By Louis Chan, AsAmNews National Correspondent
Two racist products marketed on Amazon have been removed following a change.org petition launched by AsAmNews more than a week ago, but some offensive images remain.
The products, “Chinaman Moustache” and “Chinaman Hat” were both from Bristol Novelty out of Britain. The company this week reached out to AsAmNews to apologize to the Asian American community.
“Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention. We take the integrity of our products and brand extremely seriously, as part of company development we are currently updating our entire range of product and as part of this historical naming conventions are being addressed,” said Francis Hale of Bristol Novelty.
Hale said the products would be renamed accordingly.
The AsAmNews petition garnered some 1,000 signatures and attracted attention from a variety of Asian American celebrities and leaders including the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.
“CAPAC has been in touch with Amazon both yesterday and today,” the group said to AsAmNews on Friday. They already took down one of the products you flagged and are working to change the names/advertisement for anything that includes the term “chinaman”.
Since then, both products flagged by AsAmNews have been removed.
The petition directed at Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos demanded that Amazon work with the sellers to remove the slur and any offensive images.
“Please require your sellers to remove racial slurs such as Chinaman and images which reinforce the racist stereotypes of Asian Americans as sinister, evil and a menace to society,” the petition read. “If these sellers do not cooperate, we ask that you ban them from the Amazon platform.”
Amazon has so far not directly responded to AsAmNews or answered any of our questions.
More work needs to be done to remove images from Amazon which stereotype Asian Americans as shifty, deceitful and untrustworthy.
Since the petition, other products with similarly objectionable images relying on outdated stereotypes have surfaced.
Asian American historian and author Ellen Wu of Indiana University Bloomington said it best.
How about let’s stop yellowface for fun and profit and forever https://t.co/zIFQCDWP4d
— Ellen Wu (@ellendwu) February 18, 2019
The products singled out by AsAmNews are made by Forum Novelties out of Melville, NY. We will reach out to the company today and report on their response.
Bristol Novelty, the maker of the Chinaman Moustache and Hat, has pledged to remove any offensive images.
“We are very sensitive to the portrayal of stereotypes and where possible we will be looking to avoid using any potentially offensive imagery or product names within reason,” said Hale. “It is an ongoing process which we are undertaking as part of our continual brand development here at Bristol Novelty.”
Until these types of images are removed from Amazon, AsAmNews will continue to circulate the change.org petition. You are urged to sign, share and tag your favorite social media influencers.
If you see other use of racial slurs or offensive images, let us know about it. We can be reached at info at asamnews dot com.
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