14 October, 2014. 19:19
CIVIL RIGHTS activists are again up in arms for the second time this week over yet another racist T-shirt found on sale in a North Queensland Franchise.
The t-shirt has created controversy as many feel it is promoting racial discrimination with a hooded Ku Klux Klan member mimicking the iconic Uncle Sam recruitment posters from WWII.
Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane took to Twitter this afternoon to condemn Woolworths for having the product on-shelf
‘Are youse f**king serious?!? KKK?!?!? 10 in the bin woolies!’
This comes in the wake of a similar incident for Woolworths earlier this week, the supermarket franchise made headlines after pulling the sale of a singlet urging people to leave Australia if they don’t “love it”, with many critics calling the clothing ‘racist’ and divisive’.
Kerrod Kenneth, a media spokesman for Woolworths, told The Australian Advocate that this T-shirt will see the same fate:
“We didn’t think the first one was that bad, but this one is a shocker. We don’t know how it got there, we’ve taken both off our shelves anyway”
“The singlet was not one we ordered,” he said.
The ‘love it or leave it’ singlet had became a trending social media topic after it attracted waves of criticism online, including a call from Greens MP Adam Bandt to pull the products.
Staffers for Mr Bandt have again burred up once again, calling for the second product to be pulled as well.
“This is an undeniable case of racist propaganda, Woolworths should be ashamed” they posted.
“These should be pulled immediately.”
Woolworth’s have clarified that they have had these products on the shelves since Australia Day, and furthermore, had sold thousands of each.
“This is really bad for our brand, we will be paying much closer attention in the future” said Mr. Kenneth.
