eBay bans the ‘N-word’
But other slurs make the cut.
November 18, 2004

Online marketplace eBay announced a new language policy this week, limiting the use of racial slurs by the 125 million registered sellers who hawk their wares on the most popular shopping site on the web.

"The policy is putting some more restraints on derogatory racial terms such as the N-word, and the J-word for Japanese Americans," said eBay spokesman Hani Durzy.

While government officials and members of the National League of Cities (NLC) - the organization that pushed for the change - celebrated eBay’s new rules as a step toward ending racism, cultural experts and activists said banning racial slurs wouldn’t change anything more than the language used on eBay.

"Though I understand groups like the NLC need to police words like nigger, there are more important battles to be fought," said Lester Spence, assistant professor of political science and African-American studies at Washington University in Saint Louis.

Internet race and ethnicity experts echoed Mr. Spence’s opinion.

"The energy that they spent changing the language on eBay could have been redirected to something economic, something political, something structural," said Earl Dunovant, an Internet activist whose web site, Prometheus6.org, focuses on African-American issues. "Just like it was nice of Oprah to give away all those cars, it won’t change anything."

I really wanted them to describe me as "this guy on the net."