The day after drug addict George Floyd overdosed while robbing a Minnesota convenience store, Amber Parks knew she had to do something to make the world a better place.
The wealthy daughter of a hotel magnate in the Catskills, admits she had no real world knowledge of how the other side lived.
“My knowledge back then of the Black experience was literally episodes of Law and Order: SVU,” she says from her art studio in Brooklyn. “George put so much in perspective.”
It was that outsider minority viewpoint that inspired Parks to create the ‘Colonizer Clothing’ line that is set to be seen on runways from Milan to Moscow, Idaho.
Playing Colonizer and Indians
She describes the style as simple, elegant and yet impactful. The main line consists of white or black shirts with the word: ‘COLONIZER’ emblazoned in red using a specially modified Battery Park font.
“I gave one to my boyfriend who ended up wearing it all the time,” she said. “Some people saw him on Insta while we were in Paris for weekend brunch. Everything just blew up from there.”
As DEI has taken center stage among corporations and educational institutions, the notion of white guilt has become commonplace.
“It feels like she’s doing something special,” explains her boyfriend who opted to not give his name. “Amber is making a statement about who we are, where we come from and yet at the same time atoning for hundreds of years of oppression.”
And Parks is happy to stitch home that point, one piece of fabric at a time!
Woke T-Shirt Contest
In fact, Parks says that she’s had Hollywood actors such as Susan Sarandon, dem politicians like AOC and her Bernie Bros., and even average white folks like GWU!s very own Sally in accounting order her ‘narrative barrier breaking’ Tees.
“We stole this land from the Indigenous. We enslaved Black people. The Chinese built our railways.” (and the Indians from India delivered our UberEats—ed). “In more recent times, we go into foreign lands and Americanize them with our culture: McDonalds, Disney, and that Taylor Swift guy.”
Parks says she doesn’t see a difference between what’s going on now with what happened hundreds of years ago.
Looking to her own Jewish roots—her stepmother was born in Tel Aviv—and then casually comparing America’s treatment of BIPOCs in the inner city to the full-blown genocide (her words—ed) that Israel is doing to the Gaza Strip.
“My parents won’t wear my clothing,” she laughs. “But they just don’t get what it is to have meaningful discussions …. and we also don’t do extra large sizes.”
With both Italian and French fashion houses showing interest in her upscale clothing line, she says that she even had requests to outfit celebs for the recent Met Gala.
But that will all have to be put on hold as the spry twenty-something is planning to expand her line in the fall with her newest creations: ‘White Privilege’ and ‘Racist’.
To purchase a specially created for GWU! limited edition line of Colonizer Clothing, visit the GWU! Shop.
