yes, the swastika is used in some eastern cultures and it’s left facing, the way that the necklace is. however, the argument that it’s not antisemitic because it’s a hindu and bhuddist symbol has soooo many flaws. THREAD:

in the western world, the swastika is associated with nazism. it’s only now that we’re condemning it that everyone decides to care about eastern cultures.

people in the west who practice hinduism and bhuddism acknowledge that the swastika is known as a hate symbol. it is still in their temples because it has religious significance to them, but they don’t show it in public. repeat: THEY DONT SHOW IT IN PUBLIC.

why don’t they show it in public? out of respect for jews and any other victims of the Holocaust. seeing a swastika, be it left or right facing, triggers the inter generational trauma in jews that says “the owner of this symbol wants to kill me”

keep in mind that it’s not just inter generational trauma, survivors of the Holocaust are still alive and very likely have ptsd that is triggered by seeing any form of the swastika.

less people have brought this up, but shein is a chinese company. in a bhuddist-majority country where the swastika isn’t as associates with nazism, they could have thought it would be taken that way outside of china too.

but everyone should be aware of the Holocaust, and i doubt that whoever decided shein was going to sell this had no idea that the swastika was a nazi symbol. especially when running an internal company, it just wouldn’t make sense for them to be so oblivious.

overall, i can say with certainty that shein did not have good intentions. again, they are known for cultural appropriation and i’ve heard from hindus that wearing swastikas isn’t actually a thing in their culture.

intention matters, but what’s more important is how people are affected. for myself and many other jews, seeing shein selling a swastika necklace makes us feel unsafe.

there are probably actual neo nazis who bought the necklace and either were too careless about the direction or flipped it around to be right-facing because YOU CAN DO THAT SO EASILY WITH THE NECKLACE.

what shein needs to do now is issue an apology and take the necklace off their site for good, but i don’t think that will be happening because they clearly don’t care about cultural appropriation. hopefully they’ll start caring once they are boycotted and lose all their money.

so please boycott shein!!!!! (one last thing i also heard that shein is banned in india i haven’t confirmed it but then clearly hindus don’t appreciate that it’s selling their symbols... okay i’m done for real now!!)