Amazon Sold Shoes Using The N-Word To Describe Their Color
Amazon is facing backlash after it featured brown shoes for sale that were described as “n****r brown.”
A British lawmaker discovered the listing while shopping online and the listing has since been taken down. The fact that it was ever able to be featured on the retail giant’s website has many prompting for tighter controls on its item descriptions.
"Just buying brown brogues tonight leads to this racist micro aggression. Is it 2020 or 1720? Please @amazon take it down," David Lammy wrote on Monday (August 3) next to a picture of the item description.
Later in the day, Lammy followed up his tweet thanking Amazon for removing the product but also issuing a message that the company needs to do better. "Given the item has been on sale since March what systems do you have in place for reviewing descriptions and not allowing offensive terms to be posted in the first place? This is not the first time," he wrote.
In a statement to CNN, Amazon claims the product is no longer available.
"All sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who do not will be subject to action including potential removal of their account," a spokesperson said in a statement.
This isn’t the first time Amazon has featured an offensive product. In January 2019, the company pulled more than a dozen products after receiving complaints that they were offensive to Muslims. In December of that same year, the company removed a number of Christmas ornaments featuring images of an Auschwitz concentration camp.
