Meet Chris Renfro. Last month, in a case that went wholly unnoticed in the company's unending news flow of highly credible sexual harassment accusations and that lost chihuahua story, he sued American Apparel for race discrimination. (I know, like you put it past them.) We just took a look at his complaint and wondered if it might hold some deeper meaning for hipsterkind. Renfro contends that, while working on the "industrial design and construction" of an American Apparel store (context: said job pays $11.25 an hour) he was called the N-word incessantly by a co-worker named Sean Alonzo who allegedly said they "could use more" N-words at American Apparel (ha ha ha ha) and then proceeded to neg him by bringing a friend he described as "really racist," — along with said friend's vicious dog! — to a store they were opening. Reading the complaint, I remembered how there once was a time when this Vice magazine hipster racism thing used to shock me. Now it just seems sad! And it looks like Renfro agrees, judging from a Malthusian MySpace post he wrote the day before the suit was filed maintaining his hipster tormenters need to develop actual skills. After all, "what is graphic design going to do for you when you're starving?"
Thursday, July 17, 2008 Slavery now Current mood: thoughtful Hello Friends, i'm writing this little blog to find out what people consider slavery and freedom. I've had these ideas in my mind since i was a child and they are starting to make my life really hard now. Well lets see.... My idea of slavery is not having a choice of what you want your life to be like, not being allowed to make decisions to better your life, being forced to live a certain quality of life, and my list goes on. I guess the easiest way for me to explain is by showing you how we live as americans. Why in america is everyone given a social security/tracking number at birth, is this really something necessary or government convenience. Why are all americans taught white history , when this is one of the most diverse places in the world? Why are their private schools even in elementary , is this to make certain members of society more elite ? Why are we forced to pay for education(college) that is vital for our survival in our nation? Is this a way to keep certain social classes contained and to lead them into becoming products of their environment. I know that their are such things as scholarships and loans, but what does that really mean when we could just look out for our well being. With banks closing so rapidly, what are you going to do with your hard earned money my friends and where will your money go. Are you going to continue you to pay taxes for living in a country founded on stealing,raping,lying. Paying taxes is something that peasants did because kings forced them to.Do we really want to stay ignorant, broke, deceiving, scared of one another. If all power went out tomorrow what would you do, would you be able to start a fire, would you be able to grow your own food, would you have drinking water, knowledge of how to catch and clean a fish, or even shelter. If our president declared marshal law what would you do? My friends we are all slaves in this country, i hope that you are ready for survival of the most efficient. Please teach yourself a trade or a skill, something that you can actually use if shit really hits the fan. You have to think what is graphic design going to do for you when your starving?
Some key pieces from the lawsuit: