Walmart apologises for using N-word in online product description
Walmart has been criticised after an antiquated online product was described as ‘n-word brown’ in a listing, a term that has now understandably been retired from the colour chart it once eschewed.
Walmart's listing
The retailer, working with a third party seller, was found to be selling a wig cap carrying the offensive description. It has since removed and the company has offered an apology for the listing, but not before it was screencapped by a Twitter user.
Umm, @Walmart we need to have a chat... pic.twitter.com/lldW0iDO55
— Travon Free (@Travon) July 17, 2017
The company said: “We are very sorry and appalled that this third-party seller listed their item with this description on our online marketplace. It is a clear violation of our policy, and has been removed, and we are investigating the seller to determine how this could have happened."
The product did not go down well on Twitter.
In #TrumpsAmerica you can get away with this stuff just by issuing a fake, insincere apology @Walmart https://t.co/9uAfVBGyX8
— Sharalyn Bailey (@iactup) July 17, 2017
NO THE BLACK COMMUNITY DOES NOT ACCEPT YOUR APOLOGY WALMART
— Nys® (@Lil_nys) July 18, 2017
The incident shows the dangers of working with third party sellers, if the measures to catch such gaffes are not in place.