An eyebrow-raising seasonal item has been pulled from online shelves at Bed Bath & Beyond after customers voiced concerns about its resemblance to blackface.
In the spirit of Halloween, Bed Bath & Beyond stocked its online store with black artificial pumpkins that could be personalized with names and faces. However, after a Nyack, New York, law firm purchased the decorative items, designed them with white eyes and mouths and put them on public display, complaints ensued.
“We understand that someone complained about them, and so once we got word of that we immediately took them down,” Mary Marzolla, one of the firm’s partners, said.
She also added the firm did not intend for the designed pumpkins to be offensive.
“We represent people of all colors and faiths, and we would never do anything to exclude anyone from any community,” she added.
Her associate, Alak Shah, told News 12 that he did not think the pumpkins would be labeled offensive.
"It's just nothing I take offense to personally, but since it did offend someone we took proactive steps to take it down," he said.
The houseware company told USA TODAY that the item has been removed from the website.
“This is a sensitive area and, though unintentional, we apologize for any offense caused. We immediately removed the item from sale,” the store said in a statement.
Wilbur Aldridge, regional director for the NAACP in Westchester, New York, agreed with the company’s call to discontinue the item which he said was an "extreme lack of sensitivity."
“It wasn’t about the pumpkin itself, but what was done to the pumpkin,” he expressed.
“This is not a huge incident, however if you don’t respond, small things have a way of becoming large things. So you need to respond and make it where people are aware of what they are doing,” he added.
Over the past year, other companies like Gucci and Prada have come under fire for selling products that resembled blackface.