Wildwood: The Inappropriate Truth
Wildwood continues to change and stay the same.
A ton of condos are there now, and the doo woop architecture still is fading. And even the boardwalk is going upscale some; the place that didn't sell anything costing more than $25 now has hipster stores with $150 handbags. Still, it's a step up from the classic trinket shops that all sell the same junk of beach wear, inappropriate T-shirts and booty shorts with "Joe's Property" on them, that Rosemary and I love to ridicule and never buy.
But there was a new twist to he inappropriateness this time that I hadn't seen before. I was used to the "StonedBob BongPants" and "Chronic the Hemphog" shirts, and the "arrow down" shirts with stupid shit like "free hand lotion, pump below" and "breathalyzer test, blow below." But now more than ever there were a bunch of anti-immigrant shirts ("Why do I have to press 1 for English?") and racial ones - the worst being the Capitol building with a Confederate flag on top.
And in a store that sells "vintage" tin signs, I found one of a National Review cover painting of a black child eating watermelon like it's the greatest shit on earth. And thena few behind it, a sign for "Pickaninny" watermelon, with an honest-to-god, I've-only-seen-this-in-museums-and-"Bamboozled" pickaninny drawing on it.
Yes, that shit.
Now, I have no real problem with an antique store selling something like this. Racist memorabilia should be kept and remembered. It's one of those grand examples I trot out when some folks say something that overlooks or downplays the pervasiveness of American racism and the power of images. Kinda makes everyone go "Holy shit!" for a minute. But how do you get NEW reproductions of this, and from where?
I wimped out and decided not to crusade while on vacation: I didn't take the sign up to the confused 19-year-old working the cash register and yelling "Why are you selling this?!?!" By the time we got back to the store later, it was closed, and then we left the next morning. I had other things to do, and I tend to let racist fucktards be so of their own accord as long as they don't touch my life. (Different story, different reaction: When Rosemary and I started finding racist stickers on stop signs around her neighborhood, we tore them down, talked to the police, and other things.) Shit, I don't even know if he knew it was in there, knew what it meant, or was even from this country and understood it. But the wrong person may get hostile on that sign, and the store, sooner or later.
A ton of condos are there now, and the doo woop architecture still is fading. And even the boardwalk is going upscale some; the place that didn't sell anything costing more than $25 now has hipster stores with $150 handbags. Still, it's a step up from the classic trinket shops that all sell the same junk of beach wear, inappropriate T-shirts and booty shorts with "Joe's Property" on them, that Rosemary and I love to ridicule and never buy.
But there was a new twist to he inappropriateness this time that I hadn't seen before. I was used to the "StonedBob BongPants" and "Chronic the Hemphog" shirts, and the "arrow down" shirts with stupid shit like "free hand lotion, pump below" and "breathalyzer test, blow below." But now more than ever there were a bunch of anti-immigrant shirts ("Why do I have to press 1 for English?") and racial ones - the worst being the Capitol building with a Confederate flag on top.
And in a store that sells "vintage" tin signs, I found one of a National Review cover painting of a black child eating watermelon like it's the greatest shit on earth. And thena few behind it, a sign for "Pickaninny" watermelon, with an honest-to-god, I've-only-seen-this-in-museums-and-"Bamboozled" pickaninny drawing on it.
Yes, that shit.
Now, I have no real problem with an antique store selling something like this. Racist memorabilia should be kept and remembered. It's one of those grand examples I trot out when some folks say something that overlooks or downplays the pervasiveness of American racism and the power of images. Kinda makes everyone go "Holy shit!" for a minute. But how do you get NEW reproductions of this, and from where?
I wimped out and decided not to crusade while on vacation: I didn't take the sign up to the confused 19-year-old working the cash register and yelling "Why are you selling this?!?!" By the time we got back to the store later, it was closed, and then we left the next morning. I had other things to do, and I tend to let racist fucktards be so of their own accord as long as they don't touch my life. (Different story, different reaction: When Rosemary and I started finding racist stickers on stop signs around her neighborhood, we tore them down, talked to the police, and other things.) Shit, I don't even know if he knew it was in there, knew what it meant, or was even from this country and understood it. But the wrong person may get hostile on that sign, and the store, sooner or later.