Olympic Couture
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Sameer Reddy, Newsweek, August 20, 2008
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The biggest sports-related news stateside has been the redesign of the U.S. uniforms by Ralph Lauren, who took the reins from Canadian company Roots. Lauren has built an empire by becoming the unofficial outfitter of the American Dream, marketing an idealized image of America’s former ruling class to the nation at large. However, the WASP aesthetic he sells—think of characters from “The Great Gatsby,” clothed in tennis whites and delicate tea dresses—has come to represent a classist and racist set of ideals, hardly representative of the current multicultural social fabric of the United States. A strange choice then, to redefine the U.S. team’s visual identity in this way, even as it marches further away from the 20th century, when WASP power reached its peak. But if one stops to consider America’s shaky status as the world’s preeminent superpower, Lauren’s nostalgic, retro creations begin to make more sense.
His designs for the Olympic team’s appearance at the opening ceremony consisted of navy blue blazers (emblazoned with a gargantuan Polo logo) paired with white button-downs and matching trousers, accessorized with a jaunty white newsboy cap and red, white and blue silk tie or scarf. His ensembles for the closing ceremony are more casual, with white sleeveless knit-sweaters and crisp cotton-shorts. Social conservatives would probably fail to read anything insidious into these outfits—after all, at least the U.S. team looked pulled-together and semi-formal—but the clothes, in and of themselves, are not the problem. The issue is that the Polo brand is built upon an aesthetic intended to communicate to the world, the wearer’s successful assimilation into the traditional institutions of upwardly-mobile American culture—the elitist world of typically WASP-only country clubs, prep schools and cotillions. {snip}
{snip}
(Posted on August 21, 2008)
Comments
We were thinking a more hip-hop motif would have been apropos. It would represent to the world just how far this once great nation has fallen.
Posted by at 6:09 PM on August 21
I suppose what this writer thinks the American athletes (even the white ones) should wear at the opening and closing ceremonies is FUBU.
Posted by Question Diversity at 6:16 PM on August 21
Ralph Lauren gets no federal funding for his work and he can pick and choose what the heck he wants to create. Sameer needs to focus on more important issues like the racist criminal behavior of blacks and browns.
Not all of us buy into this multicultural doctrime pushed by folks like him. I am looking forward to my next holiday in East Hampton where I will sip sweet tea from a lawn chair at the Polo Club surrounded by a refreshing and desirable sea of crisp, clean whiteness.
Posted by GetBackJack at 6:26 PM on August 21
How about loincloths? They are standard attire in many cultures, and can be accessorized with shells, teeth, bits of antler, stones, you name it. And you get to see lots of butts. Loincloths For The Downwardly Mobile by Ralph Loren. Has a nice ring to it.
Posted by at 6:29 PM on August 21
The cap was terrible at the opening ceremony. Wasn’t it a blue cap? The rest of the time their uniforms have been looking really good, if a bit too revealing.
Posted by Big Racist at 6:37 PM on August 21
What a bunch of aggressive nonsense!
The so-called “Liberals”, particularly those supporting the “civil rights” movement, will never have enough and keep escalating their hostile demands.
First, they just wanted to end segregation and job discrimination, and to build a “color-blind” society.
Now, that’t not enough for them. They want quota and other special favors (like reverse discrimination) for those whose skin color in not white.
Next thing you hear from them will be a declaration that “acting white” is racist.
Just like with a blackmail, when paying a ransom is just an excuse for a demand of even bigger ransom, the more you give away the more you put yourself into trouble.
We should have said “No!” to them right at the very beginning. And since we didn’t, we must say “No!” now. Better late than never.
Posted by A Reader at 6:59 PM on August 21
It’s too bad Jerry Springer and Maury Povich don’t have their own clothing lines. They ARE representative of what “post-WASP” America is all about.
Posted by Michel at 8:11 PM on August 21
In other words, Polo is fashionable. It is created by whites and worn by whites. Blacks are jealous so it must be “racist.”
Posted by Torres at 8:35 PM on August 21
I suppose Mr. Reddy would have preferred the US team to show up dressed in matching Polo jeans 3 sizes too big, belted somewhere just below the hips, Polo boxer shorts peeking out from above, gold grills with the olympic rings inlayed diamonds, Raiders caps with the brims over the ear, and a Lebron retro jersey in 4x. Oh, and for the ladies, doorknocker earrings hanging down to their shoulders.
Posted by johnny99 at 8:39 PM on August 21
“…the elitist world of typically WASP-only country clubs, prep schools and cotillions…”
This Sameer Reddy gets to indulge in the kind of aggressive whitey-bashing that would send him crying to his editor — and possibly also his Congressman and his attorney — had a Euro-American dared to take such a snotty, paranoid, condescending and RACIST attitude toward HIS ethnic group (whatever that might be).
I’d even go so far as to call this “a Sameer campaign.”
As someone who meets all four criteria for WASP, I can assure Mr. Reddy I have never belonged to a country club, attended a prep school, or danced a cotillion.
Not that I wouldn’t like to — I’ve just been too damn busy struggling to keep my head above water while propping up the welfare state and Affirmative Action.
Posted by The Incredible Shrinking White Man at 8:41 PM on August 21
This is hilarious. He’s so out there. Could you imagine actually meeting a person like that?
I wouldn’t stand five seconds of this guy before walking away- announcing over my shoulder that I didn’t like his company loud enough for anyone within ear shot to hear it.
Posted by war at 9:17 PM on August 21
The author of this article, Sameer Reddy, is obviously a product of our illustrious higher education system and an affirmative action pick of Newsweek. Like most east Indians, he idolizes his former colonial rulers. “Multiculturalism”, is newspeak for lock step marxism. If Mr. Reddy wants real cultural clash I suggest he return to India. If he finds a White dressed as a typical White may dress to be racist, does he also find an Indian dressed in a sari to be racist? And in case he has lost touch with his ethnic homeland the past 15 years, India, after trying grinding poverty for several centuries, has decided to give upward mobility a shot. I wonder if that makes them racist? Maybe Sameer is just angry because he got a degree in journalism rather than engineering or medicine like most of his fellow Indians.
Posted by Flamethrower at 9:29 PM on August 21
Maybe they should have worn gang colors. Would that be progressive enough? Why stop there? The English that is used is standard White English. That shouldn’t be allowed. Instead, they should use ebonics and refer to athletes as “homies” and “hos”. If the American team loses, I’ve noticed their response is typical white: accepting it gracefully. This cannot be allowed. Instead, they should fall upon the winning team with chains and knives. That would be more representative of today’s America. Then there’s the Olympics themselves. Weren’t they a White invention? Just call the whole thing off then; can’t have any of that “dead white guy” stuff going on.
Posted by jewamongyou at 9:47 PM on August 21
What do blacks know about fashion? Men wearing sloppy football shirts, baggy pants, ugly red basketball shoes and their women wearing big hoop earrings, leopard prints and military berets. Speaking of hats, black church ladies like wearing big retro looking hats to service. I’ve got news for you. Those things have been out of style for decades now.
Posted by at 9:51 PM on August 21
When all is said and done, I’d just as soon see America represented by men wearing shirts, ties, and jackets as opposed to doo rags and baggy jeans falling of their rears.
Posted by White, Jewish, and Proud at 10:38 PM on August 21
I guess Polo by Ralph Lauren along with Brooks Brothers will have to be investigated by some civil rights commission for not being inclusive or multicultural in the clothes that they carry. No baggy pants ,oversized hockey jeresy’s, or multicolored base-ball caps. Abercrombie & Fitch got in some hot water a few years back for not having enough diverese models in their catalogue. Does anyone know what happened with that one? My guess is they caved in like all these coward companies do.
Posted by Great White Observer at 11:22 PM on August 21
“…..the elitist world of typically WASP-only country clubs, prep schools and cotillions.”
So, Sameer Reddy is concerned that the U.S. Olympic uniforms are elitist.
It’s the Olympics.
It is elitist.
Posted by S.L. Cain at 11:50 PM on August 21
Perhaps in anticipation of the projected America of 2042, the team should wear sombreros and animal-skin loincloths.
Posted by Cassiodorus at 12:30 AM on August 22
“….the WASP aesthetic he sells….has come to represent a classist and racist set of ideals, hardly representative of the current multicultural social fabric of the United States….when WASP power reached its peak….”
“…the elitist world of typically WASP-only country clubs, prep schools and cotillions….”
I canceled my subscription to Newsweek a decade ago because I was tired of being offended week after week by high and mighty, anti-White, leftist ‘journalists.’
Do the Soviet bosses of Newsweek really expect Whites to read a ‘journal’ that blatantly insults them week after week?
Is it any wonder that:
March 31, 2008 2:57 PM
“…The staff of Newsweek will shrink dramatically after 111 news and business employees agreed to accept redundancy deals. Many of them are experienced, and they include high-profile writers and editors….The decision to dispense with staff is a consequence of a continuing decline in revenues and circulation…”
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/greenslade/2008/03/newsweek_magazine_pays_off_111.html
Good. May Newsweek and every other Marxist news rag that directly insults Whites go down in flames as did the Soviet system they so admire.
Bon
Posted by BonBon at 12:41 AM on August 22
“…..the elitist world of typically WASP-only country clubs, prep schools and cotillions.”
Gee! I’m a qualified WASP, and I have never been to any of those things. I assume Mr. Samir Reddy has? He seems to know more about them than I do.
Am I entitled to assume that Mr. Samir has been to any suttees lately?
Posted by WASP at 4:51 AM on August 22
We need to go back to the original Greek tradition in Olympic dress
“They wore in the Olympics very little. The Olympics were held in the heat of the summer. For safety men performed in the nude. Women wore a simple tunic.
During the Heraea, the Olympics for women, the women performed in tunics.
Women in Sparta were encouraged to perform their athletics in the nude so they would attract a husband who would get them pregnant
http://www.fjkluth.com/olympic.html
Problem solved. Of course this might present problems in the Winter Olympics.
Posted by Southen Hoosier at 6:16 AM on August 22
I didn’t really notice anything racist about the uniforms but…watching the Olympics you can actually see fisthand how race is not a social construct but rooted in tangible differences. Watch track and field and you will see a certain group dominate whether their in a Mother African nation or in the UK, Canada, or the US. In diving whites and it seems Asians dominate and so on and so forth.
It really is a credit to the Chinese to perform so well when they don’t always have the physical ability. I’m sure the heavy handedness of the Communist regime played a part.
Posted by S & GS at 10:16 AM on August 22
This guy is reading way too much into this thing and just proves that a little education is a dangerous thing. I agree that the Polo logo is ridiculously big, but otherwise the athletes looked pretty sharp.
Posted by Veritas at 10:22 AM on August 22
I wonder how many subscriptions to Newsweek will be non-renewed because this piece will have been the “last straw” to some of its readers.
Goes to show that while those who originate from India are in some ways an asset to the USA, their numbers here should be carefully controlled.
I believe there are still quite a few Indians who haven’t gotten over the British Raj and thus have an ax to grind with Whites.
Posted by NHLibertarian at 10:41 AM on August 22
I thought the American costume in the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics were a bit on the bizarre side. I couldn’t figure out what image they were trying to project. Clearly, they had something in mind, but I think it failed to project anything. Straw hats would have worked better. But the entire notion of retro-America is far out of step with the overwhelming black just-off-the-boat look of much of the team.
Posted by Whiteplight at 11:49 AM on August 22
A writer evidently from India, the most class-ist society on earth, where the caste system is still going strong after millenia, criticizes the the Olympic uniforms of the most egalitarian, middle-class society ever seen on planet earth … for being elitist. What can one say?
Posted by at 12:26 PM on August 22
I guarantee not one black American athlete complained about wearing a RL original. I thought the athletes looked great, and VERY American.
Posted by at 12:27 PM on August 22
The poster who requested the Olympics just be cancelled since they were invented by WHITE PEOPLE, has the right idea. IT’s a white thing.
We play by rules, we have impartial judges, we are judged by skill and the winner is gracious and the “loser” accept that he did his best. But this is all “acting white”.
We should give special gold medals, or teeth caps, to affirmative action athletes or maybe “race” norm the swim points and diving events so more qualified Africans can be given a chance to win…..but keep the track and field all black, you know.
But wait, I am sure there is some “professor” of African Studies who can tell us that the Olympics were first performed in Africa and were stolen by those nasty blue-eyed devils.
Posted by at 3:15 PM on August 22
“….the WASP aesthetic he sells….has come to represent a classist and racist set of ideals, hardly representative of the current multicultural social fabric of the United States.”
Well, that’s according to Samir, anyway. (I can’t believe I’m reading this! If these remarks were about any non-white group, the journalist would have been fired.)
“I canceled my subscription to Newsweek a decade ago because I was tired of being offended week after week by high and mighty, anti-White, leftist ‘journalists.’ “
Bon
Good for you! Unfortunately, I can’t cancel my subscription, because I already have.
The other one that I get, however, is probably just as bad.
Posted by ghw at 3:44 PM on August 22
Okay, Sameer Reedy is from India, what qualifies her to judge what American athletes wear? Does a pretty face qualify you to be a judge? I don’t get it! I think the above poster was right when he said we should just call off the olympics. After all, it is a white thing, the rest of you wouldn’t understand.
Posted by Roller at 4:23 PM on August 22
I bet no one even considered this until it was mentioned in the original article. This habit of creating “racism” out of nothing only stirs up those who have an axe to grind. They now have one more thing to batter Whitey over the head with.
Posted by IrishBlood-EnglishHeart at 4:41 PM on August 22
Well let’s see the Greeks (a Eurocentric race) started the Olympics blacks or browns never could have mastered the historical record long enough to even know there was such a thing let alone resurrect it.
It seems to me that whitey has the right to do as he pleases since there would be no olypics without them.
Posted by Tim Kennerly at 5:34 PM on August 22
Warning! The following is an example of typical sarcasm as expressed by none other than that sarcastic dilettante himself, MoMo. Furthermore, it may be considered inappropriate viewing by anyone who thinks that Jonathan Swift is the brand name of a bird, liquor, condom, preacher, NBA player, or hot dog.
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Hmmm I just love the polo stuff as it is usually well made and generally looks good. That said, I’m sure that in order to be politically correct our athletes should wear the more up to date fashions created by oh ….perhaps …. yes I’ve got it …….. none other than that fashion trend setter himself….. SNOOP DOGGY DOGG DOGG!
That’s it! Baggy pants that have to be constantly pulled up with one hand while the wearer’s colorful baggy red boxers are constantly being exposed (it might make it somewhat difficult to carry the flag however). The “pants” attire must be properly topped off of course; and what better way to carry the “look” to its logical conclusion than with an extra, extra, extra large sweatshirt! But what to put ON the shirt itself? Hmmm … how about Malcolm’s, Barry’s, or a glock’s photo on the front staring at the viewer straight on, along with something snippy on the back like “dust cops not crops”!
Lets not forget the music in our enthusiasm! Wouldn’t we also need the proper music for our athletes’ entrance? Something uniquely American right? You’re thinking Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American right”? Nah, think diversity, always think diversity!
Again I’ve got it! Just what could possibly be more appropriate in today’s hip hop, diverse, multi cultural world than the originator of rap music itself, the United States, doing a hip hop entrance! Imagine the impression! Imagine how diverse and progressive we would appear to the world!
But whose music? Let me see here! Hmmm… the “music” of…. from(?) ….. hmmmmmm, just a minute,…….. so many rap stars to choose from (even the ones still alive) and so little room here….. and this is important….. it’s coming to me ….
Ah yes, I’ve got it! Who could possibly be more diverse, politically correct, multi cultural, than our current topical musical genius himself …. yes kiddies and kiddioes….. I’m speaking of none other than that great rapper extraordinariness himself…… PLIES!!!!
Note. For those of you whiteys over eighteen or for those of you insatiably curious, you can check him out for yourself on www.pliesworld.com.)
But be forewarned! For those expecting a symphonic masterpiece on the level of Wagner you may require a little more “flexibility” in order to insure that you will fully appreciate the diverse flavor demonstrated by this “current” musical legend!
As they say in that bastion of conservatism, San Francisco, this is the what is, and what is now, it is not the what was, and what was then! The past is dead; the is — is alive! Just scroll on down and check out his impromptu music and videos; but please, do “excuse his hands”!
Don’t you just intuitively and instinctively know that this combination would create an entrance that every diverse member of our increasingly diverse society would be proud of and remember for life … well O.K. THEN DO PLIES WITH A SALSA BEAT!
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[THE FOLLOWING IS NOT SARCASM]
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I, for one, was struck by how good; and, how humble and polite the Chinese were. For example, their diver was probably twenty per cent better than anyone else in the world today. After a virtually flawless dive he would do a very slow, humble bow to the audience. To me that represented pure class!
MoMo
Posted by MoMo at 8:22 PM on August 22
I believe the men performing in the ancient Greek Olympics did so naked. No women allowed. They missed out on beach volleyball.
Jewamongyou: There was a Black former Olympic runner for the U.S. talking with the network announcer who was very critical of the Jamaican’s arrogant and pompous attitude on winning. He thought someone should talk to him about the proper gracious behavior that a winner should exhibit.
Posted by middle-aged magnolia at 9:32 PM on August 22
I agree with the people saying that the Olympics are a white thing. This is why I think it is so funny that China is basing all of its current pride on outdoing us in these athletic events in China. Why don’t Asians ever try to outdo us in something they actually invented?
The Olympics this time around really made me sick. And I really find it fishy that China had such a disproportionate amount of gold medals. I seriously think the Chinese cheat at everything they do.
Posted by Courtney at 3:37 PM on August 24
What’s black and yellow and green and blue with a touch of orange? A black couple dressed for church on sunday. I know you won’t print this one but it does kind of make you chuckle doesn’t it?
Posted by Tessie at 11:49 AM on August 25
“Oh, and for the ladies, doorknocker earrings hanging down to their shoulders.”
with their names in them…don’t forget the names.
Posted by honkyman at 3:54 PM on August 25