Saigoniste To Remove Ho Chi Mama
Sign Now
We the undersigned are writing to express our outrage at your store's use of a Vietnamese caricature, Ho Chi Mama.
http://www.saigoniste.com/
http://www.monkey.org/~dugsong/tmp/saigoniste.jpg
http://www.saigoniste.com/news_tips.html
Your play on Ho Chi Minh's name and having her speak in broken English is ridiculous. By keeping Ho Chi Mama, you perpetuate stereotypes that Vietnamese and Asian Americans have been battling for centuries. The "fortune cookie dialect," romanticism for colonialism, and disregard for complaints made to your store in the past year, are all reprehensible. Ho Chi Mama is offensive and a reflection of your ignorance. We find no humor in your effort to belittle and repackage Orientalism for consumption.
We are a people, not a marketing tool.
Love Vietnam? Love the people? Then love our voices and anger. It's beyond being un-PC to market a country like a hip shopping mall. To maintain that it is right to keep Ho Chi Mama by virtue of her popularity with your Asian and non-Asian patrons denies culpability. Fortunately there are Asian, non-Asian, and particularly Vietnamese who make it a point to not patronize your store explicitly because of Ho Chi Mama. Stereotypes affect more people than those who frequent the Soho and Nolita areas in New York City. Stereotypes affect communities everywhere.
We ask that you remove Ho Chi Mama from all forms of marketing (product tags, window display, website, etc.) and submit a public apology to the signatories of this petition. While your shop maintains that Ho Chi Mama is not offensive to a majority of people, this petition will demonstrate otherwise.
http://www.saigoniste.com/
http://www.monkey.org/~dugsong/tmp/saigoniste.jpg
http://www.saigoniste.com/news_tips.html
Your play on Ho Chi Minh's name and having her speak in broken English is ridiculous. By keeping Ho Chi Mama, you perpetuate stereotypes that Vietnamese and Asian Americans have been battling for centuries. The "fortune cookie dialect," romanticism for colonialism, and disregard for complaints made to your store in the past year, are all reprehensible. Ho Chi Mama is offensive and a reflection of your ignorance. We find no humor in your effort to belittle and repackage Orientalism for consumption.
We are a people, not a marketing tool.
Love Vietnam? Love the people? Then love our voices and anger. It's beyond being un-PC to market a country like a hip shopping mall. To maintain that it is right to keep Ho Chi Mama by virtue of her popularity with your Asian and non-Asian patrons denies culpability. Fortunately there are Asian, non-Asian, and particularly Vietnamese who make it a point to not patronize your store explicitly because of Ho Chi Mama. Stereotypes affect more people than those who frequent the Soho and Nolita areas in New York City. Stereotypes affect communities everywhere.
We ask that you remove Ho Chi Mama from all forms of marketing (product tags, window display, website, etc.) and submit a public apology to the signatories of this petition. While your shop maintains that Ho Chi Mama is not offensive to a majority of people, this petition will demonstrate otherwise.
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Goal
1,000 signatures
Goal: 1,000
Latest Signatures
12 February 2016
29 January 2016
29 January 2016
28 January 2016
25 January 2016
24 January 2016
20 January 2016
4 January 2016
4 January 2016
30 December 2015
991.
Deborah Kg
|
City, State
Stow, OH
If something is said or done to offend a person(s), why would you continue to do or say that thing? Just to be bull-headed or cruel? I don't get it.
27 December 2015
24 December 2015
16 December 2015
12 December 2015
29 November 2015
23 November 2015
12 November 2015
984.
Model M
|
City, State
Chapel Hill, NC
A political cartoon about this movement is at http://modelminority.com/images/postcards/mama.gif
10 November 2015
3 November 2015
982.
Natalie Chaub
|
City, State
denver, colorado
It's bad enough that some people are still stupid enough to stereotype us in the first place, but to take it to a level where someone is profiting from the ignorance? That's just plain unprofessional.
18 October 2015
981.
Kim N
|
City, State
California
I went into the store out of curiousity when I was in Soho last week and walked away in disgust that you people are profiting off of an impoverished country whose long history of colonialism still damages its people today. Are you
17 October 2015
13 October 2015
979.
Tamara D
|
City, State
New York, New York
I find the website and sign horribly offensive. I'm even more concerned about the owners' apparent lack of understanding, true interest and respect for Vietnamese culture.
12 October 2015
978.
Charlene M
|
City, State
Big Apple
Thanks for removing from your web site the bit about "love longtime" since it's clearly a reference to Vietnamese prostitutes in war torn Saigon. You said you'd be keeping the "Ho Chi Mama" character, though. Great idea: Ho Chi Mama
12 October 2015
977.
Jean W
|
City, State
Medford MA
You can claim ignorance and unintentional racism just one time. Now that you've gotten quite a few and phone calls to let you know that imagery and materials you're using for your marketing are racist and offensive, what's keeping
10 October 2015
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