Tuesday, September 16, 2014
By Karen Farkas
The Plain Dealer
KENT
The Kent State University community appears to be united in its outrage over a “vintage” red-splattered school sweatshirt sold by Urban Outfitters.
The company apologized, but that only fanned the flames of anger, because most people interviewed Monday in Kent believe it truly wasn’t sorry.
Students on campus said the company had to know that people would associate the sweatshirt with the killing of four students by the Ohio National Guard on campus May 4, 1970. They are pleased the national outrage may have shaken the company, which likely did not expect the outpouring of support for the university — whose colors are navy blue and gold.
As freshmen were led through the May 4 Visitor Center on Monday morning as part of a First Year Experience class, students brought up the sweatshirt — which hit social media early Monday morning, said center director Mindy Farmer.
“There was nothing but outrage,” she said. “May 4 was a sad event, and we are seeing nothing but support [for the university]. They have a sense of history, and for that we are grateful.”
Farmer said the center’s job is to educate each generation, for everyone starts from a different place regarding May 4.
Farmer said the sweatshirt incident is another teachable moment.
“We are the right place to combat ignorance,” she said.
Three freshmen touring the center Monday said they were well aware of May 4 when they applied to the school, are furious at Urban Outfitters and likely will not shop at the store.
“You walk through the parking lot where the posts are marking the place where the students died, and you walk past with respect,” said Mikayla Brown, 18, a freshman from Cincinnati. “It is almost like a tombstone.”
Brown, who is majoring in fashion design, said it takes months to design clothing, and someone in the company must have been aware of the potential reaction.
“I have lost respect for them,” she said.
The company has tried edgy marketing in the past, including a T-shirt that said ‘Don’t Eat,’ but the Kent State sweatshirt went beyond poor taste, said freshman Tyler Reynolds, 18, of Baltimore, a fashion-merchandising major.
“It is still fresh in history, even though it was 40 years ago,” he said of May 4. “I learned about it in high-school history.”
Reynolds and other students said Kent State is their home and they will always support it.
“It’s just in poor taste,” said Haley Haddix, 18, a freshman from Brunswick majoring in fashion merchandising, who was eating lunch in the student center. “It is hard to believe it is a dye thing. And from a design standpoint, it is not stylish.”
Students said it’s likely that the company was aware of Kent State’s history and that a shirt that could be linked to May 4 would attract attention. But they also believe officials were unaware it would elicit such outrage.
Urban Outfitters called the university, but only to say it had posted an apology, said spokesman Eric Mansfield. He said he has been contacted by media from around the world.
Students said they believe the company is not remorseful.
“I thought it was a half-hearted, poor effort,” Marvin Logan, executive director of the undergraduate student government, said of the apology. Logan, 22, a senior from Warren who is majoring in Pan-African Studies, said his first reaction when he saw the sweatshirt was “sick.”
He said many of his family members have attended Kent State. But not his father.
His father was on campus as a football recruit on the day of the shootings. He didn’t enroll because of that, his son said.
Logan said he withdrew a verbal commitment to run track at Ohio State to commit to Kent. He competes in hurdles. He said he never regretted his decision.
“This is where I belong, and it was the best decision I ever made,” he said.