Walmart has agreed to stop selling t-shirts and hooded sweatshirts online that read "Bulletproof. Black Lives Matter."
The national Fraternal Order of Police wrote to the retailer on Tuesday asking it to pull the shirts. Last week, an article on the right-wing web site Breitbart complained that Walmart dropped items that displayed the Confederate flag but still sold the "bulletproof" items.
"Like other online retailers, we have a marketplace with millions of items offered by third parties that includes Blue Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter merchandise," said a Walmart spokesman. "After hearing concerns from customers, we are removing the specific item with the 'bulletproof' items
Walmart's move satisfied the police union, which does not object to the phrase "Black Lives Matters" by itself, according to James Pasco, the group's executive director.
"The bulletproof thing goes to the new assertiveness of some violence prone individuals to take action directly against police. We find it offensive for that reason," said Pasco.
"It wasn't a big seller at all. The Blue Lives Matter sells more than the Black Lives Matter or bulletproof shirts combined," Morelli said. "We don't like to offend anybody."
He said his company offers more than 500,000 different kinds of shirts and sweatshirts on its site.
"When you sell that many, you have to sell all different kinds of shirts," he said. "It's hard to make everybody happy."
Ehh.
I don't think the word "bulletproof" honestly does that much in encouraging already violence prone individuals to act out towards police just because its on a t-shirt or other apparel. .
I'm a feminist. I understand how socialization works and how small things like this CAN influence attitudes, behaviors, enable, etc. but I think its kind of a stretch here. There are actual propagandizing artifacts out there on the internet and amongst communities that are demonstrably (but also kind of understandably) dangerous. I don't see how protesting the fact that police brutality is racially charged and should be eradicated is offensive either. If someone wants to rationally break it down for me, I'd be happy to argue it.
(Also maybe I'm crazy, but isn't "bulletproof" kind of a Luke Cage thing? Maybe the idea or phrase was lifted.Those shirts arent specifically Marvel, but that was the whole tie in with the show; he was literally a black man that stood for "Black Lives Matter" and he was actually bulletproof)