Just to prove that Frankie Palmeri doesn’t have the market cornered on terrible and offensive merch, Vital Remains vocalist Brian Werner has been teasing his fall line of merchandise via his company Xcommunicated Clothing. While a post of a shirt that he planned on releasing has already been deleted, he’s planning on selling a hoodie capitalizing on the shooting death of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin, a case that polarized the nation in 2012. The hoodie in question says “Trayvon” in a graffiti font, with bullet holes punctuating the front. On the back, it says “Stand Your Ground.” Here’s what Werner had to say about it when he posted it:
“This picture is getting deleted in an hour as to save the surprise for when the time is right. But this is just awesome so here is a sneak peak at the new Xcommunicated Clothing coming out this fall.
‘The Trayvon’ – COMING SOON!!!”
In February of 2012, Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17 year-old, was shot by neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman. Despite being warned by police to not follow Martin, he confronted the teen and shot him, claiming that what he did so was legal under Florida’s “stand your ground” law. Zimmerman was acquitted of the charges. Werner’s shirt is offensive on several levels. First of all, it’s borderline racist, and anyone that buys it pretty much knows that. Secondly, it’s capitalizing on the death of someone that many feel was pretty much executed, with exclamation points showing that Werner is excited about this. And lastly, it’s about two years too late to have made maximum impact, so even if Werner just wanted to capitalize on a current event, he’s missing the boat by about 25 months.
Werner, a member of the Satanic Temple, was in the news recently when the Temple started an Indiegogo campaign to place a monument to Satan at the Oklahoma Statehouse. His Facebook page also features another design featuring serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer with the logo “Milwaukee’s Beast Premium.”
