Online shoppers were left fuming after finding out that Amazon UK was using the N-word to describe one of the colors of men's shoes. Twitter users bombarded the online retailer with complaints and criticisms leading the company to pull down the product immediately.
Florence Shakespeare, the brand in question, described one of the colors of their brogues as "N***** brown." Describing the line of shoes, the company stated on Amazon UK website: "Occasion: Whether you are working, driving, wedding, Business or other casual lifestyles it is a great choice to wear."
British politician David Lammy was one of the first to tweet about the racist description of the shoe. Calling the description as "micro aggression," the Tottenham MP asked Amazon to take the objectionable product down.
"Just buying brown brogues tonight leads to this racist micro aggression. Is it 2020 or 1720? Please @amazon take it down," his tweet read.
Amazon pulled the Florence Shakespeare shoes after the tweet went viral. "All sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who do not will be subject to action including potential removal of their account. The product in question is no longer available," a spokesperson for Amazon told TMZ.
Lammy thanked Amazon after the company removed the product. However, he also questioned the online retail giant's policy on reviewing product descriptions.
Amazon's Review of Products
"Thank you @amazon for taking this down now but 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," Lammy tweeted.
Following the politician's tweet, several online shoppers took to Twitter to call out Amazon and expressed their anger over the controversial product.
"Hello @amazon what the actual F*** is wrong with you?! How the hell is this ok? I'm so sick of this sly racist s***," one Twitter user wrote.
Another user tweeted: "Who in 2020 calls something "n***** brown" to [describe] a type of brown. Apparently people did in 70s. I always knew it was completely an inappropriate and racist word to use and I was born early 70s."
One Twitter user asked Amazon's founder and owner Jeff Bezos whether he wanted black people to boycott the online retailer.
"Just weeks ago we complained about racist book titles/ ni**er earphones etc now this? @JeffBezos if you want Black people to boycott @amazon keep this up. Maybe when you're hit with profit loss you'll take #BlackLivesMatter seriously!" wrote another user.
