A Texas school district has banned a football team from wearing T-shirts with the slogan "Shhhhhhh just let it happen" after questions over whether the message could also glorify rape.
The shirt was designed by senior members of the Arlington Martin High School football team and printed by the football booster club.
It reads "Martin Football" in big gray letters above an image of a Native American man that represents the school's Warrior mascot.
To the left of the man is a pirate flag, with a skull and crossbones, along with the words "We take what we want, and below the flag is the phrase "Shhhhhhh just let it happen."
The issue came up after the school's newspaper staff raised concerns about the shirt in a meeting and published an editorial in the bi-monthly publication.
The editorial titled "Out of bounds" read: "The shirt's main message is to state the player's idea that there is no need for the opponent to put up a fight in letting our team take the ball away from them.
"Can this saying be easily misunderstood? Yes. Though it certainly was not the goal of the shirt, its slogan connotes rape culture. This is not what we want to display as a slogan for our Varsity football program," it adds.
The Warrior Post's editor-in-chief Jerred Osterman, a Martin HS senior, told NBC 5 that the newspaper was motivated to write its editorial after a female student approached a staff member with concerns over the T-shirt.
The coach of the team, Bob Wager, said that they did not consider the shirt to be inappropriate or offensive in any way adding that they would never have allowed it to be made or worn if they had.
He claims it referred to "the act of piracy, taking what you want. What we want is the football."
School district spokeswoman Leslie Johnston said that officials believed the team had not intended the slogan to be offensive but, nevertheless, that the t-shirts have been banned.
No comments:
Post a Comment