When it comes to Odd?Future, there’s usually nothing stranger. If you’ve never listened to their music, you’ve probably at least heard of them or the controversy that surrounds them like a cloud.
The rap group has been critiqued for its crude and politically incorrect lyrics but praised for their originality, and frontman Tyler, the Creator — their usual source of controversy — has made headlines again.
In their new summer collection of GOLF clothing and accessories on golfwang.com, there’s a shirt featuring the White Pride World Wide symbol colored in rainbow scheme with the words “Golf Pride World Wide” printed around it.
With it, Tyler himself wrote a long description about the shirt’s backstory. He describes his obsession with reading about dictators, including learning about the Nazi regime, and discovering modern day hate groups like Neo-Nazis, the Klu Klux Klan and the White Nationalist?Community.
Tyler, himself a black man, writes, “What if a black guy wore this logo on a shirt? Would he be promoting self-hate? Would he be taking the power out of a shape? What if a gay guy wore this on a shirt? Would he (be) promoting Homophobia? Then bam!?I had it.”
He ends his message with, “You should know what you are wearing. Be safe, love. Racism fucking sucks.”
In the lookbook, Tyler wears the shirt in question and holds hands with a white man who’s also wearing the shirt. The shirt has since sold out, but stickers and patches of the controversial symbol can still be purchased on ?the site.
What Tyler has done here can be seen as pretty innovative on his behalf. I think it’s a grand idea and one of the better ones he’s promoted in a while.
Here we have a symbol of hate being manipulated to fit a positive message. It’s almost the reverse process of the Nazi’s taking a symbol of peace, the swastika, from Hinduism and Buddhism to embody discrimination and outright ?massacre.
How is Tyler’s icon any different from the black community taking back the n-word or the gay community choosing the word “queer” to define themselves in protest of homophobia? ?The answer is, it isn’t. We’re still taking hate and flipping it on ?its head.
Though they may have started progress in one area, they’re still lacking in another. In the summer collection, there’s a shirt featuring a black woman completely in the nude. Another design displays a black cartoon face under a Klu Klux Klan hood.
The latter could probably be seen as another message against racism, though I’m not quite sure what the significance behind a naked woman is — probably just boobs.
A year ago, I went to Tyler’s concert in Atlanta with my brother during a short visit home. The experience was anything but normal.
Songs like “Trashwang” and “Bastard” made me wonder if I was a bad feminist, though arguments can be made that both are satire.
Meanwhile, with other songs like “48” and “She,” I can’t help but love Tyler and the rest of his posse.
I’m not saying that Odd Future, or even Tyler himself, are the perfect role models. Maybe they aren’t?meant to be.
There are several other areas where the group could be pressed for improvement. But there’s something about this shirt and the motive behind it that should get us all thinking.
Where else can we change the hate game and move toward peace?
maehogan@indiana.edu
