Yea, I guess if you're into cultural appropriation and coded racism.

Another retarded opinion about EH blowing a shitty money-grab bubble-toy out of proportion.

Do you even know the demographic they're popular with? I don't see them getting offended.

Also, Japan - you're losing your game. Not zany enough.

"the demographic they're popular with"

Huh, MORE coded racism. Why don't you tell us all about this "demographic" you know so well, Gmork?

Well wouldn't you know, an article hosted by our new friends streetgangs.com abut this very controversy is one of the first Google hits for "homies toys."


http://www.streetgangs.com/homies

tl;dr version is that EvilHomer is siding with the LAPD ca. 1999.

I never said they glorifyied gang culture (although that's part of the problem) and that article doesn't actually do a satisfying job of proving its thesis, i.e. that law enforcement professionals were incorrect in their assessment of Homies toys (if I made a figurine - Thor, a bald, tattooed, suspender-and-red-laces-wearing white guy - would THAT stop being gang-related, if I merely wrote a biography about how Thor loved eating German food?).

What I said was that people who enjoyed Homies figurines were into cultural appropriation and coded racism.

Also, I know you're going to try and catch me out on this, Mr Wildcat, so let me be the first to point out that the issue of "glorifying gang culture" is incredibly complex, and requires a lot of thought to fully appreciate! Gang glorification is neither intrinsically positive nor intrinsically negative (although it is generally negative) and every instance of gang glorification - from gangsta rap songs to the Pledge of Allegiance - needs to be assessed on its own individual merits. The short version is: I *would*, in fact, support the glorification of gang culture, but usually just in the context of community empowerment through agorism and direct-action democracy.

Cultural appropriation? They're created by David Gonzalez.

EvilHomer just wont stop going big government all over the tiny insignificant joys in our mortal painful finite lives.

:(

HE'S David Gonzalez. You're Cena Mark. Mr Gonzalez can enjoy racist caricatures of poverty-stricken Latnio men because that's his culture. What's your excuse?

Here's an article with a positive spin that nevertheless agrees with everything I'm saying:

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/04.10.03/homies-0315. html

"Hipster adults in their 20s have taken to collecting Homies just as much as kids have. They've become an underground phenomenon--and a gigantic cash cow--selling millions of figurines and spawning a whole family of tie-ins ... They are sold not just in California and New York, but Utah, Washington, North Carolina, Iowa, and Ohio, a state about as Latino as Scandinavia. There are even a few Homies collectors in Scandinavia."

Rampant cultural appropriation!!!

The essay also concedes the LAPD's central contention (which again, I did not raise), i.e. that the Homies directly reference gang culture. Arguing that gang references do not matter is not the same as saying gang references are not present.

Appreciation not appropriation. So a culture can't be shared? Those Scandinavians now have a tangible piece of SoCal Latino culture. Something they would have been completely ignorant about. It's learned.
And I'll have you know I lived in Atlanta's barrio for almost 4 years.

EvilHomer would invade Japan just to knock the cowboy hats off the businessmen.

Yeah, a "tangible piece of SoCal Latino culture". Which just happens to be the least-flattering, most-stereotyped aspects of SoCal Latino culture. Now, culturally-appropriating hipsters in Scandinavia won't know about all the Latino doctors and lawyers, scientists and. artists and hard-working family providers - they'll learn that Latinos are fat, bad with girls, and eat too much Mexican food. --Coded racism--

Also, it turns out Mr Gonzalez is a dang dirty culture-appropriater, too.

http://www.homies.tv/homieclowns/index.html

Mr Gonzalez is not a juggalo. That is juggalo appropriation, and it. Is. Not. OK!

Who are you to say that's the worst of their culture. The LAPD accuse homies of representing gang culture, but to them every latino youth is a gang member to be harassed and cuffed.

Winos, gang-bangers, and people in wheelchairs - yeah, that may not be *literally* the worst (I'm sure there are Latino child molesters and Latino furries, for example) but it's certainly down there.

Are you denying that winos are unrepresentative of Latino culture? Are you trying to claim that gangsters represent the best, or at least the most typical, life that Latinos can aspire to?

You're getting at some Bill Cosby shit. Bill Cosby just wants everyone to play the model minority, and he loathed the culture of poor blacks. You're making the exact same arguments as him. You're saying that poor latinos should be ashamed of their culture and should aspire to be sweater wearing, pudding pop eating, upper middle class, Tio Tacos.
Mr. Gonzales based the Homies off of people who he knew. The people in his neighborhood that made his culture vibrant. Is he too sweep them under the rug just because cops see them as thugs, or because white liberals might see them as exploitive.

But see? There you go again! You're saying Homies are "their culture". You're saying that being a wino or a gangster is "their culture". "They" have a very large and varied culture; it's not all cholas and low-riders, however much our pop-culture might think it is.

Yes indeed, there ARE upper middle class Latinos (there were a number of them in MY neighbourhood; a couple of Latino prep school teachers and their families, and yes they wore sweaters, why wouldn't they?). There are also lower middle class Latinos. There are upper class Latinos and welfare class Latinos and working class Latinos who aren't criminals and aren't drunkardss and aren't deadbeats. The notion that Homies "represent" the "Latino community" is itself the problem; a problem directly perpetuated through vectors like these toys. As you yourself said: it's learned!

Who are you to say the Homies are winos, deadbeats, and gangsters? Just based on their looks? Okay, I know one is homeless, and another is portrayed as a drunk, but not all them. One Homie is the President.

Based on their biographies. You know this already.

And if you think Mr Gonzalez' portrayal of men is bad, don't even get me started on his portrayal of women. His portrayal of women is even worse! Every last one of them exists purely as a male pleasure fantasy of one type or another (including one who is a juggalette-appropriation, and another who is a blatant lolicon fetish enabler)!

If you see them as lowlifes that's on you, you racist. I did find it odd though how all the female homies list David Gonzalez as their favorite artist.

Winos aren't a race, and at any rate, whether or not *I* think winos are lowlifes is irrelevant. What matters is that *society* thinks winos and gangsters are lowlifes, because if society is taught to associate the Latino community with winos and gangsters, then society will think of Latinos as lowlifes too. See also: the Guerrero Family and their Latino Heat gimmick.

It's not odd that the girls like Mr Gonzalez, though. I imagine that they were all fans of Gonzalez' work well before appearing in the Homies, and their interest in his art was what led them to seek employment with his production company.

Knowing Japan, it was more of a "who gives a shit about the rest of it" thing than oversight.