It still surprises me when retailers don’t catch racial slurs. We are far from a post-racial society, racial slurs still hurt, even if they aren’t coming directly from a person’s mouth. There are still instances where racism can even be found in places you wouldn’t think. What was it this time? Well, it was Walmart that tried it. In a product description for Jaguzi’s Natural Wig Caps, the color was labeled “[N-word] Brown.” It’s so casually listed, like “raspberry red” or “lime green”, as if there’s nothing problematic about that description. Aside from the fact that an incredibly offensive slur was used, it was also used to describe an object — another level of dehumanization.
A spokesperson from Walmart issued the following statement regarding the incident:
“We are very sorry and appalled that this third party seller listed their item with this description on our online marketplace. It is a clear violation of our policy, and has been removed, and we are investigating the seller to determine how this could have happened.”
Although the wig cap is manufactured and shipped by Pixnor, I can’t help but wonder why there aren’t things in place that would catch this type of thing before it appeared on the site.
The Internet has showed complete outrage over this product description, as expected:
@Walmart @walmarthelp
It is INEXCUSABLE and UNACCEPTABLE to describe a product color as #NiggerBrown #fixthis https://t.co/oA0RK6L5dG— BrookWest (@brook6) July 17, 2017
@Walmart @walmarthelp
It is INEXCUSABLE and UNACCEPTABLE to describe a product color as #NiggerBrown #fixthis https://t.co/oA0RK6L5dG— BrookWest (@brook6) July 17, 2017
I can't wait to hear what #walmart says about the #NIGGERBROWN listing on their website. Folks haven't learned yet?!
— Ms Candice (@candiplans) July 17, 2017
@Walmart @walmarthelp
It is INEXCUSABLE and UNACCEPTABLE to describe a product color as #NiggerBrown #fixthis https://t.co/oA0RK6L5dG— BrookWest (@brook6) July 17, 2017
Thankfully, the color description has been changed to simply “brown,” but there’s still a bad taste left in many people’s mouths. Hopefully Walmart will learn to install a screening process for their third party vendors.
