Urban Outfitters Follow-up

My letter to Richard Hayne/who else is blogging about this:

My letter:

Dear Mr. Hayne:

My wife and I are adopting a girl from Ethiopia. My sister was also adopted into my family via a closed domestic adoption in 1976. I grew up in Lancaster, PA and have been a customer of Urban Outfitters in Pennsylvania, New York and Los Angeles.

I've recently seen what I consider to be a demeaning and offensive T-shirt, sold at Urban Outfitters, which reads: "Adopting is the New Black". Obviously a reference to Angelina Jolie and Madonna, it nevertheless trivializes adoption, adoptees, the motives of adoptive parents and diminishes the bond they share. All of this adds up to re-enforcing a cultural prejudice that adopted kids are somehow "less than" children, in comparison to biological children. This is certainly not how my parents felt, and certainly not how I feel (I am also the father to two "bio" sons).

I am very active on the online adoption community, running a blog that gets a thousand visitors per week and links to approximately 150 other adoptive family/adoptee blogs, which receive similar traffic.

I assure you, those of us who seek to help our families and improve the lives of children here or abroad, will not patronize a store that seeks to belittle our children in pursuit of a misguided attempt at cultural commentary.

I strongly urge you to consider the impact this shirt will have on the very real day-to-day lives of adopted children. I hope that you will be moved to take action and remove this shirt from your store.

Other thoughtful posts on this issue:

A NEW FLOWER BLOOMS

LIFE IN FITZVILLE

OUR JOURNEY TO "LITTLE MAPLE" AND BACK

THIRD MOM

THE VOYAGE

CHSFS ETHIOPIA FORUM

4 LITTLE BIRDIES