70 Students March Against T-Shirts at Telegraph Store

About 70 students marched to Bear Basics yesterday, not to buy clothing, but to protest a number of T-shirts at the store that they called “offensive” and “disrespectful” to people of color.

The protest began after several students complained on Saturday about a shirt the Telegraph Avenue store carried that read “Rutgers Nappy Headed Hoes Basketball Team,” in reference to a comment made by radio host Don Imus about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

A manager was asked to stop selling the shirt but he refused, so students began a larger effort to have it removed, said Keyanna Hatcher, a senior and African American studies major who helped organize the rally.

The shirt was removed before the store opened on Sunday, said Jonathan Fernandez, the store’s vice president.

But Hatcher and other students saw two more shirts they found offensive in the store window on Tuesday, so they organized a crowd to protest at the store yesterday afternoon, she said.

“We want to make sure they look at things they are sending to the students,” Hatcher said.

The students are also trying to urge the manufacturers of the shirts, including Deez Teez and Tank Theory, to stop distributing some designs.

Two shirts distributed by Tank Theory feature a clown in what protesters said was black face and a group of people hanging from a tree, a concept design the company’s art director, Zach Johnsen, said dates back to the Middle Ages, when people were hung for their beliefs.

Johnsen said the shirts are not meant to indicate any specific racial groups and apologized to students who he said misunderstood the shirts.

Representatives from Deez Teez, the manufacturer of the Rutgers shirt, could not be reached for comment.

Eight shirts that protesters found offensive were ultimately removed from the store yesterday.

Fernandez discussed the shirts with the 70 students inside the store. He also met with Hatcher and UC Berkeley alumna Brandelyn Castine to discuss alternative designs that portray people of color in a positive way.

He said he was sympathetic to students’ concerns.

“We’ve been selling shirts for so long (and) no one has ever complained about anything,” Fernandez said.

Shirts in Bear Basics are either selected by two buyers at the store or sent directly from the manufacturer, he said. He could not verify whether the disputed shirts had been selected individually.

Students said that the designs’ message cannot be overlooked.

“We’re at Berkeley, which is supposed to be one of the most open and diverse campuses,” said Teresa Deberry, a freshman Spanish major. “(This) is ignorance projected on a T-shirt.”

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