I've been selling on eBay since 1998, with 100% positive feedback. Tonight I attempted to list a 1961 restaurant souvenir booklet from the then-very-popular Mammy's Shanty restaurant in Atlanta, GA, together with a cocktail napkin from its lounge, "Pappy's Plantation Room." Of course, I emphasized in my listing that this terminology is certainly unacceptable today, but should be considered in the context of the time period, 60 years ago. One cannot rewrite history; one can only learn from it. I was listing these two items in the "Collectibles - Black Americana" category, as well as "Collectibles - Advertising - Restaurants." My listing was not allowed to go through as it was deemed offensive. I immediately got on an online live chat with an eBay agent, Jovee, who simply parroted back that "offensiveness" policy which I'd already read. I then asked the agent: "What if I listed an original 1774 Boston newspaper which included notices for runaway slaves? No?" The response was to ask if I wished to be transferred to a "Specialized Team" agent. I said yes. The reply was that it might take a while, to which I responded OK. During the wait, I went to the bathroom for about 3 minutes. When I returned to my laptop, the Specialized Team person, Shubhank, had written that he assumed my "non-response" indicated that our chat was terminated, and that was that. When I attempted to re-establish communication, I got an "Our agents are now unavailable" reply. This was about 12:30 am EDT, and this whole thing had started 90 minutes earlier. Great big waste of time. So I guess I got cancelled for being un-woke. And, frankly, back in its day, Mammy's Shanty, despite its now-regrettable name, CELEBRATED the delicious food of Southern Black cooks - a profoundly important contribution to American cuisine.
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