Sticking head above parapet to ask. Aibu to be frustrated that Tesco answer to racists using their cards is to remove all monkey cards from sale.

[StrumpersPlunkett]

I have mixed race children.
My eldest was born in the year of the monkey.
Every year we get him a birthday card with a monkey on it.
Yesterday I was told by the card lady that they had removed all cards with monkeys on due to a complaint that one had been sent with a racist message inside.
F f s!!!
Racism is the problem. It is never acceptable.
Taking birthday cards with monkeys on the front off sale isn't the answer.
Sorry rant over.
Went to different shop and found a monkey card.

It’s a publicity stunt from tesco and anyone who thinks it will make a difference to racist attitudes and abuse is guilty of over simplistic thinking. This person didn’t see a monkey card and suddenly think oh I’ll send an insult. This person had engrained racist views and found a way to express them.

Are they intending to stop selling bananas as bananas have been thrown at black footballers on the pitch? Or is it because the card said tesco on the back?

The change we need is not this.

I expect you are all for gun control, but it’s not the fault of the gun...

I’m sure we could all go into Tesco and find cards that could potentially insult, well anyone really.

@RJnomore1

It’s a publicity stunt from tesco and anyone who thinks it will make a difference to racist attitudes and abuse is guilty of over simplistic thinking. This person didn’t see a monkey card and suddenly think oh I’ll send an insult. This person had engrained racist views and found a way to express them.

Are they intending to stop selling bananas as bananas have been thrown at black footballers on the pitch? Or is it because the card said tesco on the back?

The change we need is not this.

How is it a publicity stunt when Tesco have not widely publicised that they have done this? OP was told by one member of staff in one branch.

Besides, in racist Britain, this kind of publicity wouldn't go down well. Wasn't there a boycott because Tesco had an ad featuring a black family? Tesco then pulled the ad.

Is it not possible just to like monkeys, think they are cute and want one on a card? A bit like people do with kittens and puppies and llamas?

If this is actually happening, then yes it is utterly ridiculous. Will they remove bananas, next, because they sometimes get thrown onto football pitches?

Are they going to ban all the borderline sexist cards too? The ageist cards? Any card because something offensive could be written in them?
How did the recipient know they came from Tesco? Did this really happen? (Not you op, Tesco’s reason)

Seems like an over reaction to me, a racist could write a racist comment in any card.
I’m thinking about the stuff my kids have had with monkeys on over the years, t shirts, soft toys, plastic toys as part of a toy zoo.
Cancelling cards with monkeys on isn’t the answer.

It’s a publicity stunt from tesco

Given that the OP went to tesco expecting to buy a monkey card and only found out from the woman behind the counter that they'd been withdrawn from sale once she specifically asked, it doesn't sound like it was given much publicity.

Withdrawing those items from sale for that reason is a very complex issue as Tesco wouldn't want to be seen saying that monkey images are inherently racist, or implying that there is any validity in the image being associated with black people, and they obviously don't want "Tesco" and "racial abuse" mentioned in the same sentence. So I can't imagine they'd want to start a conversation on this issue - more likely they just wanted to quietly withdraw the cards and distance themselves from the issue.

It actually does matter whether or not your kids are mixed with Chinese. Minorities experience racism in different ways. I've no particular strong opinion on Tesco removing the monkey cards but again this is always the case - people get outraged over things like this than e.g. someone deliberately using monkey cards to antagonise Black people.

But anyway this thread feels very orchestrated 'Look at what those bloody wokes are up to again'.

Here's one from Sainsbury's, if it's going to cause you so much distress

www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/cards---wrap/say-cheese-birthday-card

How did the recipient know they came from Tesco? Did this really happen? (Not you op, Tesco’s reason)

Cards have the company who sold them printed on the back.

So if someone gets an anonymous card with an abusive message, all you do know about it is where the perpetrator bought it from. It's not a huge leap to see how that then becomes the tabloid story when there's literally no other information to report.

Not sure why people are saying mixed race as if it's applicable here if part of that mix isn't black - the race that gets the monkey insult.

If you're white and Asian, it doesn't matter that you're mixed in this situation because that slur doesn't affect you. You may as well be white and posting. Saying you're mixed race as if to say 'Look I get it but I still don't agree' is disingenuous if you're not part black.

Or are Asian people called monkeys too?

I still agree with the OP that removing monkey cards as a result is ridiculous if that was how it happened. Perhaps the person who told you was so fucked off by it, s/he just said it in the most simplistic way possible, as people do in these issues.

I doubt Tesco willingly lost money from the cards just because one person complained a/their monkey card was used against them. Most companies wouldn't readily lose money unless not doing so will affect their brand and pocket. It's not a gesture from the kindness of their hearts.

I think OP and those frothing about this issue only want to see the simple "World gone mad!" aspect of it but I don't think it was that simple. Talk about being offended.

@LonginesPrime

seems Tesco are cementing the use of monkey images as a racist insult by doing this

I think it's more likely that since they've become aware of their products being used to abuse people, they have withdrawn the item from sale to distance themselves from a problematic issue.

I don't think it necessarily helps or hinders the issue of the monkey image being weaponised per se, but Tesco aren't in the business of stamping out racism (not that they shouldn't do more, of course - it's just that their decisions will be driven by business imperatives and reputational risk) - they've obviously removed it so you don't get Daily Mail articles saying that a Tesco card was used to racially abuse someone.

Would it be likely to be mentioned in any news report that the card was purchased at Tesco?

Monkey-themed memorabilia is so readily available that buying a monkey-themed birthday card would be unremarkable - unless the particular card for some reason unfortunately lent itself to corruption because of its design or wording, in which case by all means withdraw that card only.

It's a difficult one. I wouldn't have chosen to remove the cards, because you risk giving out the message that there's something wrong with images of monkeys, not that there's something wrong with the person who write a racist message.

The vast majority of the cards with monkeys on will be bought for people who like monkeys, or spend their time hanging upside on climbing frames (my sister from about 4-12, she took up gymnastics!), or it's a family joke. I know a family who called their baby 'Monkey' for years because she clung on so tightly when you held her. Or because it's just a nice card. A racist will find anything that suits them — if it's not a card with a monkey on, it will be something else.

Pretty stupid.

Get a card online, it's Tesco's loss.

@Bufferingkisses

The inference surely is that anyone who likes/buys monkey items is racist?

Obviously that cannot be true because a monkey is an animal children are encouraged to like (as well as become interested in, protect environmentally etc later in life) as well as being used as a racist slur. Removing the ability to send a card with a monkey on as a racist jibe won't stop people using it as a racist jibe but may stop children becoming invested in an animal that ultimately needs people to be invested in them.

It's the same old "woke" shite, reaction without thought to get cookies

This. To say selling TESCO cards with little monkeys on is racist, is just ridiculous. Come ON! It's an animal, that lots of people love, especially children.

To say 'removing them will stop Tesco being racist' is farcical.

As @Ylvamoon said, where does it all stop? Stop selling cards with little girls/fairies/angels on because it's sexist against women, stop selling cards for dads and brothers and uncles with golf and motor cars on because it's sexist against men, stop selling cards with lovely countryside scenes on because it's offensive towards people living in tower blocks in the inner cities?

As the poster above said, it's the same old woke shite, day in day out, it's becoming ridiculous, and serious racism that affects the quality of life of some people, is going to get lost in it all.

People are going to be so sick of being told because their child has a monkey toy, that they should hang their head in shame and apologise (for everything every white person has ever done wrong to non white people EVER;) that no-one will care about genuine, nasty, racism that some POC have to deal with. The accusations and scolding and yelling at the by 'the woke' will turn into white noise.

Put your head back behind that parapet @StrumpersPlunkett

Hmmmm, like @vladimirsputin I am slightly suspicious about this thread now, and wondering about the OP's intentions. I wonder if it was put here for nefarious reasons......

I don't think Tesco are trying to address racism by removing the cards, they just don't want their name associated with it. If a story about a racist monkey card from Tesco appeared in the news or did the rounds on social media it wouldn't look good for them. That's all they care about.

I wonder about whoever made the complaint tbh. Weird to blame the supermarket in this situation.

OP never actually specified she bought it because of the year of the monkey. Her child may just like monkeys!

For what it’s worth I think it’s ridiculous of Tesco to do

I wonder about whoever made the complaint tbh. Weird to blame the supermarket in this situation.

Yes, it's not particularly logical, but this would have been a victim of anonymous abuse - if you receive threatening anonymous mail, you look for any clues to put your mind at rest and make sense of it. It's blood scary.

I can see why a recent victim of abuse might feel that not having readily available monkey images might have avoided the incident - a perpetrator isn't going to draw their own image of a monkey or go to the trouble of making a card, so I can kind of see the logic of a victim thinking that removing the cards makes that kind of abuse less easy for perpetrators.

Genuinely not nefarious

I, like lots if people, have very like minded friends and this thread has done exactly what I wanted.
It has given me an alternative point of view to ponder.
My children are not black mixed race they are white/Chinese so those posters questioning are totally correct.
I do not have personal experience of that level of hurt when monkey is used as an insult.
Some people have understood my question, I wasn’t particularly articulate, does it solidify monkey as an insult or is it just a way of Tesco gently backing away from any future issue, there are hundreds of other cards available.
Living in a rural area I also do not have many black friends who can talk straight to me which is what I have always loved about MN (been here since 2002).

Thank you for giving me a different way of looking at it.
I still think it is bonkers but I understand that some think it is a good move.

Its a no win situation for them.

If they continue to sell cards with monkeys then the anti-racists will give them a hard time for selling cards that can be used as slurs.
If they take them off sale then they're surrendering to them as many people like monkeys.

@RJnomore1

It’s a publicity stunt from tesco and anyone who thinks it will make a difference to racist attitudes and abuse is guilty of over simplistic thinking. This person didn’t see a monkey card and suddenly think oh I’ll send an insult. This person had engrained racist views and found a way to express them.

Are they intending to stop selling bananas as bananas have been thrown at black footballers on the pitch? Or is it because the card said tesco on the back?

The change we need is not this.

Totally agree

But I don’t know ... monkey is a racist slur really

But it's also just a monkey.

I mean, are we going to get rid of the actual monkeys? Or just all images of monkeys?
It doesn't actually help the issue at hand, at all.

But it's also just a monkey

It's just a monkey to people who haven't been abused by the term.

To people who have, I should imagine it's a source of great pain and an extremely emotive image indeed, likely compounded by the fact that other people can't appreciate their pain and simply dismiss it as "just a monkey".