Negro Ink E. L. PLEASANT
JEREMY SCOTT
BLACKS ONLY
Los Angeles-based designer Jeremy Scott is trying to weather the controversy
over his collaboration with Adidas. The JS Roundhouse Mids, which were supposed
to be released in August, feature ankle shackles, which sparked some talk that
the sneakers were racist and recalled slavery. Today, Adidas cancelled the
shoes, even though the company had denied any connection to slavery earlier.
In a statement yesterday, Adidas said, "The design of the JS Roundhouse
Mid is nothing more than the designer Jeremy Scott’s outrageous and unique take
on fashion and has nothing to do with slavery. Jeremy Scott is renowned as a
designer whose style is quirky and lighthearted and his previous shoe designs
for adidas Originals have, for example, included panda heads and Mickey Mouse.
Any suggestion that this is linked to slavery is untruthful." Today,
Adidas basically said the same thing, but added, "We apologize if people
are offended by the design and we are withdrawing our plans to make them
available in the marketplace."
Scott has been trying to explain his inspiration:
“MY WORK HAS
ALWAYS BEEN INSPIRED BY CARTOONS, TOYS & MY CHILDHOOD… Yes, the shoe
is apparently a reference to My Pet Monster, a '90s toy.”
But the Rev. Jesse Jackson is having
none of that. In a column on the Huffington Post, Jackson wrote:
The attempt to commercialize and make popular more than 200
years of human degradation, where blacks were considered three-fifths human by
our Constitution is offensive, appalling and insensitive. Removing the chains
from our ankles and placing them on our shoes is no progress
For Adidas to promote the athleticism and contributions of a variety of
African-American sports legends -- especially Olympic heroes Wilma Rudolph and
Jesse Owens and boxing great Muhammad Ali -- and then allow such a degrading
symbol of African-American history to pass through its corporate channels and
move toward actual production and advertisement, is insensitive and corporately
irresponsible.
These slave shoes are odious and we as a people should be called to resent
and resist them. If put into production and placed on the market, protests and
pickets signs will follow. Adidas cannot make a profit at the expense of
commercialized human degradation.
Adidas told the Daily News, "Since the shoe debuted on
our Facebook page ahead of its market release in August, adidas has received
both favorable and critical feedback."
The shoes would have cost $350. For four times that, you can get a Kanye
West-designed Nike Air Yeezy 2 on eBay.
Sometimes there is no excuse for ignorance,
especially when you believe that you are superior. Yet they come up with the same recycled
lines, of what their intentions suppose to have expressed. Their unique or bold fashion statement or
what ever the case may be at the time while they reveal their stupidity. This is a grown ass man of some sort that
claimed to have patterned his shoes after some toy, where as he and his toys
need to remain in the closet. Then for
Adidas to come to his defense, which I would not have expected less because
they are just as much the blame as the great Jeremy Scott, for they gave him
the green light. Then to foolishly say,
“He made other shoes with Mickey Mouse and no one was offended.” We are always the butt of their jokes, not
the females but the men. In their movies
we’re never the educated person or the intelligent one, but always the comic
relief in fiction and reality. We didn’t
end up in slavery because of their intelligent but God’s will. For the first shall be last and the last
shall be first, therefore we were once first and we shall be again, because the
Bible said so. It is time to wake up,
stand up and speak up. A school in
Rochester put on black face last year for home coming, portraying Bobby
Brown’s alcoholism and Whitney’s drug addiction and no one found it
disrespectful enough to speak up. This
year they decided to do it again in black face.
This time portraying Chris Brown beating Rihanna, before someone spoke
up, and the first things to come out of their mouths were” They wasn’t trying
to offended anyone, no one complained last year. Wow!
The same things take place in the work place as well when it comes time
for promotion and you are over looked or not thought of. Then they say, “They didn’t think you were
interested or all of a sudden you just don’t have the qualifications after you
have trained half of the people they seem to keep promoting.
Victoria’s Secret
apologizes last week after use of Native American headdress in fashion show
draws outrage. The Company responded to the complaints over
the weekend by saying it was sorry to have upset anyone and that it wouldn’t
include the outfit in the show’s television broadcast next month, or in any
marketing materials.
“We sincerely apologize as we
absolutely had no intention to offend anyone,” the company said
THIS IS WHAT THE WHITE PEOPLE
SAID: Thousand of people have commented
about the outfit on the company’s Facebook page. Some praised Kloss’ attire as artistic and
urged those offended by it to “get over it.”
THE NATIVE AMERICAN’S: “We have gone through the atrocities to
survive and ensure our way of life continues,” Navajo Nations spokesman Ermy
Zah said in an interview Monday. “Any
mockery, whether it’s Halloween, Victoria’s Secret – they are spitting on us. They are spitting on our culture, and it’s
upsetting.”
HISTORICALLY, headdresses are a
symbol of respect, worn by Native American war chiefs and warriors. For Great Plains tribes,
for instance, each feather placed on a headdress has significance and had to be
earned through an act of compassion or bravery.
It is easy for the white people
to be ignorant about another race feelings, for not one have yet to have their
homes entered into, and found their mothers, daughters, wives raped, then
butchered or sold in the middle of the night, to have to live within the past
and future memories there of.
You have never seen a Native American male or female
disgrace themselves in public or on
Televisions shaking their ass or two women kissing have
you? I guess it is too late for us
to talk about becoming a proud race once more. For THINKING OUT LOUD, I’m
E. L. PLEASANT.
STORY BY:
E.
L. PLEASANT
STORY
EDITOR
BRANDON
DE’LEONCE
MUSIC
BY:
BONONIASOUND
SHINERECORDS
ISTOCK
PHOTO
PRODUTION
MANAGER
JOHN
WESLEY
THIS PRODUCTION OF THINKING OUT LOUD IS PROTECTED UNDER THE
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DUPLICATION, ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTION OR EXHIBITION MAY RESULT IN CIVIL
LIABILITY AND CRIMINAL PROSECUTION
COPYRIGHT
© 2012
E’SDROP
PUBLISHING
COUNTRY OF FIRST PUBLICATION UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CONTRIBUTORS:
The Bing Corporation
Black Voices
Huffington Post
Yahoo
You Tube
Istockphoto
Bononiasound
Shinerecords
Malcolmxfiles.blogspot.com
Cornel West
AP
NBC
Kevin Young
Ashwini Bhatia
Andrew Jacobs
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