Online Retailer Pulls 'Anti-Mexican' Pages, But Products Remain

Following continued call-outs by Latino blogs, the online retailer CafePress has removed several pages offering purchasable merchandise that depict anti-Mexican slogans and themes.

CafePress, a virtual marketplace for artists to sell their independently designed clothing and collectibles, has often gotten into trouble in the past for products that depict explicitly racist or prejudiced remarks.

Though the site has a content usage policy with guidelines for prohibited content, including "hate and/or racist terms" and "use of marks that signify hate towards another group of people," certain merchandise in violation of these terms is often still posted on the site.

CafePress users can create their own designs, upload them onto a T-shirt and sell them to others, all in one sitting. This enterprise may be useful for clubs or sports teams who want to design their own apparel, but it certainly allows for some creative liberties.

According to MSNBC, CafePress pulled down 10 pages this week, including those that featured compilations of products under titles such as "Anti-Mexican Gifts." A similarly titled section, "Anti-Mexico Gifts," stayed live until the blog Latinorebels.com revealed its existence this week, prompting CafePress to take down the page.

However, even though the pages were removed many of the products, such as “No More Mexicans” clothing, still remain. The issue here is that CafePress didn’t remove the actual merchandise under the section heads. The site merely disabled the search terms for "Anti-Mexican" and "Anti-Mexico," MSNBC reports.

As of this writing, searching one of the terms results in a "We're Sorry, You’ve Encountered an Error!" page. Though the search pages are down, the anti-Mexican products still remain due to the site's non-human automation.

CafePress gives viewers the option of reporting objectionable content via email to cup@cafepress.com. While currently harder to find on the site, the anti-Mexican products are still on the site.

This story appeared originally in Huffington Post Latino Voices.