Tag: fonts

Can a font be racist? Certain blackletter typefaces associated with hate groups

Addictive Ink Tattoo and Piercing Shop is one of many places in Southwest Florida to get a tattoo or piercing.

Daisy Pala is one of the shop’stattoo artists. For the past five years, she has helped customers select lettering that best illustrates the names, quotes, or titles used in their tattoos.

“I feel like a lot of people nowadays are leaning towards like a script font,” said Pala.

She admits to being well-versed on the types of fonts available to customers, but she does not always know the history or significance behind the many typefaces.

Experts in typography are pointing out that the font you choose for your tattoo could have a deeper history and may be linked to hate groups.

Merriam-Webster defines typography as the style, arrangement or appearance of typeset matter.

Typeface is a type of a single design, like Times New Roman or Arial. Typeface and font are often used interchangeably.

“Typography is language visualized. It documents cultural attitudes and narrates social change,” said Sarah Hyndman, graphic designer and author of the book “Why Fonts Matter.”

Hyndman has spent over 20 years studying fonts and what meanings they portray. She said certain fonts emit emotions while others display characteristics like power or strength. Hyndman also acknowledges that people associate fonts with the messages that are written.

For example, Fraktur is an old style of blackletter font used on Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and early Nazi letterheads. Because of this, Hyndman said this typeface can often be associated with racism or bigotry.

In fact, these accusations were made against Chet Hanks, son of Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks, in March of this year. He began receiving backlash on Twitter due to his new clothing line entitled “White Boy Summer.” The clothing is decorated with the phrase in a blackletter font that some Twitter users say closely resembles the Fraktur font used by Nazis.

In a video posted to Instagram, Hanks denies any racism associated with the clothing line.

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CNN raises eyebrows after warning of ‘racist’ fonts that ‘communicate Asianness’

CNN has developed a reputation for finding offense around every corner, but the liberal network was mocked on Wednesday for taking it a step further and declaring certain text fonts “communicating Asianness” can be racist.

“CNN has reached the epitome of ‘we’re out of stuff to pretend to be outraged by this week for clicks’ if they’re surmising which fonts are racist,” political satirist Tim Young told Fox News.

A font, defined as a set of type or characters all of one style, can “perpetuate problematic stereotypes,” according to CNN. The network’s verified Twitter account wrote, “For years, the West has relied on so-called ‘chop suey’ fonts to communicate ‘Asianness’ in food packaging, posters and ad campaigns. But such fonts perpetuate problematic stereotypes,” to accompany a report examining the theory.

“This piece leaves me with more questions than virtue signals,” Young said. “Which fonts belong to which demographics? Does this mean Times New Roman is a Caucasian font? Is the old typewriter font for elderly people? Are there straight and gay fonts or fonts based on the 54 genders? I need to know. I’m so confused at this point.”

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