Asian American leaders Monday called on a national apparel retailer with dozens of locations to pull a t-shirt with offensive images from sale.
The t-shirt resurrects several stereotypes including the chop stick font, take out boxes, and laughing Buddha. It also takes a jab at Asians who mispronounce the “L” sound by regurgitating the “wok” pun.
“Images like that just perpetuate stereotypes about Asian Americans that we’re all foreigners, that we don’t speak English,” Gena Gong, an Asian American studies lecturer, said to KSEE.
“My children are part Japanese, so I do find it offensive,” says Rebecca Gutknecht, a Central California resident.
Comparisons have been made to a similar t-shirt one once sold by Abercrombie and Fitch. That retailer pulled the controversial items from its shelves 20 years ago after national outrage.
Tilly’s said it had no comment.
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RE: Uproar grows over offensive t0shirt sold by national retailer: Thanks for the Tilly’s article (T-shirt). I wrote an email to them. They’re idiots; HQ is in Irvine, CA. Irvine is very Asian.