Offensive Fukudome T-Shirt Top-Selling Item At Souvenir Stand
Souvenir stand operator Mark Kolbusz said that a T-shirt for Cubs RF Kosuke Fukudome with the "traditional Cubs cartoon bear face but with slanted eyes and wearing oversized Harry Caray-style glasses" is the "hottest-selling item" at his stand that sells unlicensed Cubs gear across the street from Wrigley Field, according to Gordon Wittenmyer of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. The image on the shirt is accompanied by the the words "Horry Kow," written in "cartoonish 'Japanese' script," and Fukudome's name and number are on the back. Kolbusz: "That's the No. 1 seller this year, by far." But Wittenmyer writes the "mere creation of this shirt -- but especially its popularity -- sends a raw, vulgar message about" Chicago. Fukudome, after being shown one of the shirts Thursday, said through his interpreter, "I don't know what the creator of the shirt meant this to be, but they should make it right. Maybe the creator created it because he thought it was funny, or maybe he made it to condescend the race. I don't know." Wittenmyer writes the image "feeds not only ugly, arrogant and ignorant Japanese stereotypes, but also the stereotype of the obnoxious, profane, drunken, booing, garbage-throwing Cubs fan." Kolbusz said he is "indifferent" to the image on the shirt. Kolbusz: "I'm making money. It doesn't offend me. If other people are offended by it, it's just a silly T-shirt. Nobody is trying to offend anybody." Fukudome: "I knew I was coming to a different country, so I expected something like this. Maybe not necessarily racial, but that anybody could take any context of my words and degrade me if they wanted to" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 4/18).
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