Pyer Moss designer Kerby Jean-Raymond may have needed a push to create the “Even More Names,” t-shirt Colin Kaepernick wore in his GQ Citizen of the Year spread, telling Refinery29, “People are just commodifying different things and I don’t want to [be] another peg in that wheel of white corporate culture essentially owning and commodifying activism.” He explained, “That’s why I’m making a conscious effort not to sell the shirt. It’s just a protest piece,” of the updated version of his “They Have Names” shirt that went viral in 2015.
But on Thursday, the 30-year-old was not to shy to clap back against people in his Instagram comments who were criticizing his decision to create the shirt in the first place. And the best part about all of this? He let his clothing speak for him. One commenter used the shirt Kaepernick wore as chance to troll Jean-Raymond with stats on black-on-black crime, defending police brutality.
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“You could create an entire clothing line with the victims of black on black crimes from one city alone, Chicago. Now THAT is sad. Raise awareness to the real issue, cowards,” user @rizzo0190 wrote. Now this is problematic thing to say for several reasons, as the violence is Chicago is a result of decades and decades of systemic opposition completely independent of police brutality against Black bodies.
But instead of stooping to this person’s level, Jean-Raymond responded with a custom hoodie “please stop white-on-white crime 2018.” He posted the design to his Instagram with the caption: “Thanks for the ammo, idiot. I made this a few minutes later.” And this time, no one had to convince him to do it.