Not Sweating the Shop, Apparently

Last week, we posted a couple of thoughts on shoes and their weighty political significance. It seems that Ray Fong still illicits a reaction even after Adidas has pulled the Y1 HUF from the market... but the real response I wanted to provoke was with that image of the little girl. You know, the photo showing her slaving over those Nikes for pennies an hour? Well hey, at least that pair won't have some regretable racial caricature on the tongue. We should all be able to sleep better knowing that.

Alright, enough with the smarminess. I'm probably wearing sweatshop clothing as I type this. And I kind of doubt that the girl is making Nikes. Whatever. I just think it's sad that we get upset when it looks like our image is being harmed, but when someone gets harmed in the process of making our image, we don't get half as worked up.

It doesn't have to be that way. Not long ago, I saw a documentary entitled Grassroots Rising about sweatshops and workers' rights, and was pleased to find today that the filmmakers have a site that can provide direction to those who are interested in learning more about this kind of stuff. Please visit it here; some of the links are outdated, but there's still a lot of useful information worth checking out.