eBay and Racist Memorabilia
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3 Responses to “eBay and Racist Memorabilia”
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(This resource removed at the insistence of The Associated Press.)
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February 24th, 2003 at 9:10 pm
I don’t see a problem with this. If you start regulating items like these you run into a wall of problems regarding freedom and other aspects that this country offers. So, people want to sell stupidity like that and it’s hard to deny that it’s offensive but with 1 out of 8 black males that exist in this country being jailed; there are simply bigger issues. It’s distasteful however, so long as it’s not placed in a public area and held privately by the bidder I see absolutely no problem with it.
However it should be fair to note that in Europe they have banned anything having to do with the Nazi regime.
This is the type of conflict that a wo/man has to throw into his/her head and think about for a while. The only right answer is to allow these transactions and compensate for it with education. The likelyhood of that actually happening? I won’t hold my breath.
February 25th, 2003 at 9:23 pm
Reguardless of who thinks what about owning items such as these, ebay specifically said that THEY would not promote racial intolerance. They are clearly violating their own policy by selling these items which are icons of racial oppression (oppression that is not forgotten).
February 26th, 2003 at 3:22 am
Racism and Discrimination can be practiced in private simply because they aren’t tangible items. You cannot look at a person and tell if they practice racist or discriminatory behavior. Not only that but molesation, rape, incest, abuse and child pornography harm others in the physical sense. Racism and discrimination harm others in a different manner. The proper course of action is not to hide history and to allow these items to be sold as not doing so would be against what this country stands for. Then, you seem not to take into account who a purchaser might be. I might feel the need to purchase an item as such to educate others on the evils of slavery, racism and discrimination and to show them how these demeaning caricatures of black persons came about. Sadly someone else might purchase for reasons which would only propogate racism and discrimination; thats fine. So long as they do it in the privacy of their own homes.
Still, these depictions are offensive but it happened and they were made during a time where America should be ashamed of itself. However, the best way to fight the proliferation of racist and discriminatory attitudes is with education. Denying people the right to purchase a piece of history; offensive or not will only allow the present to become the past. This has been proven time and time again, when history is censored it is doomed to repeat itself. Let us not take a step in the wrong direction, lets recognize the problem, recognize its existence and use education, understanding and time to end the cycle.