USA TODAY International Edition
Walmart apologizes for racial slur in ad
Third- party vendor to blame for website mistake, retailer says
Megaretailer Walmart is drawing fire for publishing an ad on its website Monday that included a racial slur.
The Bentonville, Ark., company featured an ad on its website early Monday offering a wig cap for sale in which the color was described as “n---- r brown.” The ad has since been removed, and Walmart told The Huffington Post that it has determined the product was sold by a third- party sell- er posing as a company out of the United Kingdom.
Walmart said Monday night it was working on suspending the account of the third- party seller.
Walmart apologized for the ad in a statement via social media.
“We are very sorry and appalled that this third party seller listed their item with this description on our online marketplace,” Walmart said via Twitter. “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.”
The retailer tweeted the re- sponse to various members of the public who asked Walmart what it was doing. The ad featured a wig cap by a company called Jagazi Natural in size medium and included the color description with the slur. The product was offered for $ 7.28.
Walmart removed the racial epithet from the headline but customers pointed out via social media that the word remained in the ad’s description beneath, The
Huffington Post reported. A search for the ad Monday evening showed that it had been removed.
Jagazi Naturals, based in the United Kingdom, published a statement on its website that indicated the wig cap was not a product sold by its company.
“We woke up this morning to the news that someone has used our name Jagazi to list an item,” the statement read. “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!”