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Community reacts to ‘racist’ t-shirts

Ho lee chit tshirtBy Gaby Wy
AsAmNews Intern

 
Asians are noticing a specific category on Café Press—and they’re not happy about it.
 
There’s a category on Café Press, a custom designed merchandise store, titled “Ho Lee Chit.” The merchandise varies from mostly t-shirts to stickers, aprons and drinkware.
 
Café Press sells all of the items through the “Ho Lee chit” category, but each item has a different design creator. Thus, the designs differ, some with Chinese characters accompanying text and others with cartoon Asians doing karate.
 
The offensive shirts perpetuate Asian stereotypes while mocking Asian languages. There are some items in the category that say “Holy Chit” with the chop suey lettering.
 
Café Press did not respond to repeated attempts to reach them for comment.Ho lee chit tshirt
 
A quick Google search for the term “ho lee Chit shirts” reveals a number of retailers sell these items: Walmart, Amazon and users on Etsy, to name a few.
 
In a private Asian community group, a user created a poll with a link to the Café Press t-shirts asking if they are “racist and offensive.” Forty out of 44 people within five days of the poll said yes.
 
One user commented, “While there are far worse and ignorant offenses, crap like this paves the way for racism. It’s like a ‘gateway’ to meaner, more debasing racism.”
 
Other users said the t-shirts were “nonsensical” and “stupid.”
 
“I hate how it’s acceptable to the general public to make racist jokes about Asians but not other ethnicities,” another user said.
 
At the 2016 Oscars Ceremony, the community had a similar reaction as the user above—Hollywood was in dire need of diversity, yet host Chris Rock poked fun at Asians.
 
After that ceremony, New Republic quoted Karin Wang of the advocacy group Asian Americans Advancing Justice as stating the following: ““It’s easier to target Asians because it seems safer. It’s a community that’s viewed as less likely to rise up en masse and speak out.”
 
Asian Americans are displeased with the continuing degradation of their culture—and they’re turning to Facebook to say something about it.
 
“It’s just unnecessary,” one user said. “Period.”
 

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