Fnaaar.
But surely they are taking the piss?
History not Nike's strong point.
Re: History not Nike's strong point.
Gob wrote:Adidas has sparked outrage and been accused of 'promoting slavery' by creating a new pair of trainers which have bright orange 'shackles' that fit around the wearer's ankles.
The clothing giant is under fire for its August scheduled release of the JS Roundhouse Mids, which many have compared to the devices worn by black slaves in 19th Century America.
The seemingly innocent promotional material, uploaded to Facebook earlier this month, asks: 'Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?'
But the shoes have sparked angry debate online, with many saying there is a more cynical tone to the advertisement.
More than 2,000 people have labelled the design 'offensive' and 'ignorant' and say the firm has 'sunk to new lows' in its 'slavewear' product.
Dr Boyce Watkins, writing for Your Black World, said: 'Shackles. The stuff that our ancestors wore for 400 years while experiencing the most horrific atrocities imaginable.
'Most of which were never documented in the history books and kept away from you in the educational system, all so you'd be willing to put shackles on your ankles today and not be so sensitive about it.'
The Professor at Syracuse University said he accepted some people would accuse him of overreacting.
But he added: 'There is always a group of negroes who are more than happy to resubmit themselves to slavery.
'I'm offended by these shoes as there is nothing funny about the prison industrial complex, which is the most genocidal thing to happen to the black family since slavery itself.'
Others have likened the shoes' orange 'bracelets' to the shackles worn by prisoners across the America, or said the firm is 'promoting slavery'.
Facebook user Kay Tee agreed, and said: 'It's offensive and inappropriate in many ways. Not to mention ugly.
'Regardless if the company was saying the shoes are so hot you have to chain them to you, or they were capitalising on the whole prison style popularity.
'But corporate business has a social responsibility above all to consider these perceptions before releasing a product like this.
'How would a Jewish person feel if they decided to have a shoe with a swastika on it and tried to claim it was OK in the name of fashion?'
Adidas has been contacted by Mail Online, but has so far not commented on the claims.
It seems Adidas did not want to be outdone by fierce competitor Nike in the controversial shoe design stakes.
The complainants are whiffing. Complaining just to hear the keening whine of their own voices.
They are trying to complain that the imagery of shackles belongs exclusively or primarily to them and their history. That any use of that image necessarily refers to them in the way that the (various) victims of the Nazis can claim it.* Bullshit.
yrs,
rubato
*Jews were 1/2 of the holocaust victims along with homosexuals, Gypsies, Communists, Protestants &c.
Re: History not Nike's strong point.
Protesants? In Martin luthers Backyard? you sure on tyour history there?
Okay... There's all kinds of things wrong with what you just said.
Re: History not Nike's strong point.
I imagine it will come as a surprise to no one given the stunning (and frequently hilarious) level of ignorance that rube has regularly displayed for years on any and all matters related to history, that he absolutely no idea what The Holocaust was....Jews were 1/2 of the holocaust victims along with homosexuals, Gypsies, Communists, Protestants &c.
The Nazis murdered many people....
In addition to the ones on rube's list, they also murdered Roman Catholics, Gays, Free Masons, Jehovahs Witnesses, Slavic intellectuals, Socialists, and Christian Democrats....
Bu the term "The Holocaust" has never been intended as an umbrella phrase to include all the murder victims of the Nazis.
It refers specifically to the Nazi extermination program against the Jews, and it does so for a couple of very good reasons.
First, all those other groups that found themselves persecuted by the Nazis were persecuted because the Nazi regime saw their views or their behavior as a threat to the state.
Not so with the National Socialist policy towards the Jews. In the case of the Jews, the Nazis saw what they viewed as a "criminal race" which needed to be completely exterminated; it had nothing to do with what views individual Jews might hold, or their practices, their national origin, or their class or education.
The mere fact of their being Jews, without any other consideration qualified them for persecution.
The other factor that makes the Nazi persecution of the Jews unique versus any other persecutions they conducted is the priority they placed on it, and thus the system they put in place to carry it out. In no other case, other than that of the Jews, were the principles and technologies of the industrial assembly line applied to the business of mass murder. They created a centrally organized, systematic process for collecting, warehousing, transporting, and ultimately exterminating the Jews of Europe that reached into every corner of Europe that they occupied. And they devoted substantial resources to carrying this out, even when the tide of the war had clearly turned against them. It was a top priority.
Nothing remotely like this was directed against any other group. There was no "Final Solution" for anyone but the Jews.
I certainly do not intend to in any way denigrate the value of the lives of non-Jews who were murdered by the Nazis. Their lives had just as much value as the Jews who were murdered.
However, for the reasons I've briefly outlined, the nature of the Nazi terror against the Jews as a group was unique. And it is for that reason that the phrase "The Holocaust" applies (and has always applied) uniquely to the Jewish experience with Nazi barbarism.
Re: History not Nike's strong point.
The Romani were killed because they were Romani in an exact parallel to the Jews:
http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/people/victroma.htm
"
Romani (commonly but incorrectly called Gypsies) were considered by the Nazis to be social outcasts. Under the Weimar Republic--the German government from 1918 to 1933--anti-Romani laws became widespread. These laws required them to register with officials, prohibited them from traveling freely, and sent them to forced-labor camps. When the Nazis came to power, those laws remained in effect--and were expanded. Under the July 1933 sterilization law, many Romani were sterilized against their will.
In November 1933, the "Law Against Dangerous Habitual Criminals" was passed. Under this law, the police began arresting Romani along with others labeled "asocial." Beggars, vagrants, the homeless, and alcoholics were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
The Nuremberg racial laws of September 15, 1935, did not specifically mention Romani, but they were included along with Jews and "Negroes" as "racially distinctive" minorities with "alien blood." As such, their marriage to "Aryans" was prohibited. They were also deprived of their civil rights.
By the summer of 1938, large numbers of German and Austrian Romani were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. There they wore black triangular patches (the symbol for "asocials") or green patches (the symbol for professional criminals) and sometimes the letter "Z."
As was the case for the Jews, the outbreak of war in September 1939 radicalized the Nazi regime's policies towards the Romani. Their "resettlement to the East" and their mass murder closely parallel the systematic deportations and killings of the Jews. It is difficult to determine exactly how many Romani were murdered. The estimates range from 220,000 to 500,000.
Source: Dr. William L. Shulman, A State of Terror: Germany 1933-1939. Bayside, New York: Holocaust Resource Center and Archives.
"
http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/people/victroma.htm
"
Romani (commonly but incorrectly called Gypsies) were considered by the Nazis to be social outcasts. Under the Weimar Republic--the German government from 1918 to 1933--anti-Romani laws became widespread. These laws required them to register with officials, prohibited them from traveling freely, and sent them to forced-labor camps. When the Nazis came to power, those laws remained in effect--and were expanded. Under the July 1933 sterilization law, many Romani were sterilized against their will.
In November 1933, the "Law Against Dangerous Habitual Criminals" was passed. Under this law, the police began arresting Romani along with others labeled "asocial." Beggars, vagrants, the homeless, and alcoholics were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
The Nuremberg racial laws of September 15, 1935, did not specifically mention Romani, but they were included along with Jews and "Negroes" as "racially distinctive" minorities with "alien blood." As such, their marriage to "Aryans" was prohibited. They were also deprived of their civil rights.
By the summer of 1938, large numbers of German and Austrian Romani were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. There they wore black triangular patches (the symbol for "asocials") or green patches (the symbol for professional criminals) and sometimes the letter "Z."
As was the case for the Jews, the outbreak of war in September 1939 radicalized the Nazi regime's policies towards the Romani. Their "resettlement to the East" and their mass murder closely parallel the systematic deportations and killings of the Jews. It is difficult to determine exactly how many Romani were murdered. The estimates range from 220,000 to 500,000.
Source: Dr. William L. Shulman, A State of Terror: Germany 1933-1939. Bayside, New York: Holocaust Resource Center and Archives.
"
Re: History not Nike's strong point.
Multiple groups were marked for systematic extermination. Note 'targeted groups' below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_victims
"...
In addition to Jews, the targeted groups included Poles (of whom 2.5 million gentile Poles were killed) and some other Slavic peoples; Soviets (particularly prisoners of war); Romanies (also known as Gypsies) and others who did not belong to the "Aryan race"; the mentally ill, the deaf, the physically disabled and mentally retarded; homosexual and transsexual people; political opponents such as social democrats and socialists; and religious dissidents, i.e. members of Jehovah's Witnesses and Catholics.[2][3] Taking into account all of the victims of Nazi persecution, they systematically killed an estimated six million Jews and mass murdered an additional eleven million people during the war. Donald Niewyk suggests that the broadest definition, including Soviet civilian deaths would produce a death toll of 17 million.[4]
Despite often widely varying treatment (some groups were actively targeted for genocide, while others were mostly not), these victims all perished alongside one another, some in concentration camps such as Dachau, some as victims of other forms of Nazi brutality, but most in death camps, such as Auschwitz, according to the extensive documentation left behind by the Nazis themselves (both written and photographed), eyewitness testimony (by survivors, perpetrators, and bystanders) and the statistical records of the various countries under occupation. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_victims
"...
In addition to Jews, the targeted groups included Poles (of whom 2.5 million gentile Poles were killed) and some other Slavic peoples; Soviets (particularly prisoners of war); Romanies (also known as Gypsies) and others who did not belong to the "Aryan race"; the mentally ill, the deaf, the physically disabled and mentally retarded; homosexual and transsexual people; political opponents such as social democrats and socialists; and religious dissidents, i.e. members of Jehovah's Witnesses and Catholics.[2][3] Taking into account all of the victims of Nazi persecution, they systematically killed an estimated six million Jews and mass murdered an additional eleven million people during the war. Donald Niewyk suggests that the broadest definition, including Soviet civilian deaths would produce a death toll of 17 million.[4]
Despite often widely varying treatment (some groups were actively targeted for genocide, while others were mostly not), these victims all perished alongside one another, some in concentration camps such as Dachau, some as victims of other forms of Nazi brutality, but most in death camps, such as Auschwitz, according to the extensive documentation left behind by the Nazis themselves (both written and photographed), eyewitness testimony (by survivors, perpetrators, and bystanders) and the statistical records of the various countries under occupation. "
Re: History not Nike's strong point.
OTOH
Adidas may have been trying to associate themselves with Justin Timberlake, and his song, 'Sexy Back' still in circulation;
Some folks say this song popularized the slang 'twerkin', and others say it's a tribute to S & M.
All N all, the shackles are supposed to sex play.
Adidas may have been trying to associate themselves with Justin Timberlake, and his song, 'Sexy Back' still in circulation;
Dirty babe
You see these shackles, baby I'm your slave
I'll let you whip me if I misbehave
It's just that no one makes me feel this way
Take em' to the chorus
Some folks say this song popularized the slang 'twerkin', and others say it's a tribute to S & M.
All N all, the shackles are supposed to sex play.
