Tyler, The Creator has always been one to push the limits of what people think is acceptable. Whether it is his lyrics or some of his online antics, the Cherry Bomb rapper likes to push people's comfort level. The rapper rolled out the spring/summer collection of his Golf clothing line and most of it seems pretty standard skater fare except for one shirt that has raised some eyebrows. He unveiled a shirt for "Golf Pride" worldwide that uses a neo-Nazi symbol. Expecting the potential backlash for using a symbol that elicits such a tragic history, Tyler decided to write a explanation for his choice of the shirt.
He explains that the '40s has fascinated him when a few men ruled the world with an iron fist, but wanted to take the neo-Nazi symbol and flip it on its head by creating a gay pride shirt.
Read a part of his reasoning below and head to his tumblr for the full explanation.
"Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that these guys aren't fans of Blacks, Gays, Asians or anything else that doesn't fit in "white" box. Now having the thought process that i have, i asked myself some questions: What if a black guy wore this logo on a shirt? Would he be promoting self hate? Would he be taking the power out of a shape? What if a gay guy wore this on a shirt? Would he promoting Homophobia? Then BAM! I Had it. Throw a little rainbow in the logo ( i still wonder, who was the guy that said a rainbow is the gay symbol? that's another article stay tuned) and take a photo with a white guy in it and we have an amazing photo. The thing that tops it off is the homo erotic tone of the hand holding, which to some degree HAS to piss off the guys who takes this logo serious. This made the photo even more important to me, because it was me playing with the idea of taking the power out of something so stupid."
