By Reggie Williams | SACOBSERVER.COM WIRE SERVICES

WASHINGTON (NNPA) - One T-shirt with two-words, "Uppity Negro," inscribed across the chest was supposed to be her protest. This was Andrea Carter's solution to what she calls "the constant nagging" she received at her job because of the candor of her speech. "You're not going to treat me any kind of way and you're not going to talk to me any kind of way," Carter says she often found herself saying.

Andrea Carter created "Uppity Negro" T-shirts to inspire Black people to stand up and be unapologetic and audacious.

Examining her actions to ensure her behavior wasn't unreasonable, Carter maintains she discovered that out of all the customers- Blacks, Ethiopians, Asians, South and Central Americans, Mexicans, Arabs and Eastern and Western Europeans - who frequented the Adams Morgan coffeehouse where she worked, the clients who most often had complaints about her were American Whites.

"Why can't I be respected and why must I negotiate it?" Carter asked. Carter believes, even today, that White people still think African Americans need to remain in their place.

"By wearing the shirt, I would take the power out of the intimidation tactic in chastising me by announcing I embraced the audacity of being uppity," explained Carter, president and owner of the Uppity Negro apparel line.

Before she could launch her T-shirt protest, Carter was fired for what she describes as being uppity. Carter admits to "willfully" talking back to a White customer in a store filled with customers.

After her termination, she really had no reason to create the shirt. But after talking with friends, she discovered she wasn't alone in feeling a dignity intrusion. To her surprise, folks began saying, "Hey, I need a T-shirt." With renewed spirit, she began producing coffee mugs, tote bags, hats and sweatshirts in addition to the shirts.

Carter began selling the merchandise at Howard University's homecoming. Purchasers, inquiring about the shirts' origins, shared their stories of compromised dignity.

"I was amazed to hear the stories of so many people who felt like I did," said Carter.

While the word about Carter's products continues to spread, she contends many people fail to understand the motivation behind the apparel.

"They don't get it," she said. "Black people who experienced the peculiar American institution of slavery yet refused to accept the inferior status of slave," she said, like Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, are, by her definition, uppity Negroes. African Americans who are proud and continue to try and uplift the community of African Americans make up the ranks of present-day uppity Negroes, she said.

Carter realizes the term, "uppity Negro," may be hurtful to older African Americans, people who endured the pain of the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow laws. But she's tired of Black people feeling broken and powerless. Carter wants to inspire Black people to stand up and be unapologetic and audacious.

Carter wants her shirts to be modern-day "picket signs."

She said, "The shirts are not a fashion statement. I know people of my generation will not march and carry signs like they did in the '60s, but they will wear shirts."

Looking to spark a spiritual revolution, Carter writes, "In the tradition of uppity Negroes who have come before us, rebelling, raising hell and even giving their lives for the cause of equal treatment for Black people, Uppity Negro recognizes the rich legacy of Black rebels and attempts to revive that legacy and awaken a dialogue within Black communities."

This story comes special to the NNPA from Afro Newspapers.