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By Mimi Hanaoka
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Tuesday, April 11, 2006 |
It's very sad and disturbing that in this day and age, this stereotype is coming from a large and global company like Adidas.
—Vincent Pan, executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action in San Francisco, referring to Adidas’ new $250 “Yellow Series Y1 Huf” sneakers, emblazoned with a yellow drawing of a young Asian boy who sports bowl-cut hair, a pig nose, and bares his buck teeth.
Adidas, for its part, denies the accusations of racism and cites the fact that the image was drawn by U.S. graffiti artist Barry McGee, who has used the drawing in anti-racist commentary. Unlike the previous Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirts, also emblazoned with images of Asians — although this time with caricatured faces, garb, commentary (such as “Wong Brothers Laundry Service — Two Wongs Can Make It White,”) and no irony — which caused a furor and sparked accusations of racism, Adidas’ ploy might be better-intentioned. However, Barry McGee’s drawing, stripped of its context, loses its edginess and instead becomes mired in sloppy commentary on race relations that encourages misinterpretation.
—Mimi Hanaoka
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mimi hanaoka 
