Jordon Hudson’s T-shirt was even less funny than you thought | Opinion

Did you see the photo of Jordon Hudson at the UNC-Duke basketball game? Wearing an Orchids of Asia Day Spa T-shirt — the spa where Bob Kraft was charged with soliciting prostitution?

This has been interpreted as Hudson trolling Mr. Kraft. And from Bill Belichick’s cat-that-swallowed-the-canary smile in the picture, he seems to “get the joke.”

May I ask: What were they thinking?

Did Hudson and Belichick think this was funny? Provocative? Clever? Given the millions of Google searches on them, they surely understood their stunt’s potential to go viral, perhaps shifting the spotlight away from UNC’s biggest sports weekend to the “Bob and Bill of it all.”

What they clearly weren’t thinking about: The women of the Orchids of Asia Day Spa. As a senior leader at the University of North Carolina, Belichick — and by extension Hudson — represents our university, whether on and off the football field. Indeed, his contractual duties include “refrain(ing) from actions that bring material reputational harm or public ridicule upon the University or Coach.”

In return, Belichick is by far the highest paid UNC employee at $10mm a year.

Tar Heels are rightfully proud of our university: The first public university, helping power the state and improve its citizens lives. North Carolina wouldn’t be North Carolina without the University of North Carolina.

One additional fact about UNC, for Belichick and Hudson’s consideration: 61% of our undergraduates are women.

Yes, 61%.

That’s a lot of women: It’s at the very high end of the great flagship public universities, eight points greater than Duke and in line with Vassar College, the formerly all-women liberal arts college in the northeast. (A UNC/Vassar comparison is not one you hear very often.)

What does, or should, that gender tilt mean for us?

Let’s start by agreeing that UNC owes the state a focus on issues that may keep its students from living their fullest, most productive lives and contributing to the well-being of the state. By extension, it most certainly owes its attention to issues affecting the majority of its students.

Despite women’s academic gains, they are indeed being held back. Women’s rights and economic gains are under pressure; the gender wage gap remains wide. The latest cohort of “women’s rights” groups, which were working to catalyze change, have instead faded. Our morning news is a drumbeat of revelations about the powerful men who, over years, cavorted with Jeffrey Epstein: trading favors, trading introductions, trading gifts.

And trading – and trafficking – women.

Epstein operated from a posh townhouse on New York’s Upper East Side; the Asian Day Spa was in a strip mall in Jupiter, Florida. What they had in common was more-powerful people looking right past the suffering and basic humanity of these women. I find myself wondering how they justified this to themselves. Or if they thought about it at all.

(Yes, I’m using the word “misogyny” knowing that it can be a hot-button; so I’m sticking close to its dictionary definition: “dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.”)

Misogyny shows up in all kinds of ways. It can be construction workers whooping at women on the street. It can be the boss chasing an underling around the desk. It can be a woman paid less than a man for the same work. And it can be people trivializing women’s suffering.

“Yeah, but don’t be such a pill. The t-shirt thing was just a joke,” you may be thinking.

Well, let’s ask our joking twosome: As you planned your stunt, what consideration did you give to the women of the Asian Day Spa? Did you think about the horrors they likely experienced? And what it might mean for them to have it dredged back up? In fact, did you think of them AT ALL?

It’s important to recognize that the Asian Day Spa and Jeffrey Epstein did not emerge from a vacuum, but instead have been enabled and built, brick by brick, on the foundation of casual sexism.

Casual misogyny is still misogyny. Misogyny used to “go viral” is still misogyny. And misogyny disguised as a joke is also misogyny – perhaps even more powerful than Capital-S sexism, because humor normalizes the underlying contempt. The core message — that certain people are less valuable than others — is insidious, it’s destructive, and it’s cruel. It’s no less cruel coming from a woman – yes, women can be sexist, too – but it feels sadder.

If you don’t think this affects you and your family, you’re wrong: Holding women back has painful ripple effects, regardless of their socio-economic standing. There are untold businesses and jobs left uncreated, life-saving research not done, human potential unfulfilled – and even families not formed – when women are cut off from opportunities.

I would argue that disregard and contempt for trafficked women is disrespect for women overall. Which is disrespect for our women students. Which is disrespect for our university and its values.

UNC has a role to play here. Imagine allocating, say, the amount of a football coach’s salary to tap into the energy and insights of our students to attack sex trafficking in our state, to open more educational opportunities for disadvantaged women, or to increase our work on women’s health.

We have come a long way from the compassionate, ethical leadership of people like Dean Smith, who so defined our values, to this breathtakingly inappropriate stunt. Our students and our state deserve much better.

Sallie Krawcheck, UNC Class of 1987, is the founder of Ellevest, the investing platform for women.

This story was originally published February 18, 2026 at 1:01 PM with the headline "Jordon Hudson’s T-shirt was even less funny than you thought | Opinion."