Online marketplace eBay announced a new language policy this week, limiting the use of racial slurs by the 125 million registered sellers who hawk their wares on the most popular shopping site on the web.
“The policy is putting some more restraints on derogatory racial terms such as the N-word, and the J-word for Japanese Americans,” said eBay spokesman Hani Durzy.
The new eBay policy is clear: “Sellers may not use offensive words and phrases such as ‘Jap’ or ‘Nigger’ in the title or description of their listing, even if that word is part of the proper name or trademark of the item.”
The policy, which makes exemptions for creative works such as books or movies, does not single out any other racial or ethnic slurs.
While government officials and members of the National League of Cities (NLC) - the organization that pushed for the change - celebrated eBay’s new rules as a step toward ending racism, cultural experts and activists said banning racial slurs wouldn’t change anything more than the language used on eBay.
“Though I understand groups like the NLC need to police words like nigger, there are more important battles to be fought,” said Lester Spence, assistant professor of political science and African-American studies at WashingtonUniversity in Saint Louis.
Internet race and ethnicity experts echoed Mr. Spence’s opinion.
“The energy that they spent changing the language on eBay could have been redirected to something economic, something political, something structural,” said Earl Dunovant, an Internet activist whose web site, Prometheus6.org, focuses on African-American issues. “Just like it was nice of Oprah to give away all those cars, it won’t change anything.”
Artifacts from the days of Jim Crow, such as tar baby soap and lawn jockey statues, must now be listed under titles like, “Black Americana” or “African-American Memorabilia.”
Journalist and academic Kim Pearson called the new titles “benign,” but had strong words for the concept behind the new language policy.
“We don't call bigoted, stereotypical depictions of other people ‘__ Americana,’ do we?” said Ms. Pearson, assistant professor of English at the College of New Jersey.
San Jose Vice Mayor Pat Dando met with eBay officials earlier this year to lobby for the policy change and believes that what the NLC has accomplished is important.
“Like the first step on the moon, it may not be a big deal but it’s where it leads to that is,” said Ms. Dando. “This new eBay policy will help us meet our goal of ending racism in America.”
Ms. Dando said NLC member Marian Tasco brought up the eBay language issue. Ms. Tasco, a Philadelphia City Councilwoman, is also the chairwoman of the NLC’s National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials.
Mr. Durzy said that although eBay was happy to comply with the group’s request, the policy change affected less than 100 items out of the approximately 29 million sold on eBay every day.
“In a community of 125 million registered users, there will probably always be something listed on the site that someone may find offensive,” said Mr. Durzy.
Mr. Durzy said that he was not aware of other words considered derogatory by some groups - such as faggot, spic or chink - being banned by eBay.
“There are rules against and filters for curse words and offensive words,” said Mr. Durzy, adding that a list of the offensive words was not available for public distribution. “The list is constantly changing because eBay is an ever-evolving site.”
On the site, eBay bans items that “promote or glorify hatred, violence, or racial intolerance, or items that promote organizations (such as the KKK, Nazis, neo-Nazis, and Aryan Nation) with such views.”
Less than 24 hours after the policy change, a search for the N-word returned 23 listings on eBay. Most were within the newly defined language rules, but item number 6131707795 was not.
A tin tobacco can with a starting bid of $325.00 was listed under the offensive word. On the can, an image of a woman with an afro hairstyle and a large nose ring was underlined by the banned N-word.