Major retailers Sears and Amazon.com received criticism this week for listing a ring that prominently shows a Swastika across its front.
The listing for the ring, which has since been removed for violating the sites’ guidelines, featured a product description that said:
Find exactly what you need when browsing through our new gothic jewelry items. This gothic jewelry item in particular features a Swastika ring that’s [sic] made of .925 Thai silver. Not for Neo Nazi or any Nazi implication. These jewelry items are going to make you look beautiful at your next dinner date.
In a tweet, Sears attempted to clarify the listing, writing that, “This item is a 3rd party marketplace product that does not abide our guidelines and is being abused.” Amazon.com, Sears and many online retailers offer users the ability to sell their own goods via the sites.
A Sears Holding spokesman also told WPVI-TV in Philadelphia:
The offensive item, which was listed by independent third-parties on Sears Marketplace, violates our guidelines, and was removed as soon as we became aware of its existence on our site. We are contacting the Sellers to strongly voice our concern over their lack of judgment.
The ring was listed for sale on the Sears Marketplace by a company going under the name CET Domain, according to Snopes. The swastika, while now associated with Nazism, was originally a symbol of many ancient cultures, including the Celts and Greeks. In the early 20th century, before its appropriation by the Nazi Party as its official symbol in 1920, the swastika was even a good luck symbol in the United States.
The Sanskrit word can loosely be translated to the phrase “to be making good.”
Users on Twitter voiced their concerns over Sears’ oversight, with one tweeting at the company:
@Sears Why would Sears allow any party affiliated w/Sears Marketplace to not comply with Sears values (or basic decency)?
— Daria Rodman (@dariarodman) October 14, 2014