Urban Outfitters is under fire yet again for another series of offenses. The Navajo Nation filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the retailer after it allegedly ignored a cease and desist order to remove the word “Navajo” from products, as the term is trademarked under the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act. In a separate incident, the company was taken to task by a U.S. congressman for selling insulting St. Patrick’s Day products, including a green T-shirt that reads, “Kiss Me I'm Drunk, Or Irish, Or Whatever” and a baseball cap that has a figure crawling on all fours, vomiting. The hat’s captions states, “Irish Yoga.”
Urban Outfitters has gained notoriety over the years for crossing the line. It has lifted jewelry designs from small designers, earning it a reputation for thievery, and has released items with off-putting themes, like T-shirts with the words “Eat Less”; “New Mexico, Cleaner than Regular Mexico”; and “Everyone Loves a Jewish Girl,” surrounded by dollar bill signs. In 2003, the company upset the African American community when it sold a game called Ghettopoly, which came with cards printed with statements like, “You got yo whole neighborhood addicted to crack. Collect $50.”
The more recent offensive products have representatives of various ethnic groups lambasting the company’s ignorance through open letters.
In October 2011, Sasha Houston Brown of the Santee Sioux Nation wrote an open letter criticizing the Navajo-named products — which included a “Navajo Hipster Panty” and a “Navajo Print Fabric Wrapped Flask” — to Urban Outfitters’s then-CEO Glen T. Senk that read:
“Your corporate Web site claims to ‘offer a lifestyle-specific shopping experience for the educated, urban-minded individual.’ If this is the case, then clearly you have missed the mark on your target demographic. There is simply nothing educated about your collection, which on the contrary professes extreme ignorance and bigotry.”
A group of legislatures, including U.S. Representative Joe Crowley of New York, who are part of the Congressional Ad Hoc Committee on Irish Affairs penned a letter aimed at Urban Outfitters CEO Tedford Marlow:
“We recently learned of images used by Urban Outfitters in its St. Patrick’s Day clothing line that depict severe and negative stereotypes of Irish and Irish-American people as well as may promote binge drinking,” read a portion of the letter. “We strongly urge you to end the sale of these items.”
At press time the word “Navajo” was no longer found on the Urban Outfitters Web site, but several products with Native American-inspired patterns were still there. A full range of the questionable Irish-themed items were also for sale.
It’s time for Urban Outfitters execs to take some responsibility for their actions. They boast that their customers are educated, but the Philadelphia-based company needs to get an education of its own, specifically through some courses in race relations and ethics. We’re not sure if it’s hipster irony the company is aiming at with its mockery, but it needs to stop. Here’s to hoping Urban Outfitters doesn’t attempt to capitalize on Linsanity with a T-shirt that reads “Me love you Lin time,” one of the distasteful slogans that appeared during New York Knicks player Jeremy Lin’s overnight climb to stardom. But we wouldn’t be surprised.