Music
Sears is selling a swastika ring and calling it 'punk rock' jewelry
by Mark Teo
October 14, 2014
If you head to their online marketplace, you’ll find that Sears—your grandfather’s mailorder catalogue of choice, edging out Woolworths and Consumers Distributing by a slim margin—is indisputably punk rock.
A quick site search yields plenty of pit-ready attire: Here, a spiked leather bracelet. There, a tr00 p0nx keychain clip. And until very recently, you were able to purchase the, uh, edgiest piece of jewelry yet: A ring bearing a swastika, which the retailer labelled as “punk rock style jewelry.”
While the item has since been removed—Sears claims it was listed on their marketplace by a third-party retailer—when the post was live, its description seemed very aware of the ring’s implications. “This gothic jewelry item in particular features a Swastika ring that’s made of .925 Thai silver,” said the item’s copy. “Not for Neo Nazi or any Nazi implication. These jewelry items are going to make you look beautiful at your next dinner date.”
Maybe it will make you look better at your next dinner date—if you’re noshing down with a piece-of-shit Nazi like Ernst Zundel.
The optics looks pretty effin’ terrible. I mean, who was the ring marketed to, if not Nazi punks? Now, before the naysayers step in: We’re fully aware that early punks—from Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten, to Siouxsie of Sixousie and the Banshees, to Wattie of the Exploited—used the swastika for shock effect. (Oi act Skrewdriver also used the swastika, but they ended up being the most notorious white supremacist band of all time.) Yes, we know that Boyd Rice has used Nazi-esque imagery in his work. For their punk-rock affiliations, though, each of these artists have received well-deserved criticism—as should any retailer selling Nazi apparel.
Of course, they’re not the first retailer to stir up controversy—or carry suspect apparel. Urban Outfitters—no strangers to race-related controversies after being sued by the Navajo Nation in 2012—carried a shirt whose insignia resembled a yellow badge that Jewish prisoners wore during the Nazi regime. The shirt was made by Danish label Wood Wood.
Zara also carried a shirt bearing similar insignia, and their was striped, which some said resembled the clothing prisoners wore in concentration camps.
So no, Sears isn’t alone in selling racially, historically charged clothing. Still, it doesn’t make their swastika ring any less offensive. As Jello Biafra might say, this Nazi ring can fuck off.
UPDATE: Sears has issued a statement and apology.
