Amazon apparently thought it was a good idea to sell ‘slavery gets sh** done’ t-shirt
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Amazon clearly didn’t learn anything from H&M getting dragged earlier this month for posing an adorable black boy in a hoodie with the words “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle”.
And critics are now blasting Amazon for selling clothing from a third-party retailer with the slogan “slavery gets sh** done.”
Really Amazon?
The offensive clothing items from a third-party retailer, range from mugs to shirts to even baby bibs with pictures of the pyramids in the background of the slogan. Perfect gift for your racist bestie, coworker or newborn, right? After hearing from critics about the obviously offensive phrase, according to Reuters, Amazon woke up and removed the product line from their website.
“All Marketplace sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who don’t will be subject to action including potential removal of their account,” an Amazon spokesman said in a statement. “The products in question are no longer available.”
But unfortunately for Amazon the internet never forgets.
Human rights organizations also came for Amazon blasting the online retailer for insensitivity about a very serious and wide-reaching problem.
“Children the same age as those modeling the T-shirts will be forced to work long hours for no pay in desperate conditions where starvation, beatings and sleep deprivation are common,” David Westlake, chief executive of International Justice Mission UK, told Reuters.
“Rather than trivializing slavery, companies and the global community must recognize the vast injustice of modern slavery and work together to end it for good.”
The H&M controversy
Yep, it’s the year 2018, and this kind of racist marketing keeps happening. We literally just came off of the backlash from H&M’s “monkey” hoodie, and now this.
The child’s hoodie, emblazoned with the words “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle,” drew swift and searing backlash on social media.
VIDEO: SHOULD BLACK FOLKS BOYCOTT H&M OVER RACIST HOODIE?
In a statement provided to the New York Daily News, H&M somewhat tried to apologize. “This image has now been removed from all H&M channels and we apologise to anyone this may have offended,” they wrote.
However, the Sweden-based company’s first apology did little to extinguish the public flames burning up the internet so they released another draft.
“We sincerely apologize for this image. It has been now removed from all online channels and the product will not be for sale in the United States. We believe in diversity and inclusion in all that we do, and will be reviewing our internal routines.”
And then this unsurprising news…
H&M announced that they have hired a diversity director, too.
You would think that corporate executives would know by now that racism and slavery aren’t jokes or marketing tools but alas it appears not.
Perhaps Amazon execs should do themselves a favor and check out our Dummies Guide for Corporations not to Create Racist Ads like H&M.
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