Amazon sells T-shirts referring to Kamala Harris by offensive term

Envy arose Tuesday on social media about t-shirts being sold on Amazon referring to Sen. Kamala Harris with offensive language that many believe to be sexist and racist.

As of Tuesday night, multiple versions of shirts with the slogan “Joe and the Hoe” were on sale on Amazon. The offensive sentence was introduced by Harris’ right-wing detractors after it was announced she was selected last week as the running mate of former Vice President Joe Biden.

“All sellers should follow our sales guidelines and those that will not be subject to action including potential termination of their account,” an Amazon spokesman said. Newsweek in a statement. “The products in question have been removed.”

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Although Amazon says the products have been removed, a search for “Joe and the How t-shirt” brings up a number of shirts available since early Wednesday morning.

The appearance of the slogan on shirts for sale from the retail giant, complete with Prime shipping, quickly provoked outrage and calls for boycotts of Amazon if the company does not remove the products and sellers who sell them offered have prohibited.

“@amazon Seeing a tee shirt that says Joe and the How are for sale,” Twitter user @OleanderNectar tweeted. “When did you start racist filth like that? Expect to cancel my Prime membership shortly.

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“Amazon, take off the tee shirts that say Joe and The Hoe 2020 Vote No,” tweeted user @MaxineDevri. “It’s nasty, sexist and racist. Shame on you.”

“@amazon counts your days! You can NOT allow your vendors to disrespect @KamalaHarris,” @QC_Bombchelle tweeted. “I’ve never seen this to another female candidate!”

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Donald Trump in February, used the offensive term on Friday to refer to Harris while reiterating a disparaging report on her past, including an evidence-free claim that she had worked as an “escort.”

Limbaugh shared an article that Harris “slept her way” into politics after talks about freelance NBA photographer Bill Baptist, who was banned from covering the basketball league last week after sharing a meme with the slogan on social media.

“[Baptist] Limbaugh said an image that said ‘Joe and the Hoe,’ ‘what, do you think, that’s over there, Joe and the Hoe?’

Other public figures to lash out at Harris have included Barry Presgraves, the Republican mayor of Luray, Virginia, who recently posted on Facebook that Biden “had just announced Aunt Jemima” as his running mate. Presgraves later dismissed the post and apologized, but supporters jumped to his defense, including Dean Peterson, a national representative for Trump, who claimed the thinking of the slur was racist “racist in itself.”

The upcoming products available on Amazon are offered by third-party sellers. The company has been criticized several times for being able to offer sellers offensive products that would later cause disgrace. Last year, a children’s shirt with the slogan “Daddy’s Little Slut” was available for a while, while earlier this year the company received backlash for allowing the sale of a ‘Let’s Make Down Syndrome Extinct’ shirt. ‘

Update 8/18, 10:20 AM: This article has been updated to include a statement from Amazon.

Update 8/19 12:00 bin: This article has been updated to note that the shirts are still appearing in the Amazon store, despite an Amazon spokesman saying they were taken off.