The Che Debate

Sandbox Threads until today offered what some other sites around the web offer, a Che Guevara onesie or t-shirt. And to be honest, my knowledge of Che did not extend far beyond the Che from "Motorcycle Diaries," and Che as fashion icon.

I did not have any personal feelings toward Che Guevara one way or the other; however, some of you do. Last week, I received an email that made me do a little exploration into Che, and has influenced our decision to no longer offer Che as a design at Sandbox Threads.

Here is a portion of the email that I received.

"...as the daughter of a Cuban political prisoner, it is hard for me to see images of Che Guevara as a fashion statement. To see someone wear (or sell) clothing with his image is, to me, to take that the person admires Che....It was his early policies that led to people like my dad being imprisoned at age 14 (for the first time) and my uncle spending 5 years in a labor camp....It's possible that you don't know this side of Che's life. And given what my family went through, it is my legacy to share. So I share, in the hopes that you would reconsider offering for sale the image of a man who was anything but a hero."

Some of you may have different views toward Che, and you may see him differently than in the email description above. We at Sandbox Threads, however, do not want to be a part of that debate, and thus we have decided to no longer offer Che as one of our designs.

We have though replaced Che with another icon of the era, Janis Joplin. Different, yes, but far less controversial (at least we think so).