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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Walmart Makes Things Right

The title of the post was originally going to be "Walmart.com: "Gay" Is A Four Letter Word".  Before I had the chance to write about it though, Walmart did the right thing.  Let me explain.

Last night, blogger and "It Gets Better" contributor, Mark S. King went on Walmart.com to write a review for the new "It Gets Better" book, which became available yesterday.  The book contains transcripts of some of the most inspirational videos that have been uploaded onto Youtube to date.  It also contains transcripts of the videos from celebrities and politicians that have contributed to the cause, including Barack Obama, Al Franken, and Ellen Degeneres.


When King clicked on the "submit" button to submit his review of the book, which incidentally, he is in, he received the following message:
We're sorry but we encountered the following issue(s):
  • We have detected profanity in the Write Your Product Review field. Please remove the profanity and submit it again.


I received the same message when I tried to write a review last night.  Neither review had any curse words in them.  Here is a copy of the review I posted:
"A must have for any young gay or lesbian youth. It's a very inspiring book, that does let you know that things do eventually get better. Based off of Dan Savage's "It Gets Better" video project, this book continues the motivational dialog where the Youtube videos left off."
Notice any profanity?  I didn't.  So out of curiosity, I tried to write a review of the DVD of  'Glee Season 2, Volume 1' .  I mentioned that, without giving too much of the plot away, this season Kurt has to transfer to a new school due to being bullied for being gay.  Again, it wouldn't let me submit the review due to "profanity".  I substituted the word "gay" with "lesbian".  No go.  Then "queer".  Still considered profanity.  Then I tried "homosexual", thinking that maybe Walmart was actually being proactively sensitive toward the LGBT community to prevent people from leaving words like gay or queer as a slur in regards to a product (ie. "That's so gay.").  Guess again.  "Homosexual" was considered "profanity".

Eventually, when I put in the review that Kurt Hummel was being bullied because he was "transgendered", it let me submit the review (I did not submit it, in case you were wondering.).  I was furious.  Walmart already caters to middle America, "family oriented" consumers as is.  Did they need to make things worse?  I mean, take a look at the book selection in their stores.  Outside of 'Twilight' and 'The Da Vinci Code', the only books you'll see on the shelf are either religious in nature, or written by people on Fox News' payroll.  The vast majority of the LGBT community are already boycotting Target, and they really do not like Walmart to begin with.  Do we really need to have a reason to boycott another big box store?

Surprisingly though, within a matter of hours, Walmart stepped up and came through.  They issued a personal apology to Mark King.  It was given personally by spokesman Ravi Jariwala, saying:
"I apologize that this situation has been created. It was a systemic oversight, in which ‘gay’ was on a list of filtered words. Certainly it makes absolute sense for you to include this word in your review. This is a no-brainer for us."
They also issued the following "official" statement regarding the issue:

"Recently it was brought to our attention that Mark King was unable to complete a review of the book “It Gets Better” on Walmart.com. We regret that a filter did not allow his review of the book to post and we quickly worked to resolve this technical issue.

We reached out to Mark directly to discuss the issue and, as an extra measure, we have reviewed the system to ensure that it will allow the use of all appropriate words related to sexual orientation and gender identity."
Oh, and they published his review of the book, as it was originally written:

5 out of 5
An incredibly important book.

03/21/2011
Like many people who grew up gay and afraid, my soul may have survived those years but I have a few scars left behind. It Gets Better gently strokes these wounds — the toughened and the still-tender ones — so that young people today might take heart and make the journey to adulthood a little more safely.
There's no denying the power of this project, and what could easily be the most important book of the year.
You can read my full review at
http://marksking.com/my-fabulous-disease/the-book-with-a-promise-it-gets-better/
Product Attributes:
Value
5 out of 5
Meets Expectations
5 out of 5

10 of 10 found this review helpful. 

I suggest buying a copy of  'It Gets Better' when you get a chance, and when you do, a suggest buying it from Walmart.

2 comments:

kate said...

I absolutely want to buy that book (I want to donate it to the library of every middle school and high school in my town) but NOT from Walmart. I'll buy it from our locally lesbian-owned book store. ;)

Adam Black said...

Please. By all means, support your local LGBT owned and LGBT friendly businesses.

Sadly, in many parts of the country, when it comes to purchasing the book, the public's option will either be Barnes & Noble, Target, or Walmart. For others, it will only be Walmart and Amazon.com.

As some of you may know (or not know), Target has a history of supporting anti-gay political candidates in the state of Minnesota. Lady Gaga recently attempted to sign an exclusive deal with Target under the condition that they end their anti-gay funding practices, and start contributing toward LGBT charities and causes. Target refused.

I wholeheartedly encourage supporting local businesses. They are the backbone of the community. If you can support a locally gay or lesbian owned business, that's even better in my book. There are so many national chains out there, though, that contribute toward anti-gay causes (Target, Best Buy, Chick-fil-A), that it's rare to see someone like Walmart that at least pretends to do right by the gay community.

Even if you don't agree with their politics or their practices 100%, I think they might deserve a second look.