"I'm Swirled" T-shirts: Cute or Controversial?

Stefania Pomponi Butler (CityMama) — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 00:02:00 GMT

Parents of multi-culti kids, would you dress your children in a t-shirt that showed a graphic of a brown and white soft-serve ice cream cone with the caption, "I'm swirled?" Would you purchase a shirt with a slice of rice bread next to a bowl of rice with chopsticks stuck into it? (By the way, that's a huge no-no in Asian cultures.)

Swirl Syndicate makes this graphic wear which targets multicultural kids and over the past couple of years, the company has gotten lots of people talking. And the talk hasn't been all positive.

Are the clothes cute or controversial? Are swirled cones and shirts that read "She's my mommy not my nanny" funny or do they pander to a white person's "What are you?" curiousity? I have to admit that my first impression of the tees were "cute," and I've read that other parents of hapa (or mixed Asian) feel the same. But other multi-cultural parents feel quite the opposite. I can see their point that the shirts do tend to focus on just one aspect of a child's culture, "white" + "other." To some shirts like this are a form of ethnic pride, to others it's a superficial and simplistic way to describe one's cultural heritage. Where do you fall?

Strollerderby : bi-racial

"I'm Swirled" T-shirts: Cute or Controversial?