing what Spencer’s is all about, it seems a little hypocritical to complain about that particular t-shirt.

Sort of like choosing to work at Hooters and then complaining about the uniform??

At some point, we have to stop being so immensely sensitive to political correctness. Too often, anything that could potentially be considered offensive by anyone is suppressed. This incredible push toward keeping everything PC gives rise to unimaginable paranoia about anything that might smack of sexism, racism, sexual harassment, lack of patriotism, or (God forbid!) not child-friendly.

This country used to stand for embracing people’s differences and achieving a kind of blending of those differences only through aggregation. Now it seems that homogeneity is the only safe course of action.

You’re right, Kyle: it seems like a simple question on the surface but it’s really not. I’m curious what other people think.