BLACK AMERICANA

[fac9876]

If eBay doesn't like Black Americana collectibles, they shouldn't offer it as a posting category - unless, of course, they are using it as an entrapment tool.  I know for a fact that most Black Americana collectors are themselves black - not haters and discriminators, as some would have us believe.  They do it for a very special and innocent reason: to preserve items of black history - both good and bad.  It's not the truth that hurts us, but subjugation of truth - no matter how "noble" the intent.  So, eBay, by taking down these posts, are depriving these black collectors of the special items they like, and are in effect engaging in the very act of discrimination they claim to oppose.  

[lamber9347]

My question is, how is it an entrapment tool? Entrapment is the act of tricking someone into committing a crime. If eBay wants to pull your listing, they simply pull it. If eBay wants to suspend your account, they simply suspend it. How is entrapment a part of this conversation?.... 

[bonjourami]

oh its true...mixed marriages bring out a lot of hurtful issues...

[fab_finds4u]

Well what is messed up is selling Black American is not illegal except on eBay,  whereas selling a cb linear or cb amplfier is illegal but if you type cb amplifier in the search bar you get a drop down box for cb amplifier-Radio Communication Electronics with more selections underneath you can click on.  It should not populate  if it's truly an illegal item.

[pargran3]

And until we no longer think in terms of "mixed marriages" there will still and forever be people that notice color of skin...and that GOES BOTH WAYS. 

[bonjourami]

Yep.

[fab_finds4u]

There are some well know black collectors.

Momentos of Slavery, Pre-Civil Rights Eras Collected by Blacks

www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-11-11-vw-1200-story.html

[house*of*paws]

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@itsjustasprain wrote:

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@bonjourami wrote:

Things that she didnt want her children to ever see.

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Im not arguing in favor of 'black americana' listings here either but some things are just a little over the top. In life we are going to encounter all kinds of offensive things - including here - but bursting into tears and closing ones account seems a little excessive if true. Children are likely to see far worse things in their lives than we have seen in our past simply because there is so much more access to the rest of the world than we had growing up.

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Should we really be arbitrators of what another might find upsetting ... or what might be 'worse' than something else?

How can we possibly know what life experiences another has had that are triggered by a thoughtless ... if not malicious ... image, comment, or action.

I grew up in the most diverse community in the country ... at least, at the time ... and certainly have encountered a humongous number of 'offensive things'.  That doesn't stop me from 'tearing up' when I come across images that portray a human's insensitivity to their fellow humans.  I'm not sure that it's a bad thing.

[ittybitnot]

My question is, how is it an entrapment tool?

@lamber9347 

Because if a seller listed in that category....which is a category on ebay...it was easy to find (by bot or human) the item and award the seller with a policy violation.  When the eBay sweep first started, it didn't matter if the said item was offensive or not, most things in that category were removed.   Thus the suggestion that the category remains simply as an "entrapement tool". 

[fab_finds4u]

This happens often when I find an article and then it's  not found.

[lamber9347]

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@ittybitnot wrote:

My question is, how is it an entrapment tool?

@lamber9347 
Because if a seller listed in that category....which is a category on ebay...it was easy to find (by bot or human) the item and award the seller with a policy violation.  When the eBay sweep first started, it didn't matter if the said item was offensive or not, most things in that category were removed.   Thus the suggestion that the category remains simply as an "entrapement tool". 

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But this makes no sense. If eBay wants to give a seller a policy violation, they will simply issue a policy violation. This is their platform; they make the rules and don't even need to follow them correctly. They don't need an actual reason to suspend someone's account. Entrapment applies to people in a free society, who are free unless they commit a crime and then are incarcerated. Hence the entrapment.... it simply doesn't apply here....

[allen1853]

DEFINITELY an entrapment tool. Ebay just needs to be honest and eliminate the category if they are going to punish people for using it. Ebay's entrapment does not relate to a "crime", it relates to tricking people into listing in a category they prohibit then punishing people for doing so. My recollection is Oprah Winfrey has a very large collection of Black Americana. I think she is black. 

[ittybitnot]

Hence the entrapment.... 

@lamber9347 

I think it was just a matter of semantics and a comparison to the legal situation you describe.   For example, if eBay decided to ban all "Coach" brand handbags, but left up a specific  for category for Coach brand purses, and allowed them to be listed there,  only to award sanctions for anyone that posted a Coach brand purse there (be it real or fake) some might consider that, if not entrapment, at least below board and unethical. 

[lamber9347]

I know they selected the wrong word; I was posting to point this out. I understand the frustration and/or indignation to the thread but the word entrapment simply doesn't apply. This is similar to when someone posts about price gouging because someone is selling a collectible Barbie doll at a higher-than-normal price. That doesn't make it price gouging by definition, and this isn't entrapment by definition.... 

[maxine*j]

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@1786davycrockett wrote:

...  Please provide the source for your claim, as most of the collectors of Black Americana with whom I come in contact are white -- and they proudly display some of their most racist items in very public (and disgusting) displays.

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The only person I know who collects this stuff, and it's a signifcant collection after all these years, is an African American.  He has stuff I wouldn't touch with a barge-pole, and I've said as much to him.  But, he says, it is his  Amrican history -- good and bad, genteel and crude, fine and foul -- and his interest in it never wanes.

Anyhow, he is hardly alone as an African American collector of these items:

https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/collect.htm

https://www.npr.org/2018/08/07/628914469/through-a-looking-glass-of-black-americana-the-long-strange...

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/aug/28/oran-z-collecting-black-americana-hidden-histor...

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-a-schoolteacher-spent-70-years-collecting-thousands-of-bl...

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/should-blacks-collect-racist...

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[1786davycrockett]

@fab_finds4u 

"There are some well know black collectors."

Yes, there are.  However, that is not the same as saying:  "I know for a fact that most Black Americana collectors are themselves black."

"Some" does not equal "most" -- and the majority of collectors whom I have encountered in my state are NOT Black.