Online retailer Amazon UK has sparked outrage for selling an old book by Agatha Christie called Ten Little N****r Boys.
The book is listed by seller hesseloldbooks, is priced at £248.90 and is labelled as ‘collectible’.
The story was originally published in 1939, before it was re-released with a different name, And Then There Were None. But the copy of the book with the original name is currently available to buy on Amazon’s UK website.
Lawyer, political and women’s rights activist, Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, tweeted her disgust at discovering the title on the website, calling the book ‘racist’ and ‘offensive’ and accusing Amazon of ‘profiting on oppression of Black people and enabling racism,’
‘I’m livid but NOT surprised at lack of racial sensitivity of global organisations owned/run by #whiteprivilege,’ she continued.
Shola tweeted screenshots of other titles currently available to purchase on Amazon UK, including; ‘The Little German N****r Girl’, ‘Destroy All N*****s’ and ‘Ten Little N****r Boys and Ten Little N****r Girls’.
‘Amazon has a corporate responsibility to consumers which is flagrantly breached by the sale of racist/inflammatory titles such as ‘Ten Little N****r Boys’ on its platform,’ Shola told Metro.co.uk.
‘There is no excuse for how so many such titles could have passed its review procedures without sanction or rejection.
‘Agatha Christie is one of the world’s highly celebrated writers but this does not absolve her of criticism for using the title of a racist poem for her book. As is evidenced from the final change of title to And Then There Were None.
‘By platforming offensive titles, Amazon is commercially profiting off the oppression of black people and enabling racism. This is reprehensible and also questions their commitment to diversity and inclusion.
‘These titles must be removed immediately, apology provided and its review policies changed to ensure this does not happen again.’
.@JeffBezos I'm livid but NOT surprised at lack of racial sensitivity of global organisations owned/run by #whiteprivilege.
— Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu (@SholaMos1) May 20, 2020
How did 'Ten Little Niggers' make lists in UK? This isn't progressive @amazon or #DiversityandInclusion
Too many to NOT be DELIBERATE.
Stop. This. Now. pic.twitter.com/Ju5tu1mBNL
Shola’s tweet has attracted hundreds of responses with some calling for the retalier to remove the titles.
‘Written in 1939 takes its title from a nursery rhyme. Needs to be pulled! What are they thinking?’ commented one.
‘I didn’t know this existed! This is horrible! I can’t believe its still acceptable to be so openly racist! How can racism be tackled if it’s advertised as educational,’ wrote another.
‘Anti-racism should always be more important than profit,’ added someone else.
A spokesperson from Amazon responded by saying they believe ‘providing access to the written word is important.’
They told Metro.co.uk: ‘We are mindful of the global history of censorship and do not take such decisions lightly. Our store maintains content guidelines, which address content that is illegal or infringing.
‘We remove products that do not adhere to our guidelines and when a concern is raised we promptly investigate it.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/20/amazon-sparks-accusations-racism-selling-ten-little-nr-boys-book-12731136/
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