The Walking Dead is one of the biggest TV shows on the planet. It’s a brutal tale of survival as a group of people try to stay safe in the aftermath of a zombie outbreak.
U.K. department store, Primark decided to pull an official T-shirt centered around the show from shelves following claims that it is racist and offensive.
A message on the product reads, “Eeny meeny miny moe…” and is accompanied by a picture of a bat with barbed wire wrapped around it.
If you watch The Walking Dead online, you will already know that the T-shirt is inspired by a scene from The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 16.
The scene in question was the one in which Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character, Negan bashed the brains out of two characters.
The scene caused outrage because of the gore involved in it. There were brains, eyes popping out and a whole lot of blood.
It was gruesome and signaled the loss of both Abraham and Glen, thus changing the dynamic of the series forever.
The racism claims stem from the nursery rhyme on the product. Many years ago, it was turned into a racist slur.
A customer spotted the T-shirt in the store and turned to The Sheffield Star to reveal his thoughts on it.
“This image relates directly to the practice of assaulting black people in America … It is directly threatening of a racist assault, and if I were black and were faced by a wearer, I would know just where I stood.”
Primark was quick to respond with the news that they would be removing the T-shirt from sale.
“The T-shirt in question is licensed merchandise for the U.S. television series, The Walking Dead, and the quote and image are taken directly from the show. Any offense caused by its design was wholly unintentional, and Primark sincerely apologizes for this.”
The man who plays Negan took to Twitter to vent his frustration at all of the controversy.
“Holy c**p, people are stupid,” the star tweeted to his 370,000 followers with a link to a news article about the ban.
The Walking Dead Season 7 appears to have been affected by the violence. The highly anticipated season premiere secured over 17 million viewers and an 8.4 rating among adults 18-49.
However, the ratings quickly fell from there. The midseason finale in November managed 10.6 million viewers and a 5.1 rating.
That’s a huge drop-off in just a matter of weeks.
Will this latest scandal send the ratings lower?
Hit the comments below!
