Viet-Justice

Urban Outfitters has ticked off some people for marketing a shirt that reads “New Mexico, Cleaner Than Regular Mexico,” Yeah, whatever! Capitalism is what America is all about and the stink over this less than clean shirt will surely drive sales through the roof.

Jose Quinonez of BlueLatino.org said “They need to remove that T-shirt [from its stores] because it’s offensive and soft racist. What I mean by that is that they don’t outright say it, but they allude to the ‘dirty Mexican.’” I believe Mr. Quinonez is suffering from an affliction that most Americans have. Most Americans seem to think that there is always some hidden meaning in anything that people say. This is why effective business conversation consists of a) saying nothing but jibberish b) being so vague you can easily repudiate your statements if they offend anyone or c) being so vague that you avoid offending others while not communicating your point. If the shirt plainly says “dirty Mexican” then that is what it says, no arguing that. The sad thing is most Europeans and Asians would not be able to find “dirty Mexican” in the caption on the shirt. I certainly don’t see “dirty Mexican” written anywhere unless the new way of spelling it is “New Mexico, Cleaner Than Regular Mexico,”

The Anti-Defamation League is calling for a halt to the sales because it implies that Mexico is a dirty place. I hate to break it to the Anti-Defamation League but on an urban scale Mexico is a dirty place. You can’t dispute fact that Mexico City is the most polluted place on the planet. Since Albuquerque can’t be higher than number one the statement that New Mexico is cleaner is more than Regular Mexico is true. For some reason people are offended by the truth.