“The trust of our customers and the integrity of our platform remain paramount,” Walmart stated, thus confirming that it has removed a T-shirt from its online marketplace and banned the third-party seller because their design caused a flood of anger and disbelief on social media platforms.
The problematic image that critics pointed out is one that is not easy to forget: a white open hand reaching towards a Black closed fist with the accompanying message “paper beats rock.” This screenshot posted on Threads by @lindzeegee quickly went viral after it was posted with the following message: “Hey @Walmart, what the is this?”
The historical background is the reason for the impact of the design. The raised fist is a symbol that has crossed centuries and causes, but in America, it takes on a particular intensity in the aftermath of the civil rights movement and later the Black Lives Matter movement: solidarity, resistance, and a claim to be recognized as human. During the Olympics in 1968, sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos made the black power salute during the Olympics, with Smith later stating that it was “a cry for freedom and for human rights.” A symbol with so much meaning in its background is placed side by side with images that echo a fascist salute, so it is not surprising that some people interpret it not as a provocation but a statement on domination and submission.
This interpretation does not require a great deal of effort in the context of online hate speech. In fact, extremist groups have used benign phrases, symbols, and numbers to spread their ideology in a manner which allows for plausible deniability, specifically in contexts where online platforms are concerned. In this context, “paper beats rock” has been found to refer to a white supremacist message in rock-paper-scissors, which features a fascist-style gesture atop the Black Power fist.
The underlying discomfort for some consumers may not have been so much about what the t-shirt represented, but where it could be found: on a large retailer’s website, among other common household items. Racism/discrimination has been consistently associated with mental strain and mental health problems, with the body of research growing continuously. An analysis of 372 articles from 1992 to 2022 found that the number of publications about racism increased over thirty years, peaking in 2021/2022.
However, in a situation like this, consumer power might be the quickest recourse. Reporting mechanisms and posts on platforms can turn a complaint about a product into a removal of a product listing and a removal of a seller’s account in a matter of days without having to resort to taking up a cause alone as a consumer. The above-mentioned model has been used in other corporate accountability actions related to racially offensive images in other instances: a window display in 2018 led to Prada’s agreement to train its highest-ranking executives and hire a diversity and inclusion officer to examine its advertising and goods sold in the United States.
However, in the Walmart case, it is clear that there is a vulnerability in the system, and that is scale. Walmart’s marketplace success has come from allowing third-party merchants to easily access and join their marketplace, but in doing so, Walmart has also opened itself up to risks associated with third-party merchants and their products. In one investigation conducted by CNBC, it was found that there were a minimum of 43 merchants who used another merchant’s identity to access Walmart’s marketplace.
The response of Walmart remove and terminate indicates a readiness to react to a situation after it has happened. The more difficult test of any marketplace, however, is to see if vetting, enforcement of prohibited products, and checks for cultural sensitivity can happen at the same speed as the listings. Symbols are important in commerce because commerce is where life occurs.
