posted on February 21, 2003 05:51:32 PM neweBay asked to stop listing items deemed racist
Activists today asked the Internet auction giant eBay to stop listing items they say are racially offensive and demeaning to blacks.
The Southern California groups said eBay is violating its own policy that discourages sellers from listing items that promote racial intolerance.
The groups displayed cast-iron banks they said were examples of items listed on eBay. One was a caricature of a black person, with large red lips, dark skin and rolling eyes, that had been described on eBay using the n-word.
"This is what they think of us," said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Inglewood, Calif.-based National Alliance for Positive Action, a racial and social justice public advocacy group. "This shows the absolute utter contempt many in the society still have for African-Americans even today."
eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove said he was unaware of the alliance's efforts to reach the company. eBay removes listings using words in ways that are "abusive or offensive or degrading or in any way disparaging," Pursglove said.
But it doesn't strike listings that use such words to describe items. For example, some book or album titles use a racial slur in their titles, Pursglove said.
"What we've always tried to do is strike a balance between the sensitivities of eBay users with the desire of eBay users to buy and sell merchandise," he said.
But Hutchinson and others say it's especially painful to find listings for books, prints, card games, antique glass sets, tobacco tins and other items that use a racial slur and are sometimes described as "cute" or "adorable."
Dante Lee, president of Long Beach, Calif.-based A.S.J. Media, which owns BlackNews.com, said when the n-word is typed in, "you see items that portray blacks" with a "pitch dark skin tone, exaggerated nose flares, almost as if they look like animals. I felt offended."
In May 2001, eBay began banning the sale of artifacts from Nazi Germany, the Ku Klux Klan and notorious criminals, in hopes of avoiding legal problems in other countries; in France, Germany, Austria and Italy it is illegal to sell items relating to the Third Reich.
More recently, the auction site deleted listings for items billed as debris from the space shuttle Columbia.
eBay's offensive material policy states the company will "judiciously disallow listings or items that promote or glorify hatred, violence, or racial intolerance, or items that promote organizations (such as the KKK, Nazis, neo-Nazis, and Aryan Nation) with such views."
David Pilgrim estimates he has bought about 1,000 racist collectibles on eBay for the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia located on the Ferris State University campus in Big Rapids, Mich. The museum displays about 4,000 items and has about 3,000 more in storage.
The market for memorabilia depicting black people has undergone a resurgence in the last few years due to eBay, Yahoo! and other Internet auction houses, said Pilgrim, curator of the museum. Black memorabilia items range from black baseball league jerseys to postcards depicting lynchings that can sell for up to a thousand dollars, he said.
"I hate the fact that people buy" racist items, said Pilgrim, who is black. But "people have the right to sell."
Andrew Robinson-Gaither, pastor of the Faith United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, said Friday he wants eBay to immediately cease listing such items.
"How could eBay do this during black history month?" Robinson-Gaither said at the news conference.
posted on February 21, 2003 06:33:44 PM new
I was surprised....Just did a search for N-word items....70 showed up, then did the same for KKK....150 and Nazi, 1200. I thought all Nazi and KKKitems were banned a while back. As offensive as these items are, none are "banned". Ebay policy "discourages" these listings. It would be a hard call to make, as some items have the N-word in the actual title of the item, such as John Lennons "Woman is the N-word of the world" and there was a Dick Gregory autobiography which has the word in the title. I don't think it is ethical to use that word, or any derogatory term purely as search keywords when the offensive words are not anywhere on or in the items content, and there were some of those. That is offensive to me..I'm not being PC, I don't like it...never have... that's my opinion. But the bottom line is, if you are offended by it, don't search those items.
posted on February 21, 2003 07:13:43 PM new
David Pilgrim estimates he has bought about 1,000 racist collectibles on eBay "I hate the fact that people buy" racist items, said Pilgrim, who is black. But "people have the right to sell."
posted on February 21, 2003 08:36:48 PM new
Hutchinson and people like him are a bunch of losers who attract other losers who donate money to support them and their lavish lifestyles. He probably wouldn't know what it was like to do an honest days work, but he can put on a flamboyant news conference and have the audience believe that he is the only pure sole on earth and every one who disagrees with him is a racist. Jerks like him are a dime a dozen. If a person wants to carry it to the extreme, he can find something offensive in any auction listed on Ebay. Instead of spending so much time trying to find something someone has written that they might possibly find "offensive", I would suggest they spend a few minutes to read the first amendment to the constitution.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on February 21, 2003 09:52:11 PM newtomwiii
I thought I read everything jerry12 posted & can't imagine how I missed that one, but I did. I miss him too, very much.
I never laughed so much reading his posts & even funnier was the poster that would reply thinking he was serious.
On that sad night of the mass AW exodus he mentioned to check out realdeal jerry12 on Yahoo Could be him, but I'm not sure. He was a mystery, never told anything about himself.
posted on February 22, 2003 02:45:11 AM new
Well....
In this "episode" of Jerry12's never-ending saga, he described his sad tale:
He had recently acquired an inventory of black Americana memorbilia postcards (or trade cards, I can't remember which) depicting early 20th century Afro-American children.
He requested assistance with auction titles -- he stated his desire to be PC & inoffensive.
His first attempt had me ROTFLMAOPIMP for hours.
Hopefully somebody bookmarked the thread & will display
Ralphie loves Mr Blonde:
"Are you gonna bark all day little doggie, or are you gonna bite?" http://tinyurl.com/5duz
posted on February 22, 2003 04:52:44 AM new
what upsets me about this whole thing is;
this is all a part of our history. We may abhor it, we hopefully will keep things like the Nazi regime from ever happening again, but it is still history. If we allow banning of these terms and items, then eventually our children or grandchildren may forget....god help us all if this happens.
there is a black man on Antiques Roadshow who collects black memorabilia and those words are his, not mine, but the sentiments are the same as mine.
posted on February 22, 2003 07:37:52 AM new
rarriffle, you are absolutely correct, even though this is an bad time in our history, we shouldn't try to sweep it under the carpet and forget it was there.
It is happening in Germany now, they really want to get away from their Nazi past, but by doing so, their children may not...
