Twitter users blasted Walmart on Monday for using a racial slur in one of its online product descriptions.
Travon Free tweeted a screenshot early Monday morning of the company’s listing for a wig cap made by Jagazi Naturals. The product description listed the cap’s color as “nigger-brown.”
Walmart has since removed the wig cap listing from its site, and searching for the item yields a “technical difficulties” screen. The Arkansas-based corporation also issued a statement apologizing for the offensive post.
“We are very sorry and appalled that this third party seller listed their item with this description on our online marketplace,” a Walmart spokesperson told the Daily Dot. “It is a clear violation of our policy, and has been removed, and we are investigating the seller to determine how this could have happened.”
Umm, @Walmart we need to have a chat… pic.twitter.com/lldW0iDO55
— Travon (@Travon) July 17, 2017
Others corroborated Free’s discovery, with one user sharing a cached version of the product page to prove that the slur was still present on the site.
https://twitter.com/ZacharySire/status/886825851026759681
Several notable figures, including drummer Questlove and author Roxane Gay, expressed their disgust as well.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWo7Jd4nry1/
https://twitter.com/rgay/status/886821152311484416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2Fbeauty%2Fwalmart-removes-racist-term-used-third-party-product-description-164459874.html
Walmart altered the wig’s description after the initial tweet storm, but Twitter users noted the offensive word still appeared in the bulleted product highlights.
Update: now it's just in the highlights @Walmart pic.twitter.com/O1fpEQSGOc
— Travon (@Travon) July 17, 2017
Jagazi Naturals also responded to the offensive listing on Monday, posting on its website that Walmart apparently sold the company’s wig through another vendor operating under the same name.
“We woke up this morning to the news that someone has used our name JAGAZI to list an item,” the company said. “Please beware that we are reporting this to as many people as we can and trying to get all the listings pulled down. The real JAGAZI is a 100% black company for black people. People have often used our brand name to try and sell their fake products. Please be aware. Very sorry for all the distress this has caused. We are feeling the pain here as well. Most shocking!”