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The N-Word Rears Its Ugly Head Again

EBay seller uses offensive term to describe color of a bag. Really?

(Photo: AP)

There were many things wrong with the auction from eBay seller collecting_coins, starting with the color. Would you like the faux-leather knockoff of the Proenza Schouler PS1 purse in peach blossom, watermelon red or perhaps N-brown?
That's right. N-brown. Not dark brown, chocolate brown or jut plain old brown. But N-brown.

 

The auction for the “Korean style Lady PU leather handbag shoulder bag 4656” was pulled over the weekend from eBay for violating the auction site's rules, but according to reports, listings for similar bags had been up since mid-July.
It is possible that the seller, who is based in Shanghai, China, used a translation software similar to one that got a Canadian furniture store in trouble a few years back for selling a couch in the color N-brown. But that really isn't a proper excuse.
There are no excuses for what happened with the description of the bag in the auction. None. What rock must you be living under to not know that in 2011, there is absolutely no appropriate usage of the N-word? Not in music, on the street and certainly not to describe a tatty purse on a global marketplace like eBay.

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