OP 26 October, 2019 - 12:38 AM
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Quote:Retailer Bed Bath & Beyond has responded to concerns about blackface pumpkins Halloween decorations by pulling the product.
Objections to the black artificial pumpkins, which could be personalized with names and faces, first arose in Nyack, New York, where a law firm had decorated its front steps with them.
After some reaction from the neighboring community, the Feerick, Nugent, MacCartney law firm removed the pumpkins, which were painted black with white eyes and mouth, from the porch outside its office in South Nyack, according to News 12 Westchester.
“We understand that someone complained about them, and so once we got word of that we immediately took them down," one of the firm's partners, Mary Marzolla, told the 24-hour news station. She said the pumpkins had been personalized with the names of each of the firm's partners and weren't meant to be offensive.
“We represent people of all colors and faiths, and we would never do anything to exclude anyone from any community,” she said.
Bed Bath & Beyond told USA TODAY that the item, only available online, had been removed from the retailer's website. "This is a sensitive area and, though unintentional, we apologize for any offense caused. We immediately removed the item from sale," the company said a statement.
That was an appropriate move, says Wilbur Aldridge, the Westchester (N.Y.) region director for the NAACP, who was contacted by the news station about the situation.
"It wasn’t about the pumpkin itself, but what was done to the pumpkin. When you proceed to put the white eyes and the white mouth, now you have crossed the line because it then goes into having blackface."
The law firm should also be commended for quickly removing the display when told it offended some, Aldridge says.
"This is not a huge incident, however if you don’t respond small things have a way of becoming large things," he said. "So you need to respond and make it where people are aware of what they are doing."
The retailer's website does still have black pumpkins that can be personalized with names and other words, but not faces.
Response online ran the gamut, noting that politicians who had been known to wear blackface remained in office – including the just re-elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who had been found to have worn blackface three times – while the pumpkins were tossed.
One Twitter user who described themselves as “an individual who happens to be black,” said people were being “overly-dramatic! They’re pumpkins! You can’t be serious about this “anger.”"
Others noted that there are real black pumpkins that grow.
Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/bus...073183002/
