Recently, snopes received an e-mail from a person complaining about the fact that a Barnes and Nobles book retail shop featured a highly unusual and potentially racist book display. The layout comprised numerous books written by or about president Obama, and all of these volumes were carefully arranged so as to surround one about monkeys. Naturally, as soon as word of this hit the streets, numerous groups and concerned citizens got outraged and demanded that the shameful display be rearranged and that the culprit be found and made to answer for his or her endeavor.
The person who broke the news said that he had been shopping at stores belonging to Barnes and Nobles for the better part of two decades, but that he hadn't seen anything like this before. In an e-mail he sent to the company, he added that he will never set foot in one of its stores again. He also accused the selling point of hiding racist messages under the cover of merchandising, and that this type of behavior must stop, for the good of all Americans.
Mary Ellen Keating, a spokeswoman for the book company, stated that the cruel display layout was more likely the work of a prank customer than an action orchestrated by company employees. “Barnes and Nobles would like to publicly apologize for an incident in our Coral Gables, Florida store. We believe that a customer played a cruel joke and placed an inappropriate title, ‘Monkeys,’ in the front window of our store, where we were featuring books by or about President Obama.”
She went on to add that “We want to assure our customers that the book placed by someone other than any of out booksellers was never intended to be included in our display and was removed as soon as we became aware of the situation. We are looking into it, and taking the step necessary so that it doesn't happen again. (...) It certainly was not a part of our merchandising and we regret that we didn't see the placement of this title immediately.”
Following the recent New York Post incident, when a political cartoon dealing with the issue of the stimulus plan proposed by Obama featured a violent chimpanzee shot dead by the police, such manifestations of racism are surely to be taken very seriously and the perpetrators brought to justice, authorities have recently warned.
