Political Correctness Run Amok: NAACP Demands Hallmark Pull “Racist” Card

This may qualify as the dumbest example of political correctness in history:

LOS ANGELES — A space-themed, talking Hallmark graduation card is being pulled from store shelves because of the card’s reference to a black hole.

But members of the Los Angeles NAACP say the message sounds like “black whore” in the card’s audio recording. That’s how they hear it, and they say it’s racist,  KABC-TV in Los Angeles reported.

“That was very demeaning to African-American women when it made reference to African-American women as whores, and at the end it says ‘watch your back,'” said Leon Jenkins of the Los Angeles NAACP.

The Hallmark card reads, “Hey world, we are officially putting you on notice,” before playfully touting the ambitious future of the new graduate.

Characters known as “Hoops” and “Yoyo” banter on: “And you black holes, you are so ominous. Watch your back.”

Hallmark calls the outrage a misunderstanding, claiming that the space theme emphasizes the power the graduate has to take over the universe, even energy-absorbing black holes.

Watch the report, listen to the card, and you decide:

FILED UNDER: Race and Politics, , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Rob Miles says:

    The thing that pisses me off the most about this story isn’t the idea that some people hear “whore” where it clearly says “hole”. The thing that pisses me off is that no news report of this I’ve seen points out that the “you’d better watch your back” doesn’t even reference the “hole/whore” line. It comes when one of the characters says “And you planets? You better watch your back!”

    It’s bad enough that some reactionary elements in the NAACP of Los Angelos is making such a fuss about this, and ignoring clear context in order to do so. But that the media won’t point out this obvious flaw in their whole complaint is almost criminal.

  2. grampagravy says:

    My guess is that LA has plenty of black whores, white whores, brown whores, and any other color one might think of. So, what’s NAACP’s problem? Maybe it’s hear what you want to hear and don’t pass on a chance to make a stink and look like you are still relevant.

  3. mike says:

    this shows the NAACP will do anything to stay relevant; no matter how desperate. very sad. the NAACP should try to do something productive for once instead of trying to stir the racism pot.

  4. TangoMan says:

    What this clearly signals to everyone is that racism in Los Angekles doesn’t exist and that NAACP has to justify its existence and fill its time by looking for incidents to cook up and exploit.

    Yeah, we’ve reached nirvana. What a joyous day. Racism is dead.

  5. DoseOF Reality says:

    Crap like this just increases the hate. Hate for the N.A.A.C.P and all that they purport to represent. Even though we racists know how ignorant Leon Jenkins is and no one can believe a word that comes out of HIS racist mouth, he gets the dumb ass medias attention.

  6. John says:

    If you think the NAACP was mad you should have seen the reaction from the National Pimp Association when they thought their whores were graduating from school.

    Seriously, where’s the outrage at (pick a rap album) when black women are clearly and repeatedly demeaned?