Good to see that eBay has joined the woke censorship brigade

[soundsugly]

This morning I received an email saying that one of my listings had been removed "because it didn’t follow our Offensive material policy."

Furthermore I have been threatened with a restriction on my account, and the finally this: "Because we have sent you an educational notice about this policy previously, we want to give you this final warning.

**bleep** ebay?

The item in question for those wondering was a vinyl LP of Al Jolson, The Jazz Singer.

I fail to see how this can be classified as offensive material. For anyone unfamiliar, Jolson was a vaudeville performer and activist who spent his career trying to expose the white audiences to black music, culture and dance during the segregation era. HE WAS NOT A RACIST.

But even this is beside the point. My business is selling vinyl records. This is a vinyl record. It is not a hate crime, nor is it in any way racist. What's next eBay? Will you ban crucifixes because they might offend someones religious sensibilities?

[springyzone]

On the face of it, it does sound like an over the top response as I think that is quite a famous musical.

Were there any words in the actual ad that may have triggered any of their computer programs to think it was offensive?

[papermoon.lady]

I was thinking the same as Springy. Maybe the bots found something offensive, but they don't really understand situations (obviously), and there have even been hilarious situations before with their silly auto-correcting or censoring. If you remember the exact wording, we might be able to advise. 

[papermoon.lady]

I wonder if it is because of the picture on the cover?

It is ridiculous to call it racist, but they also call golliwogs racist because they say they make fun of black people, while some of them are very sweet and adorable.

Somebody once came here to say that he had a swap card removed because it represented a golliwog, even if he had not mentioned the word anywhere in the listing, but their software still found the card offensive.

[imastawka]

I'm betting someone reported the listing as racially offensive - it has it's own report reason.

[papermoon.lady]

Yes, maybe someone reported it. Some people might consider "blackface" offensive (as on the cover). I don't think that the reason was Al Jolson himself (his name), but probably what some people might consider a caricature of black people on the cover.

[hobby_cds]

Ssame here! I have an Al Jolson CD and the same thing has happned to me TWICE in both our accounts...Ebay pathetiuc as usual on these matters won;t even reply when they are corrected on the matter!

[imastawka]

The name Al Jolson can't be triggering the bots, surely?

Has anybody just tried listing the name of the album (which would show up in searches) but using the reverse of the album as the image?

[soundsugly]

Nothing at all.

[soundsugly]

Just found the actual item since the listing is now removed. The cover did indeed feature Jolson in blackface. I guess it must have been reported.

Can't do much about that. Not like eBay or anyone else wants to listen to an argument about the importance historical context and the error of imposing one set of values - in this case easily offended virtue signalling - on a different culture and period. But for what it's worth, Jolson was a civil rights activist long before there was a civil rights movement, and the historical meaning of blackface was not to mock, but rather to give a voice to the voiceless. These days we'd get offended and call that 'cultural appropriation' - but that was the 1920s and 30s when blacks weren't allowed to perform or even attend performances..