Big Thief Apologize for “Reckless, Offensive” T-Shirt Design

Big Thief have issued an apology for a recent T-shirt design, calling its imagery “reckless” and “offensive.” As they note on Instagram, the T-shirt features “an illustration of cartoon purple arms and hands holding onto jail cell bars.” The note continues:

The jail cell was meant to be a metaphor symbolizing imprisonment of the mind and spirit because of constructs, etc… The arms were intended to be purple so as to avoid realism and race all together but we feel that that thinking was misdirected. We believe that something as pervasive, horrific and insidious as incarceration can not lightly be approached and most especially in avoidance of the issue of race, as the entire incarceration system is fueled by racism. The lack of attention we paid to this symbolism is, to us, is a reason to bring it up. Letting this image get printed on a shirt is just another example of a symptom of being conditioned in a culture of normalized white supremacy and we apologize to anyone who may have felt hurt or uncomfortable with this image.

The Brooklyn band went on to discuss the effects of white privilege in the music industry, and pledged to allocate a portion of the profits from their masters and publishing to “causes that we feel will help to start to address these injustices, starting with initially giving to the Equal Justice Initiative.” They also promised to donate a portion of their touring revenue to organizations that address “environmental justice and the climate emergency.” Read their full statement below.

 

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Η δημοσίευση κοινοποιήθηκε από το χρήστη Big Thief (@bigthiefmusic)