Hate Breeds Hate: Should Hate Merchandise Be Stopped in Department Stores?


 


“All life in a mercantile society, one sometimes feels, is dedicated to the disguises of wanting. The sin of capitalism, perhaps, is to make wants feel like needs, to give to simple silly stuff the urgency of near-physical necessity: I must have it. The grace of capitalism is to make wants feel like hopes, so that material objects and stuff can feel like the possibility of something heroic and civic.” (Gopnik, 2003) Can this statement be applied to those who are patronizing the so-called “hate items”, items which are adorned by messages of hate? Accordingly, these hate items are giving merchandisers a lot of money. (Moser, 2003)


Moser (2003) said: “When companies like Target [Department Store] market hate items, it usually makes the news. When people start complaining about Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi merchandise sold on online auction sites like eBay, or racist stereotypes cropping up on clothing by Abercrombie & Fitch, the controversy will almost surely land on CNBC, if not on Fox News and in The New York Times. But beneath most people’s radar screens, there lurks a thriving industry that actively markets items promoting and expressing hate — and it’s anything but unintentional.”  


Among extremist experts, the gravest concern about hate merchandise is its “would-be” implication on young people. (Moser, 2003) As a sociology professor from the University of Pittsburgh, Kathleen Blee, had commented on hate marketing, it lures young people towards racism because of their initial attraction to rebelliousness. (Moser, 2003)


So, should hate items still be marketed in department stores? This particular author hopes not. If America is really for justice, freedom and equality, actions on how to stop the spread of the culture of hate should be done in the most immediate time. Hate marketing can be synonymous to planting the seeds of contempt on young people. Accordingly, the successes of social and political movements are accompanied by cultural items and accessories, and the hate movement that is slowly becoming pervasive in the American society is no exception. (Moser, 20030) Putting a halt to the sale of hate items may not be the ultimate solution in preventing the further spread of the hate culture, especially among the youth of the American society, but at least it may greatly contribute towards the achievement of this cause.


Okay. So it is anyone’s right to purchase anything he can afford. Anyway, America has been hailed as a land of opportunity, freedom, equality, and justice. (Perlmutter, 1999) However, “America has also been criticized as a nation born, bred, and nurtured in interracial, interethnic, and antireligious rivalries and conflicts, wherein one group’s well-being was often achieved at another’s expense. Rarely were the conflicts a matter of absolute right or wrong, though each group claimed to be the injured party and utilized varied means to advance or protect itself, including invidious rules and regulations, murder, and war.” (Perlmutter, 199, p. 3) Should America have to prove its detractors right?


 


 


References:


 


Gopnik, Adam. (2003). Under One Roof: The Life and Death of the New York Department Store. In The New Yorker issue of 2000/09/22.


 


Moser, Bob. (2003). Hate for Sale. In Intelligence Report, Issue Number 110,     Summer 2003.


 


Perlmutter, Philip. (1999). Legacy of Hate: A Short History of Ethnic, Religious,    and Racial Prejudice in America. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.


 



Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com


0 comments:

Post a Comment

 
Top