Tiny Factory T-Shirts

Me thinks Audrey is a little too sensitive. Where's your sense of humor? Seriously, who can remember those "I'm not Japanese" or "I'm not Chinese" signs she's referring to? Lighten up, girl!

Gook is that sort of all purpose Asian racial slur we've all experienced. The worst one I had thrown at me was "Rice-Nigger" during high school. Man, talk about offending two minority groups at the same time in one convienent easy to use package!

I always found "gook" weird. Some say it's a slur for Koreans but vietnamese were called "gook" too. I never really find it all that offensive since "gook" in korean means "soup." I mean, I'd rather be called soup than a lot of other things. I like soup. Mmm... soup.

The really stupid thing was that the white boys in my junior high thought I was lying that I was from Korea while the '88 Olympics was on. They thought I was lying to be cool. Oh yes, I'm so cool now that Korea hosted the summer Olympics.

Word up. When "gook" was written on my locker at high school, the principal was maybe more aghast than I; I was annoyed the loser couldn't figure out the slur for Chinese. Idiots!

If you got the point then great. But really, I don't need a smart person telling me to dumb down my intended message so ignorant people will get it. I get plenty of that at work.

My point isn't to educate ignorant people. Nor to point out that koreans want unity. That should be obvious to anyone who reads the papers. The point is to laugh at them.

I like laughing at ignorant people. And it's good since there's so many.

What fun is being discriminated against if I can't laugh at it?

I think the only way that t-shirt could be taken the wrong way is if it was worn by a non-Asian person. The message would be diluted on say, my English friend, Peter Smith. In the context presented in the image above, the shirt states quite clearly you're not making/testing nukes in your backyard (both literally AND figuratively!) and you really don't want to have to repeat the same tiresome conversation over and over again. That's all. Good job.

I found the shirt quite humorous simply because I am Korean and am constantly asked which part of Korea I am from. I feel that it should offend me somehow, but the sheer fact that it answers an ignorant question that is asked so often outweighs the offense.

Sam -

I can understand the point of the shirt. But, the issue is obviously too subtle for the 'ignorant' which is why I object to your awareness message being enrypted in Secret Ironic Code. If someone is blunt enough to lump all Koreans/Asians together, what is the chance he will catch the hidden meanings in your shirt, ie "We Koreans really all want to be united"? The issue of racial discrimination is too sensitive for tongue-in-cheek references among the enlightened. FYI I'm not Korean.

That last post was by me, addressing Audrey's post.

Audrey, thanks for more T-shirt ideas. I should have paid attention during history class.

On a more serious note, I'm not sure if you're Korean or not, but if you were, you'd probably realize that pretty much what every korean wants before their death is a unified Korea. That and a whole lot of tasty gimchi... and some tigers back in the wild. The ones Japanese troops killed off during their occupation, oh i mean raping, of Korea to break our spirits. At least we didn't get nuked.

Anyway, the point of the shirt is to point out people's ignorance. Those who like the T-shirt seem to understand that.

It's not like being South Korean is that much better.

I think this shirt is a horrible reminder of the "I am not Japanese" signs during WWII and "I am not Chinese" signs earlier than that. The idea behind this shirt weakens the position of all Asian Americans in an already racially-unequal society.

How about a shirt for us black guys that says: I'm NOT a rapper, thug, basketball player, NYT fibber, Al Sharpton supporter, undercover homo-thug, or interested in stealing your Segway.

*But I 'will' do a Joe Boxer undies dance for cute girls.

My favourite ever T-shirt: "Cover me in chocolate and throw me to the lesbians"

Okay... now I know what all my siblings will be recieving for Christmas this year!

To: Other Asians on here

Sorry, I am not asian bashing, but just trying to just humor to survive in these crazy times which we live in.

BTW, my mother is from north korea. Ooops I hope that didn't make into the FBI database. But hey, she's still a patriotic american... so don't worry.

I want a "I'm not Kansan" shirt :)

I just hope that the North Koreans don't do anything truly stupid - like lob a nuke at the US.

If they did do such a thing, then most of America will have to do without some "basic necessities" for a few months:

1) No laundry or drying cleaning service - people will actually have to use their own laundry machine, but don't worry, instructions to your laundry machines can be downloaded from the internet!

2) Most of the chinese food restaurants will have to shut down for a few months- again, try not to PANIC. There are many websites on the internet that actually have decent recipes for chinese food, and some even offer streaming videos - www.foodtv.com. Whoa Cool!

3) Maybe worst of all for single males - no "massage parlors" oh... ok, that was a bad one, sorry ;-)

HOT!

Dude, you just got yourself a tinyfactory "panda" t-shirt!