Negan is not here for cultural sensitivity.
Earlier this week, U.K. department chain Primark pulled a The Walking Dead T-shirt from its stores after a customer complained it was “racist” and “offensive.”
The shirt featured the villain’s iconic Lucille baseball bat complete with the rhyme he utters to select his victims, “Eeny meeny miny moe, catch a tiger by the toe├óΓé¼┬ª”
Seems harmless, except when considering that rhyme originally used the N-word instead of “tiger” about a century ago!
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The complaining customer Ian Lucraft told The Sheffield Star the offensive shirt “relates directly to the practice of assaulting black people in America,” adding:
“It was fantastically offensive and I can only assume that no-one in the process of ordering it knew what they were doing or were aware of its subliminal messages.”
But not everyone sees the racist undertones in the cheeky, malevolent phrase — namely the actor who spoke them on screen, Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
The TWD star was shocked by the entire controversy, and gave a very Negan-esque response on Twitter:
Holy crap people are stupid. ‘Walking Dead├óΓé¼Γäó Shirt Pulled From Stores After Complaint of Racism https://t.co/cpeIqcxTwJ
— Jeffrey Dean Morgan (@JDMorgan) February 22, 2017
Primark revealed it was pulling the shirt from stores and issued a blame-shifting statement:
“The T-shirt in question is licensed merchandise for the U.S. television series, The Walking Dead, and the quote and image are taken directly from the show. Any offense caused by its design was wholly unintentional and Primark sincerely apologizes for this.”
AMC hasn’t responded to the controversy.
Would U find this shirt offensive?
[Image via AMC/Twitter.]
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