What Does Your T-Shirt Say About You?

Despite the incessant talk in all media and people in the street everywhere, about crises, recession and unemployment, a considerable number of Spanish are enjoying their summer vacations in New York, the country they had in the past resisted visiting, for being too far away and too expensive. With the present currency exchange rate $ / € highly tipping the favour on the latter, it's an opportunity they wish to take advantage of.

Knowing my aversion to the kind of T-shirts with all sorts of absurd messages right across the chest, (proclaiming, declaring, condemning, jeering, including obscenity, vulgarity or blasphemy,) a Spanish friend on holiday in NY sent me an e-mail telling me what he read there in the local press "Metro".

A white girl of 25 bought a T-shirt in Manhattan, with the printed phase across the chest "Obama is my slave". A few days ago, she put on that T-shirt, wearing her earphones of the iPod and went out for a walk. When she reached Union Square, 4 black girls saw and immediately went up to surround her, yanking the earphone off her, pushed her, spat at her, and threw at her all variety of nasty names, including some never heard of.

She wasn't physically hurt, but she decided anyway to present a lawsuit against the shirt designer. But he, the designer, retorted that he was not guilty of anything. He could put anything on his T-shirts as he pleased, it's the girl herself who had chosen it, bought it and paraded in the street with it on. I agree with him up to that point; putting aside his being such an imbecile to consider himself a designer

One would have thought, that girl was a real idiot as well, to display such a phrase on her body in New York, or in any other city, or in any corner of the world. No matter whether she is or not a racist. If she was, advertising that phrase was asking for big trouble to say the least. It's quite possible she wasn't. Buying it then wearing it because she thought it funny or cute.

That brings me back to one of the pet hates of mine, T-shirts with ridiculous messages. I once saw a man in the street, with a well trimmed moustache, expensive looking designer sunglasses, and on the front of his T-shirt, it reads "I have a hole in my ass". Given his clean and tidy appearance, I sought an excuse for his defence, that he didn't understand English, bought the T-shirt for it's colour, design, whatever.

Then I threw that hypothesis out. Why would anybody half sane wish to carry a huge sign on his chest without knowing what it says? If he did know, why did he wish to announce it so? He was another imbecile, I decided. Apart from the hole in his ass, he no doubt has another in his skull, the size of a brain.

Tags:newyork,obama,t-shirts

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