An advert for a pair of school trousers has been deleted by Argos after social media users complained the name of the product was linked to a slur used by racists.
The two-pack of “grey reinforced knee grow hem woven trousers” for seven-year-olds has connotations to a slur frequently used by racists, according to X user Esheru Kwaku.
In his post, directed at Argos and Sainsbury’s, which acquired the company in 2016, Kwaku wrote: “Hi @sainsburys @Argos_Online I know you’re the same company, are you aware that the item name below is freely used by racists to by pass n-word filters?
“May I suggest renaming the item. Also maybe a few black faces in the decision making process, to avoid this in the future.”
A spokesperson for Tu, the own-brand clothing label from Sainsbury’s, apologised and confirmed to Yahoo News UK that the product will be renamed following the criticism.
They said: “We’re truly sorry for the upset this has caused. We have listened to the concerns which have been shared and are urgently updating the product labelling."
I’m still not sure.
The quote is “Hi @sainsburys @Argos_Online know you’re the same company, are you aware that the item name below is freely used by racists to by pass n-word filters?”
Is it possible to tell from context whether the item name was adopted by racists after first seeing it, or whether that part of the item name was already in use? Because the wording itself doesn’t specify, it just states that it is used by racists.
Because if it was already in use, then yeah they could have caught that by having some knowledgeable staff.
I don’t know how long the trousers have been on sale but assuming this got flagged up quickly (the product makes sense as part of a “back to school” range that tends to launch round about the time everyone breaks up for summer) but the use of “knee grow” online dates back years.