Primark halted the sale of a The Walking Dead T-shirt after people called the shirt racist.
What makes the T-shirt racist? Well, on the front of the shirt there’s a picture of Lucille – the baseball bat used by the newly introduced Walking Dead character Negan – and the words “Eeny Meeny Miny Moe.”
One Primark shopper told The Telegraph that the T-shirt was offensive and contained “subliminal messages.”
“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. It is directly threatening of a racist assault, and if I were black and were faced by a wearer I would know just where I stood.” one shopper said.
It is important to note that the show’s character that uses this quote says, “Eeny meany miny moe catch a tiger by its toe,” while he is choosing his next victim.
That said, the quote has a historically racist past. In fact, the original rhyme previously said, “catch a (n-word) by his toe.”
Many fans were upset with the decision to pull the shirt and took to Twitter to complain.
“One jumped up idiot makes a complaint to #primark about their #WalkingDead t-shirts being ‘racist’ and they pull them! @WalkingDead_AMC,” one Twitter user argued.
Another Twitter user explained that the person who complained is racist, “@Primark are you absolutely kidding me 1 bloke says something is racist n u remove it. it’s a bloody tv show he is racist @WalkingDead_AMC”
A spokesperson for Primark published a statement apologizing for selling the T-shirt. “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,” the statement said. “Any offence caused by its design was wholly unintentional, and Primark sincerely apologizes for this.”
