T-Shirts: Urban Language of Remembrance
A recent article appeared in The Baltimore Sun entitled, “Clothed in Grief
for City’s Dead.” The purpose of the article was to examine “words of
mourning” seen on T-shirts worn by young adults to commemorate the passing
of friends or of family members, especially death as a result of street or of
domestic violence. According to the author, in street vernacular these are known
as Rest in Peace T-shirts. Further inquiry reveals that they are popular articles of
clothing worn primarily by males whose friends or relatives, also usually males,
have succumbed to death.
Historically, individuals use other forms of expression to show grief on the
passing of a loved one or to keep the departed individual’s memory alive. In the
inner-city of Baltimore where this phenomenon of memorial T-shirts appears,
besides other traditional expressions, graffiti may be used to memorialize
individuals, and it can be seen on walls, on sidewalks, or on impromptu signs
erected to mark the passing of individuals. However, the presence of T-shirts to
mark the passing of individuals has greater impact than the message found on
graffiti since graffiti is stationary, and the reach of the message is limited to
those persons who happen to be present in a specific location where it posted.
Therefore, unlike graffiti as a mode of communication, the message observed on
memorial T-shirts, can be referred to as a language o f remembrance and this
new term will be used as an operational definition throughout this article.
It is notable that communication seen on T-shirts, unlike messages seen on
articles of clothing present on other occasions (e.g., athletic events, college
affiliation, family reunions), has entered the culture as a different medium of
communication. Moreover, this new medium of communication has become a
feature of certain individuals in inner-city life.
To be considered as a language of remembrance, the language of T-shirts
must be emotional in content, used to remember the passing of someone, and
visually displayed on a T-shirt. Having read the article by the reporter of The
Baltimore Sun, two further questions needed to be asked: First, how do
messages seen on T-shirts communicate remembrance? Second, how does the
language seen on these specific T-shirts in an urban setting reveal elements of
popular culture?
Mode of Study
Data for this study were obtained from observational research methods
carried out in Baltimore City. Several places were visited (primarily malls and
the urban university where the author is employed), obviously where people
congregate in large numbers. Upon being informed of the research, several
colleagues and students contributed examples of messages noted on T-shirts.