Groupon apologizes after racial slur was used to describe boots – Color: N****r Brown

NEW YORK — Harlem Minister C. J. James was outraged and took to social media after spotting a posting for boots on the online discount site Groupon, that contained a racial slur.

James called PIX11 News about the find.

“This cannot be real not in 2018,” James said.

The boots were being sold with the color option ‘n****r brown.’

“I think the words is offensive,” James told PIX11. “I think the word should not be used in our vocabulary.”

“There’s no excuse,” explained Trae Bodge, a shopping expert and branding strategist.

“I’d be expecting a very heartfelt apology from Groupon and they need to do some serious damage control as does any brand that lets anything like this go through,” Bodge said.

PIX11 learned the boots were being sold by a third party vendor based in China through the Groupon site.

Groupon sent PIX11 a statement Wednesday afternoon saying, “we are appalled that this language was displayed on our site. This product description was provided by a third-party seller via our self-service platform. Regardless, this is completely unacceptable and violates our policies — to say nothing of our values. When made aware of the issue, we immediately removed the deal — as well as the third-party seller — from our marketplace. Language like this has no place on Groupon, and we’re further strengthening our self-service controls to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

via:  http://pix11.com/2018/03/28/groupon-apologizes-after-racial-slur-was-used-to-describe-boots/