Posted on 08/22/2006 12:04:41 AM PDT by Mo1
In this summer of gun deaths, T-shirts promoting violence are popular in the city
HAMEEN NURIDDIN is no stranger to what the streets can dish out.
He works for the city school district, in the office that is responsible for school safety. It's his office that responds when students are affected by violence in or out of school.
That's why Nuriddin was so dismayed when his 16-year-old son, Yusef, brought home a shirt he had recently purchased from Kicks USA in the Quartermaster Plaza, at 22nd Street and Oregon Avenue in South Philly.
The white T-shirt has an oozing, blood-red "38's" on it, with a checkered "38 Specials" written across the chest.
But what incensed Nuriddin the most was the design near the bottom of the shirt, which seemed to represent everything that his career - not to mention his role as a father - was meant to prevent:
Two young black men, with eyes blotted out, aiming handguns at each other's heads.
"We immediately took the shirt back" to Kicks USA, said Nuriddin, a longtime administrative sergeant with the school district's Office of the Chief Safety Executive and a South Philly resident.
"I told the manager to give us our money back," he said. "There's just too much death and carnage in the city for them to be selling something with such a negative message."
When the Daily News went to the store last week, that shirt was no longer for sale. But similar T-shirts promoting violence and drug dealing can be found at stores from South Philly to West Philly to Center City.
Following the senseless success of the "Stop Snitchin' " T-shirts, many stores are now selling T-shirts with slogans just as damning - or worse:
• Shirts depicting angry, drug-dealing snowmen with the slogan "Trapper of The Year" - slang for Dealer of the Year - available at the South Philly Kicks USA.
• "MasterThug" shirts, sold at SneakerVilla on N. 52nd Street near Ranstead in West Philly, which feature a copy of the MasterCard design - but instead of credit card numbers, the gauges of guns such as the AK-47 are shown.
• One shirt, found at Cap USA on S. 11th Street near Walnut, is a twisted knock-off of an Utz potato-chip bag. It features masked men with guns atop a pile of money. And instead of Utz's smiling cartoon girl at the top, there's a cartoon of a masked thug holding a gun and money. "Gutz - No guts, no glory," reads the shirt. "Gangstas don't die. We multiply!"
Offensive T-shirts have been around for decades, usually with sexual or drinking themes.
Plenty of smutty shirts can be found at shore beachwear outlets and even in mall stores. Urban Outfitters, the trendsetting chain headquartered in Philadelphia, has repeatedly offended some sensibilities with some of the shirts it sells. Just this year, the Anti-Defamation League denounced a shirt sold there for St. Patrick's Day that read, "Erin Go F--- Yourself."
Some of the shirts sold at a few city stores also glamorize drug use. One such shirt, sold at Ace Men's Wear on S. 52nd Street near Walnut, is a knockoff of a Cap'n Crunch cereal box; on it, "Cap'n Blunt" is smoking marijuana.
"Net Wt.: Chronic," reads the smaller print.
That's one end of the sleazy-shirt spectrum. On the other end are shirts that glamorize violent crime, guns and drug dealing - shirts that aren't funny at all as Philly wrestles with rising shooting and murder rates.
One is a knockoff of the Warner Brothers "WB" logo, stating that "if you see the cops, Warna Brotha." Another depicts what would be considered a successful drug dealer: pockets bulging with money and plastic baggies.
Both T-shirts were available for purchase at 3rd Fashions, another store on the popular West Philly shopping strip.
Another sold at Cap USA features three masked men, one with a handgun, one miming holding a shotgun.
"Rob the Jewelry Store - Tell Em Make Me a Grill," it reads (also the opening line to rapper Nelly's 2005 hit, "Grillz").
Another chilling shirt at Cap USA features the headline "Arrested." Under it, on a series of fingerprints, is a series of crimes: "Car Jacking." "Assault with a Deadly Weapon." "Drugs." "Mob Action." "Money Laundering."
"I am who I am," the shirt reads at the bottom.
Most of the store managers refused comment, instead referring us to their respective home offices, where messages were left and never returned. (See accompanying story.)
Whatever the store owners have to say, some youths don't seem to grasp the correlation between wearing these shirts and the violence that grips some of Philadelphia's inner-city communities.
"The shirts have nothing to do with street life," said 17-year-old Marcus Fellows, standing at 52nd and Market Street.
"People have been hustling and shooting before printed T-shirts. No T-shirt ever went to court for murder."
Stacy Brown, 17, of North Philadelphia, said that he knows about the shootings through the news, but doesn't see a connection, either.
"There have been a lot of shootings, but I don't know what the T-shirts have to do with it," he said, outside SneakerVilla on 52nd Street.
"Besides, most of [the T-shirts] tell the truth, with brothers shooting each other."
That attitude confounds Nuriddin.
"There's always going to be generational gaps, and I know we see things through a different set of lenses," Nuriddin said. "I just see it as a downward spiral."
Yusef, his father said, has always been a respectful, bright kid. He excels at Central, where he is entering the 11th grade with A's and B's, Nuriddin said. By all accounts, Yusef has a lot going for him.
But this is the second time he brought home a T-shirt with questionable imagery. Before, he brought home a "Stop Snitchin' " T-shirt, which his mother and father immediately threw out.
So why would a good kid want to buy such a T-shirt?
"That was carelessness on me. I wasn't like 'Oh, a gun,' when I bought the shirt," Yusef said. "With the 'Stop Snitchin' ' shirt, I knew that was bad, but it's like when you're wearing it, you're not really conscious of the message.
"Kids get the design," Yusef said, "while parents get the message."
Laurence Steinberg, professor of Psychology at Temple University, said when kids wear violent T-shirts it doesn't mean that the kids themselves condone violence.
"We live in a culture that glorifies that type of thing," he said, referring to gun violence. "Wearing shirts like these allows kids to try and appear tough without actually doing anything risky.
"I don't think that it has anything to do with violence in particular," he continued. "I've never heard of anyone killing someone because of a T-shirt.
"However, the negative effect in my opinion is that it makes people take serious things - like murder, guns, and drugs - less seriously."
One good thing did come out of Yusef's purchase of the shirt. Hameen plans to be more involved with Yusef.
"We as parents have to be more vigilant. We have to know what our kids are buying and we have to be out there to ensure that retailers aren't offering up this type of merchandise," Nuriddin said.
"You don't see this in other communities . For whatever reason, they don't allow it."
"I told the manager to give us our money back," he said. "There's just too much death and carnage in the city for them to be selling something with such a negative message."
If the mere message is going to upset you so much ... how the hell does he deal with reality?
I give him credit for stepping in and doing his job as a parent
Cripes. How disgusting.
And sad ... because these kids don't have a clue
Yeah.
Send these kids to Iraq if they want to play with guns.
"...'I am who I am,' the shirt reads at the bottom..."
Shouldn't it read, "I is who I be" in order to satisfy their South Philly intended tee-shirt clientele?
~ Blue Jays ~
Frankly, I am tired of the disgusting violence, sex, and filth depicted on T-shirts. There was a time when a shirt might be a little risque and fun but, today, they're just disgusting.
I applaud the father for taking the shirt back to the store and demanding his money back. That's a rare commodity these days called parenting.
The trashy fashions and disgusting, violence-ridden messages on T-shirts worn by kids today are part of the legacy of rap, gangsta rap and hip-hop. This is what this "art" or "music" has brought this country to.
OTOH, IMAO has some pretty funy tshirts for sale on his site...
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