Man who makes "kick me in the balls" t-shirt is surprised when he is kicked in the balls

My friend Jayar Jackson posted this post on his Myspace blog about a retailer who made anti-Obama merchandise promoting the assassination of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and also a cute one promoting slavery of all things.

Ew. Mr. Class even has a mullet.

Anyway, the story goes, Doron Braunshtein, aka Apollo Braun (pictured left), an Israeli born douchebag has been selling his line of anti-Obama tshirts, that include violence inciting slogans such as "OBAMA IS MY SLAVE" "OBAMA=HITLER" and "WHO SHOT OBAMA?"

And so, after a woman threatened to sue him after being assaulted while wearing one of his tees, (which, if you wear trash like this, you deserve to be assaulted -- slavery isn't funny, even if you're Jewish and have been treated as badly as Black people, although the two are hardly analogous), it turns out Braun himself was assaulted on Wednesday. He claims that two big scary Black men came into his shop, shouted some shit at him, one grabbed his hands/arms and the other kicked him in the testicles.

After this deserved assault (and I have to point out that assault is almost never deserved, but, come on, when you wear a t-shirt that says "kick me in the balls" you're gonna get a foot where you least want it), Braun is reconsidering his wares while whining about how people hate him for thinking that slavery is funny.

"This is very disturbing to me that I am living in New York City and that I own a boutique for more than five and a half years [in] neighborhoods which are suppose to be the most open-minded and tolerant to any kind of art, but instead, people don't understand me, hate me and don't let me express myself the way everyone should be able to in New York."

Via Livesteez

Okay, this next bit is very important, so listen very carefully: tolerant people abhor slavery and don't tolerate people who think it's funny. It's not that they don't understand you, [M]oron, it's that you're an asshole. Even tolerant people "hate" assholes. And just because you're Jewish and experience all kinds of antisemitism doesn't mean that you can get away with racism and making racist t-shirts. Not even in New York City.

Freedom of expression is a concept that is too often abused. Yes, you have political freedom of expression. You are legally allowed to express any sentiment you want, whether it's pro-slavery, racist, sexist, whatever. Legally. However, don't fucking expect people to just laugh it off when you make a t-shirt that says "OBAMA IS MY SLAVE" and wear it on the cover of a magazine -- the real crime here though, is that this tasteless line of apparel is being sold for $69 a fucking shirt.

Moreover, there are legal limits to this concept of "freedom of expression". For instance, if you make a t-shirt that says "I'm gonna shoot Barack Obama" (which is not being alleged here, but stay with me), you're going to be arrested because you're making a threat about the likely-next president of the United States -- whether you like him or not, [M]oron -- which is illegal. In my non-legal opinion (as I have not yet studied law in a full academic setting, nor passed a bar exam in any state) making or wearing a t-shirt that says "WHO SHOT OBAMA?" is an equally violence inciting action, and this asshole should be, at the very least, kicked in the balls several more times. But, due to the First Amendment, little else can be done because someone else is just going to cry "FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION".

So let's go over this again: making and wearing these abhorrent t-shirts is not illegal (except for the questionable violence-inciting one) and you will not be arrested, ergo your freedom of expression (which appears no where in the First Amendment, by the way, I don't know if you know that) and First Amendment rights are not being infringed upon. However, if you think that people are going to patronize your place of business after this (in a very liberal city that will overwhelmingly vote for Barack Obama) you've got another thing coming. If you go out of business and cannot have children because of your so-called art, your freedom of expression is not being infringed upon still, because the market is speaking for itself. Just because you make something this sickening doesn't mean that we all have to look at it. Most of all, we don't have to buy it and deserve to shut down your establishment and make you work a demeaning 9-5 job while trying to find the time to support your art on the side.

This is not art. Making t-shirts that say disgusting things is not "expressing yourself". It's furthering concepts that promote and uphold racism both institutionalized racism and cultural racism. I mean, for god's sake, Jews and Black people need to come together and acknowledge their mutual mistreatment by the white patriarchy and work together to end racism, not work against each other to promote racism against the other group. Look, we as Jews haven't been through and don't go through the same things that Black people do -- or gays, or Muslims, or Arabs, or any other minority group -- however, the people who hate one group pretty generally hate the other with equal vehemence.

Mr. Apollo Braun needs to check his privilege. He needs to examine why people are so pissed off about his t-shirts and realize, oh hey, racism and hate isn't the way to make money. And if he still wants to make anti-Obama shirts he could at least try to be a little more clever... I mean, make fun of him in a funny way... he's got huge ears. He admits himself that he's not even close to being perfect, I'm sure there's some way this person can make anti-Obama shirts without being a fucking racist or getting kicked in the balls.

And if that fails, he might be less likely to be assaulted by wearing a t-shirt that actually says "KICK ME IN THE BALLS".