Ebay still selling racist materials

“Yes we can” were the words spoken by President Obama as Oprah and Jesse Jackson stood quietly and proudly in an audience of tearful Americans. Our nation put aside its color differences and voted into office a man based on his ability, charisma, dignity, and most of all a hope for a better future.

I am absolutely sure President Obama will do his best and that America as a whole is better off as a result of this historic electoral process. Yes we can make a difference as individuals and as a whole. It would be an injustice to every American who voted to not address another issue in this season of “yes we can” hope.

Unfortunately, racial and ethnic prejudice still permeates some sections of society and is tolerated by one of the largest corporations in the world. Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week on any computer around the world any individual regardless of age can go on www.eBay.com and post or purchase racially and ethnically insensitive items.

Just days after the inauguration of America's first African American president, Barrack Obama and the first Catholic vice-president, Joseph Biden, eBay is hosting items offensive to both groups and most of the nation.

Items for sale include "coon" songs, a piece of piano music entitled "n-----" blues, anti-Catholic post cards and tracts from the Ku Klux Klan, and even the bones of Catholic saints.

Most recently the Apostolate for Holy Relics sent a representative to address an international meeting of diplomats in Washington D.C. There, members of the International Catholic Diplomatic Society of St. Gabriel from around the world were briefed on some of the abuses commonly found on eBay. The general consensus there was that it is beyond belief to think that a high tech company like this can't run a software program to police its own site. It can’t eat into the profit margin that much, so we are left to wonder if it's just a matter of a lack of respect.

Among the most offensive items for sale today are item numbers:

170298113528 - a KKK statue - with hood and robes.
180323423536 - An anti-Catholic post-card published by the Klan
18032342367 - A second anti-Catholic post-care featuring the pope as a pig
350158062162 - A piece of music entitled "Here's to the Klan, the 100% American Song"
270336116202 - A piece of music entitled "A Little Coon's Prayer"
200297337939 - A piece of music entitled "Coon Town's Vacation"
290292378206 - A piano roll entitled "(N-word) Blues"
160311722350 - A piece of the bone from the remains John Bosco, a 19th century Italian saint

Ebay has guidelines posted warning against these types of items but seems to be unable to police its own website and enforce its own policy. The standard answer is that once the offensive item is reported, it will then review and address the matter as the company sees fitting.

Since the late 1990s, the International Crusade for Holy Relics has encouraged eBay and other online sellers to enforce their own guidelines concerning offensive sales, particularly those of human remains. Many such sales occur on a regular basis in the form of the relics of Catholic saints.

We are saddened and troubled that over the past decade, eBay has chosen to ignore the sensitivities of the 67 million Catholics in the United States and a billion worldwide, as well as the hundreds of articles and news reports that have focused on this neglect including recent articles in Forbes, Newsweek and the Associated Press, and television stories on CW 13 in New York, WABC in New York, and Fox News Channel.

It is not only people of faith who can find materials prohibited by the site’s guidelines on eBay, those of African ancestry would certainly be shocked by the number of items listed with terms such as the “n” word and other derogatory slurs including “coon.” African Americans, Jewish Americans and Christians would be shocked at the volume of Ku Klux Klan materials offered for sale on the site.

I would like to address the issue of online ethical responsibility from the “No we can’t” to the “Yes we can” mentality and stop online racism and assaults on ethnicity and religion. We need to stop the sacrilegious sale of first-class Christian relics, anti-Semitic, anti-Japanese, and racially bigoted items.
In closing I will leave the reader with the prophetic words of a 1931 essay by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, A Plea for Intolerance:

“America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance - it is not. It is suffering from tolerance. Tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded.”

“Tolerance is an attitude of reasoned patience toward evil … a forbearance that restrains us from showing anger or inflicting punishment. Tolerance applies only to persons … never to truth. Tolerance applies to the erring, intolerance to the error …”

“Tolerance does not apply to truth or principles. About these things we must be intolerant, and for this kind of intolerance, so much needed to rouse us from sentimental gush, I make a plea. Intolerance of this kind is the foundation of all stability.”

Thomas Serafin is the founder of the International Crusade of Holy Relics. He can be reached at ICHRUSA.com