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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
TheOtherSock · 22/02/2017 19:28

(Meant to say, I asked him because he's old enough to have heard the racist version, and I know he doesn't watch TWD.)

HateSummer · 22/02/2017 19:29

I read this earlier and think it's absolutely ludicrous they've been accused of racism. It's completely been taken out of context!

In The Walking Dead a new character picks his next victim by singing eenie meenie miney mo and then bashes their brains out. This is what the T-shirt refers to. Anyone who watches the show knows exactly what it means. How ridiculous they've had to recall them.

Stupid people.

NotYoda · 22/02/2017 19:31

TheOtherSock

Yes, but your DP is not one of the cultural elite who are savvy enough to realise it's about a cool TV programme and not at all ugly and threatening for the rest of us Wink

BreatheDeep · 22/02/2017 19:32

Perhaps those that would look at a branded t-shirt featuring a character from a popular tv show, and would immediately start thinking racist slurs instead of "Walking Dead" should examine their own thought processes before questioning other people's.
Nonsense. It's not branded. It has no context to me as I have not seen this weapon on the show and had no idea it was a thing.

NotYoda · 22/02/2017 19:32

IHave

I am sure your daughter is lovely

And I do in fact, grow my own cotton

HateSummer · 22/02/2017 19:34

children's boutique called Eeny Meenie Miney Mo in Ongar (😆). Should it be shut down? Or forced to change its name? Someone needs to get angry about this too.

Pigflewpast · 22/02/2017 19:36

Hate summer as has been said many many times if you RTFT anyone who DOESN'T watch the show doesn't know the context so therefore it isn't ludicrous or ridiculous that the majority of Joe Public may be offended by it

AwaywiththePixies27 · 22/02/2017 19:36

We used to sing this all the time as kids. The catch a tiger by its toe version. (80s kid). I didn't realise the original version was racist either until a few years ago Blush

I haven't seen TWD so I wouldn't have got the reference. Then again. The label does say TWD on it.

Deadsouls · 22/02/2017 19:38

I do watch Walking Dead so I know what it's in reference to. The scene is really violent and brutal. So I find it disturbing that it's referenced as a fashion statement. Personally I wouldn't want to be walking around wearing that, knowing the scene it refers to.

NotYoda · 22/02/2017 19:39

PigFlew

Some people are very much more concerned about saying things are Not Really Racist to have the time to do tedious things like read stuff and think deeply about it.

limitedperiodonly · 22/02/2017 19:40

Cotton is one of the worst crops for environmental devastation. It needs millions of gallons of water to sustain it and is one of the things that has contributed to the destruction of the Aral Sea with dreadful impact on the environment and population.

It made me think about whether I should be wearing cotton produced in that region or any andalso that the issue of ethical production is not just limited to sweatshops that exploit labour, child or adult.

But I still do. Wear cotton that is. But I wouldn't go for that t shirt.

I read about it in an article written by that baboon murderer AA Gill btw.

Pigflewpast · 22/02/2017 19:40

Then again the label does say TWD on ^
Yes but presumably the only people who see the label are those buying it, not the people seeing someone wearing it, so doesn't really help.

category12 · 22/02/2017 19:41

children's boutique called Eeny Meenie Miney Mo in Ongar (😆). Should it be shut down? Or forced to change its name? Someone needs to get angry about this too.

If it has violent imagery attached to the title, yes indeed. Christ almighty. Hmm

Pigflewpast · 22/02/2017 19:41

not yoda Grin

ArchNotImpudent · 22/02/2017 19:41

The label does say TWD on it.

The label's not going to be visible to a passerby on the street, though.

NotYoda · 22/02/2017 19:42

limited

I didn't know that. I think I muddies the waters a bit, talking about cotton. The main point is, as you say, the nasty image and implied racism

RufusTheSpartacusReindeer · 22/02/2017 19:43

I do watch TWD and i knew what the t shirt was referring to and i knew it wasnt intended to be racist

However, i do understand that the rhyme has racist connotations and that if you dont know the tv show you wouldnt get the relevance of the bat and that other people may well think the t shirt is racist

gamerchick · 22/02/2017 19:44

There's a petition to bring it back on the shelves apparently. I'm still going with Newcastle complaint and advertising for primark.

TheEdgeofSeventeen · 22/02/2017 19:46

My mum always sand 'catch a tiger by its toe' or 'catch a spider by its toe' so I wouldn't have had a clue

RufusTheSpartacusReindeer · 22/02/2017 19:47

Just asked dh who is 48 and does not watch TWD what he thought the the shirt was for, he said

"Its a KKK t shirt"

HateSummer · 22/02/2017 19:47

Hate summer as has been said many many times if you RTFT anyone who DOESN'T watch the show doesn't know the context so therefore it isn't ludicrous or ridiculous that the majority of Joe Public may be offended by it

Well actually if they're on a rack with other TWD tshirts and clothing and TWD logo is on the tshirts then one should assume that the writing on the shirt is somehow linked to the programme and not a racist slur. In the show Negan says "catch a tiger by its toe".

There's a petition to bring the tshirts back.

gamerchick · 22/02/2017 19:47

*no

limitedperiodonly · 22/02/2017 19:47

Most people don't watch The Walking Dead. I was stunned the first time I realised that most people don't share my tastes but I've got used to it now. Other people should too.

It's an unpleasant image and as a bland, vaguely-family orientated family store, Primark has done exactly the right thing by withdrawing it. I'm only surprised that they decided to stock it in the first place but we all make mistakes.

Thegirlinthefireplace · 22/02/2017 19:48

And just to add we sang "catch a minnow by its toe" in our house. No one else appears to have said that so clearly we were oddities 😳😳😳

ReasonsToBeModeratelyHappy · 22/02/2017 19:50

those that would look at a branded t-shirt featuring a character from a popular tv show, and would immediately start thinking racist slurs instead of "Walking Dead"
It doesn't feature a character, that would be a person - it features a weapon, covered in barbed wire - you seem to be deliberately misunderstanding.

And honestly, truly, there are lots and lots of people who have barely heard of 'The Walking Dead', and have certainly never watched it, to understand the subtle and clever way that the violence in it is somehow supposed to remove ANY connotation of racism from that slogan.

The idea that a hidden label in the back of a t shirt, somehow removes the more general meaning for everyone, by associating an image and well known phrase with a tv show, is just mad.

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