Philadelphia-based retailer Urban Outfitters is again making headlines for a controversial product.
This time, the store is under fire for a wall hanging that is seemingly modeled after the uniforms worn by men accused of having being gay during the Holocaust. The tapestry is covered in horizontal gray and white stripes, and emblazoned with a pink triangle, the badge Nazis gave to men who were thought to be gay.
“Whether intentional or not, this gray-and-white stripped pattern and pink triangle combination is deeply offensive and should not be mainstreamed into popular culture,” said Abraham H. Fozman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League and himself a Holocaust survivor. “We urge Urban Outfitters to immediately remove the product eerily reminiscent of clothing forced upon the victims of the Holocaust from their stores and online.”
ADL has issued a letter to Urban Outfitters expressing concern about the tapestry and the store’s other products that seemingly incorporate Holocaust imagery.
The tapestry is the latest in a lengthy list of Urban Outfitters products that have caused controversy. Last year, the store put out a Kent State sweatshirt that looked to be covered in blood and has been blasted for items that seem to promote anti-Semitic and racist notions, as well as alcohol and drug use and eating disorders. In 2008, the store pulled a shirt that stated, “I Support Same-Sex Marriage”; the company’s CEO is a prominent right-wing Republican with ties to antigay lawmakers.