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:

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

Meets Expectations

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.

I'll Take A Cheeseburger...Hold The Jesus

As a family, we tend to boycott companies that have business practices that we find deplorable.  For a short time, we boycotted Target because of their financial support of an anti-gay candidate in Minnesota.  Although we would have preferred to see them send a matching contribution to a gay cause, they have since apologized for their actions.

We boycott Whole Foods because of recent comments from their CEO.  He was quoted as saying that Americans "have no intrinsic rights to health care, food or shelter".  In a nutshell, he's a teabagger.  He refuses to keep his opinions to himself, and Whole Foods continues to stand behind him.

We boycott Chick-Fil-A, primarily because they're bigoted evangelical assholes.

And we also boycott In-N-Out Burger.  It's not that we don't like their cheeseburgers, it's the other stuff they try to shove down our throats.  Until recently, I thought the restaurant's Christian connection was an urban legend.  Then I did some reading.  In-N-Out has been printing Bible verses on their cups and burger wrappers for 25 years or more.  Here are some pictures:

On their cheeseburger wrappers:

Their Double Double wrappers:

Their shake cups:

And their soda cups:

In-N-Out has been privately owned by the Snyder family since the 40s.  They have no stockholders to answer to and they don't franchise out their restaurants.  They have a history of donating to GOP candidates and causes, but tend to keep their political views quiet.  They may not go all out guerrilla Christian like their Chick-Fil-A counterparts(playing Christian music in their locations and closing for worship on Sundays), but they like to proselytize in their own subtle way.

I'm not offended that a burger place is owned by a Christian family.  I'm sure the CEOs of Burger King and McDonalds are probably also Christian.  What does offend me is a company that refuses to keep their beliefs out of my food.  I don't want a Sunday school lesson with my dinner.