Trying to follow

note: originally posted in January 2005 in the student newspaper at Wheaton College…

Already Forgotten

It’s Friday now, five days after the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, and like many of us, besides rejoicing that it’s only a four day week, you have not given his legacy a second thought. If upon reflecting on King and his legacy, you only naively rejoiced that his “dream” has been accomplished, but did not weep at the complacency of, We, the Church in carrying out the work that Dr. King, in Christ, called us to; to bring Justice for the poor and oppressed, you are deceived.
The more I have learned about Dr. King the more I am shocked and disappointed at the lack of attention we give to this great hero of the Christian faith. Wheaton College, a school founded by abolitionists should know well the importance of standing up against injustice and for freedom. Dr. King stood bold as a Christian against the injustice of his day and we need to be challenged by this modern prophet of Christ to do the same.
It’s a wonderful thing to see that every year hundreds of students at Wheaton participate in ministries through CSC and their churches. Many of the ministries involve working with youth anywhere from near by Carol Stream to the city of Chicago. These sorts of ministries are tangible ways many students find to share the love of Christ with others. But this alone is inefficient and insufficient. We must not forget King’s example and stand against the systems that are persisting
You might have heard this story before. There was a community that built a school on the edge of a cliff. Upon discovering that a number of students where injured seriously from falling off the cliff, the community decided to build a emergency room at the bottom of the cliff. Though this did help care for the situation, it was reactive toward the outcome of the problem and did not deal with the root. Why did they not build a fence?!

Dr. King stood against the injustice of the Jim Crow laws and the segregated education system because he was compelled by the love of Christ. We too must stand against those structural sins in our society. I challenge every student involved in ministries to youth to become aware of the structural evils that we are a part of in our society. When a child receives an unequal education simply due to their location in an impoverished neighborhood, this is a structural evil. When your attempt to explain to that child the victories of Brown vs. Board in desegregation are in vain because every child in his classroom is of similar complexion, this is a structural evil. King once said, “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.” Please deepen your understanding and act.
We are called to love our neighbor as ourself. This command requires far more then the few hours or minutes we tend to give it each day, indeed, in the words of King, “The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others.”

I’m still a little unsettled about our sort of naive celebration of “independence” day in this country. We are holding people prisoners unjustly.
Well, fortunately someone out there has the skill to speak the people’s language, through a film. It’s based on true life accounts of these three men. My only fair is that people will treat it like any other movie and do nothing.

Check your city and plan on seeing it today.

Then Take Action.

I’ve mentioned demeaning t-shirts in the past, but I figured it was worth another mention. Shirts like the one here are becoming more and more prevalent, at least it seems that way from the number of online stores selling them and ads on sites. Fortunately I haven’t seen many people wearing the sort of demeaning and derogatory shirts I’ve seen mentioned in blogs online.
The terribly sad thing is these shirts target teenagers, youngins right at that age where they are developing their perceptions of themselves and all that. Here we are allowing them to be shaped and reinforced by t-shirts that embrace sad stereotypes and oppressive roles we’ve worked so hard to overcome. We are putting shackles on our own feet now.

I had the wonderful opportunity this morning of interviewing Eric Odier-Fink of The Justice Clothing Company. Eric graciously gave me a bit of his time to answer some questions about Justice Clothing, Sweatshops, Unions and Fair Trade.

or Download the Podcast Here.

Show Notes:

00:24 Why did you start The Justice Clothing Company?

• “It really started out of Frustration.”

The idea for the Justice Clothing Company was born around 1996 when we met and, among other things, began shopping together. (from the website)

• “The US is predominately sweatshop in it’s apperal production.”
• 1998- Received Catalogs from Union companies (King Louie clothing, Nemisis and Windjammers)
• “Is there Anywhere in the United States for me to buy your gear?”
• “These where companies that where absolutely clean.”

03:15 Working with Union Companies

• “We only work with Union Companies”
• Tried to work with Non-Union (ended well before they began selling their gear).
• Ben and Jerry’s as a Non-Union example
• Non-Union companies weren’t willing to meet their conditions

06:30 Talking about American Apparel

• Discussed working with American-Apparel (It didn’t work out, and it was clearly for the best)
• American-Apperal’s Ugly Union busting Article
• AA’s Sexist ads and Sexual Harrasment
• American Apparel makes clothes, Justice Clothing sells clothes (that union companies make).

11:00 The importance of Unions

“Unions are the only thing responsible for prosperity in the United States.”

“Unions bring together workers who, individually, don’t really have any power.”

“The only power a worker has, is to stop the work that they do.”

• Eric tells the story of his grandfather being almost “worked to death.”
• Why Unions improve companies and the quality of products.

14:45 Justice Clothing becoming a Cooperative

• No longer “Employer, employees.”
• Expanding to others outside the business
• A few “not really for the radio” details about the Co-op.

18:15 Dealing with your overwhelming closet full of sweatshop clothing

• Don’t be overwhelmed
• Find places (like Justice Clothing) where you can shop Sweatshop-Free, and Buy a few things.
• Enjoy it and buy some more.

22:45 What’s your take on Thrift Stores

• Usually fronts for organizations that feed and cloth people
• It’s Recycling!
• It’s not contributing to the sweatshop industry
• The Balance is that people need to work and somethings will need to be bought new, That’s where Justice Clothing comes in.

26:00 Why pay more Money for fair trade clothing?

• Sustainable economies
• Why Not to Contribute to Walmart (articles 1, 2)

29:45 An appeal to people of Faith

• “Buying sweatshop stuff is against my religion”
• “You know your buying stuff that is moral”

* Want to Read some more about this? Eric Suggests:

one I will point out is a magazine-size booklet published by the Progressive Jewish Alliance called “No Schvitz”- it’s a great primer on the history and current situation with sweatshops, with a focus on Jewish involvement (on all sides).

Another interesting point that came up in the movie Rize is the idea that in the inner city the one thing you can always seem to find is a sports team. Maybe is one of those catch-22 types of things, but the truth is that a lot of do-gooders come into an inner city neighborhood and start sports teams. This makes some sense because there are a lot of kids that want to play sports, and thus we have our little catch-22 (I could be using the term all wrong, sorry).
But there are plenty of youth in the inner city that have no desire to play sports and would love to have other outlets. In the movie they mention the lack of performing arts schools and studios which is very true from what I know. There is a definite need for more of these things in the inner city.
If you have tons of sports options available to youth, you’ll continue to hear plenty of “rise out of poverty to sports star fame” types of stories. If you make performing arts more available, and good education available, you’ll eventually hear many more, “rise out of poverty to” broadway renown, ballet all-star, symphony elite, science genius, and the list goes on.