Thursday, April 26, 2007

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

19 comments:

abebech said...

That's a great letter.
So glad the t-shirt was pulled.

Life in Fitzville said...

Great letter! And thanks for the link... looks like our voices were heard!

Swerl said...

Thank you both for stopping by. I really enjoyed what you wrote as well!

Bully for us!

Rhonda said...

Great letter! Thanks for adding your voice to the fight.

(Also, thanks for stopping by my blog.)

Swerl said...

Now that you know where I am, don't be a stranger!

Clickin Mama J said...

I've posted about it and complained!

Third Mom said...

Well said - and I am so glad that shirt is gone.

I would have been happier if it had never been, but I'll take it gone, too.

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