Let’s face it, people are overly sensitive these days. There’s always something to bitch about. When it comes to ‘The Walking Dead’ there’s no shortage of what some people might find offensive, blood, guts, violence, sexual themes, and the list goes on. Back in October the Parent’s Television Council took up arms in an attempt to get the show removed from cable. Now, there’s new drama.
Recently, a Methodist minister, Ian Lucraft and his wife wrote to Primark’s chief executive Paul Marchant, to demand that all official Walking Dead shirts with the “Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe” quote be removed from stores. The reason? The couple says that the quote is racist. The source of their concern is that the song the line is taken from once went differently than the song most people know today. Now, people say “Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe, catch a tiger by its toe…”. That’s not the original version. The song was once sang with that dreaded “N-word” instead of “tiger” which was horrible.
Anyone who has seen the show knows what pivotal moment the song was used by Negan, while picking his victim the night he killed Abraham and Glenn. And Negan clearly said “tiger”, not the other word. The shirt in question simply says “Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe” and has a bloody Lucille on it. Judge for yourself:
Mr. Lucraft stated that the shirt’s quote”…relates directly to the practice of assaulting black people in America. It is directly threatening of a racist assault, and if I were black and were faced by a wearer I would know just where I stood.”
Primark has issued the following statement:
The t-shirt in question is licensed merchandise for the US television series, ‘The Walking Dead’, and the quote and image are taken directly from the show. Any offense caused by its design was wholly unintentional and Primark sincerely apologizes for this. “
Seriously? I’m struggling to understand. Is it offensive? Personally, I don’t believe so. I have a hard time believing there would be any bad intent on the part of AMC or The Walking Dead. I can’t help but think people are getting a little ridiculous with being P.C., but that’s just me. Either way, the minister and his wife have successfully killed the shirt. The minister got exactly what he wanted, attention and his name in the news.
Negan himself, Jeffery Dean Morgan, Tweeted a response to the accusation of the shirt’s racism,”Holy crap people are stupid.” We have to agree with him.
