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Primark forced to remove racist t-shirt from sale

296 replies

Soubriquet · 22/02/2017 17:38

link

I don't watch the walking dead. So this reference would have gone straight over my head.

But again I'm the generation who sang catch a tiger by its toe so wouldn't have immediately gotten the racist connection either.

But once it was pointed out, I got it and agree it should definitely be removed

What were they thinking making this?

OP posts:
Gizmojo · 22/02/2017 18:23

One of the several things Jeremy Clarkson did when at the BBC but wasn't sacked for, was reciting the whole racist version - saying the n word under his breath - during filming. I'm guessing the reason some of you don't know the racist version is precisely because the origins are racist and the wording was changed.

LynetteScavo · 22/02/2017 18:24

In the late 70's, early 80's in the midlands it definately wasn't tiger. We used a rhyme that rhymed with tigger, and did change it once we were at the very end of primary school.

And yes, the first thing I thought when I saw that t-shirt was the N word, and no child of mine would be wearing it.

GabsAlot · 22/02/2017 18:24

the man who complained is not even black

i dont think he should take it upon himself to be offended for a whole race

spiderslight · 22/02/2017 18:25

I'm an avid viewer of the Walking Dead. I think 'Lucille' is a shocking thing to have on a t-shirt! Who would wear that? I had no idea of the origins or connotations of the wording. Obviously it doesn't refer to that wording but the words used by Neegan on the TV programme.

Cel982 · 22/02/2017 18:26

It was the racist version that was still doing the rounds on our street when I was a kid in the 80s.

But, having no frame of reference for the word, we all thought we were singing "catch a knicker by the toe". Which clearly made no sense, but sounded satisfyingly rude Blush

spiderslight · 22/02/2017 18:26

Negan*

Andrewofgg · 22/02/2017 18:26

I'm '52 vintage. In infants' school we got told off for the reference to wiping his bum, not for the N-word. But that was in an all-white school in, I think, an all-white town; it might have been different elsewhere.

But this sounds like a professional whinger at work. You might as well ban The Mikado because when it was first staged it used the N-word in the little list song.

Mrsglitterfairy · 22/02/2017 18:26

I hadn't seen the tshirt or heard about it but having googled it, it's clearly from TWD. Not racist in any way in my eyes. No I'm not black though but I would say not many black people would see it as that either especially anyone who has ever seen or read the walking dead.
For anyone that hasn't seen TWD, attached should be is a picture of Negan holding Lucille (his bat) and his phrase when deciding which of the gang to cave their head in kill was 'eeny meeny miny moe

Primark forced to remove racist t-shirt from sale
spiderslight · 22/02/2017 18:26

When we sang it, as children, we sang 'catch a baby'

steff13 · 22/02/2017 18:27

I always sang "tiger," too. I had no idea about the other version. As a PP said, the character says tiger in the show.

SquatBetty · 22/02/2017 18:27

I think I used to say 'catch a pixie by its toe' - late 70s.

Plunkette · 22/02/2017 18:27

I'm quite astonished that so many people don't see any issue with this t-shirt.

barinatxe · 22/02/2017 18:28

I've no problem with it. The overwhelming majority of people don't use the rhyme in a racist manner, many (as some have said here) didn't even know it did have a racist background. Meanings change over time.

If that t-shirt is racist, why is it acceptable for my local HMV to display a vinyl copy of NWA's "Straight Outta Compton" prominently in the shop entrance? The "N" stands for the same racist word that used to be said in a certain nursery rhyme, and in NWA's case it certainly hasn't been ameliorated over time to "tiger"!

A word is either racist or it isn't (in this case, obviously it is). But the argument that some people can say it, and other people cannot, simply based on the colour of their skin, is incredibly racist.

But anyway, the t-shirt does not use a racist word and many people will be blissfully unaware that it makes older people think of one.

Looks pretty shit though.

ArchNotImpudent · 22/02/2017 18:28

RachelRagged I was born in the mid 70s and the racist version was still being used at my primary school in the early 80s.

Fauchelevent · 22/02/2017 18:29

The one thing that does bug me is that when you complain about on the fence minor things, it makes the papers. And as you can see people reply "gosh how silly pc gone mad"

Then when there are things that are seriously offensive and ought to be dealt with, people are already tired of things being called racist and lump it in with the more minor things under the category of "everything can be racist to the professionally offended"

If that makes sense. Basically when people complain about the things that aren't big deals, it means no one takes the things that are big deals seriously either

spiderslight · 22/02/2017 18:29

70s when we sang the 'baby' version of the song, just to add.

Bonkerz · 22/02/2017 18:29

This is ridiculous. It refers to the first scene in latest series of walking dead. To be honest the phrase was also used in a Justin bieber song recently so I'm sure most young people would sing it for that and not the lesser known offensive chant

CaliBoingo · 22/02/2017 18:30

Another '60s child here - and, yeah, in my neck of the (white) woods the racist version was the norm. Today I cringe just thinking about it. Alternately I learnt the "tiger" version from neighbourhood kids who went to a different church. Irony much?! Hmm

GabsAlot · 22/02/2017 18:30

here here barina alright for some and not others-and this t shirt doent even say it!

Somerville · 22/02/2017 18:31

Who'd want to wear a t-shirt referring to something so gory? I'm glad it was banned - even if only on taste grounds.

Megatherium · 22/02/2017 18:31

I think that the inherent glorification of violence in that image is more objectionable than anything else. Who on earth wants to walk around with a picture of a baseball bat surrounded by barbed wire?

category12 · 22/02/2017 18:33

You would need to watch the Walking Dead to get the pop culture reference.

Not everybody does and the fact that it can just as easily be construed as an invitation to commit violence against POC makes it an unacceptable thing to be selling.

MrsKwazii · 22/02/2017 18:33

I understood TWD reference, but can also see that it could be taken as racially threatening if you know the racist version of the rhyme. I'm betting the Primark buyer that waved this through is a youngish TWD fan who had no idea of the racist connotations that could be read into it.

If you don't watch TWD - and there are loads of people who don't - it's a nasty tshirt. Even if you know TWD, it's a nasty tshirt full stop. I'm not sorry to see it taken off the shelves.

MrsBellefleur · 22/02/2017 18:33

T shirts saying this phrase are everywhere at the minute. I own this one, never crossed my mind it could be misconstrued as even slightly racist.

Primark forced to remove racist t-shirt from sale
PCDC · 22/02/2017 18:34

Cel982 We always sang "nicker" too in the 1980s but had no idea what it meant. Thought it was just a made up word. Never heard the racist version as a child and wouldn't have known what that word meant either.