Thread by @StarFeuri

Let's talk about #PrideMonth, #RainbowCapitalism, and #ArtTheft.

@Dickies has released a Pride collection for June, featuring LGBTQIA artists. One of those artists, #AmberIbarreche, designed Art Bibs (overalls) featuring Ibarreche's word&symbol art motifs.

PLOT TWIST 🧵

Dead-center on these art bibs is a heart with the words "Learn the Heart Way". How nice. However, what's the background of this heart? A pride flag. BUT. It's not just ANY pride flag. It's the #NewPrideFlag.

And this is where the #ArtTheft comes in.

The #NewPrideFlag was designed by Black Indigenous Queer creator, Julia Feliz. #AmberIbarreche's art bibs' dominant artistic feature is the unattributed, uncompensated labor of a Black Indigenous Queer community organizer and activist.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE

This isn't just about leaving Julia Feliz unacknowledged. This is about the /purpose/ of the New Pride Flag. The @NewPrideFlag1 is a 501 3c non profit devoted to fundraising for Trans BIPOC folks which sustain the movement for queer liberation...

Not only do Trans BIPOC do the most to sustain and advance queer liberation, they are also the most unrecognized AND (this is crucial) the MOST likely to be DIRECTLY harmed while laboring for liberation. @NewPrideFlag1 has created a #NewPrideFlag for an express purpose --

The purpose of the #NewPrideFlag is to explicitly contest the white-dominance of representation in queer liberation, to be a conduit for grassroots organizing in support of BIPOC queers, and to do so in a way that is expressly anti-capitalist (that part is important--->)

When #AmberIbarreche stole the #NewPrideFlag, it wasn't just stealing the labor of Julia Feliz, it was supporting the production of captial. The New Pride Flag site expressly permits commercial use of this flag PROVIDED certain conditions --

@NewPrideFlag1 is to be notified of intent to use the flag commercially. 50% (OR MORE) profits from products using this flag are to be donated either directly to NPF (which redistributes at end of year) or to BIPOC-run queer orgs.

Neither @Dickies nor #AmberIbarreche did this. -

What's worse! @Dickies donated 10k (chump change) to the Trevor Project. That's right. Dickies and Amber Ibarreche stole the work of a Black Indigenous Disabled Queer and donated money to an organization notorious for centering White Trans experiences...

Julia Feliz contacted @Dickies, and they offered to give 10k to NPF in exchange for /never speaking about this issue again./ That's not an apology. That's not accountability. That's not justice. -

Feliz has asked that 10k go directly to Miss Major and Victoria Cruz (each). That @NewPrideFlag1 be given the same amount of compensation that #AmberIbarreche received for the design that relies on the theft of their work. That @Dickies formally, and publicly apologize. That --

The Art Bib be discontinued (yall it's ugly too IJS). And that 50% of Dickie's profits from the previous sales be donated as required by the NPF terms of use...

Will any of this happen? IDK. But the point of the story is #RainbowCapitalism is trash and it literally cannot function without theft and dispossession of Queer Disabled Black and Indigenous People of Color, not to mention labor exploitation and ecological devastation.

What do you think about #ArtTheft? docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…