Once, twice, three times a racist

The National Alliance for Positive Action, a group promoting "justice, equality and fairness for all people," has recently requested auction Web sites like eBay to stop selling racially offensive antiques and collectibles. These items include antique banks, postcards, paintings and books. The group is specifically targeting items sold using derogatory names.\neBay claims to remove any items that are deemed "abusive or offensive or degrading or in any way disparaging." I think that eBay is selectively applying this rule. The auction site seems to think they are doing a good job of removing offensive items, but how do they know just what is offensive? I'm not calling for a user-vote to decide whether or not a piece of merchandise is inappropriate; the items speak for themselves.\nSupposedly eBay has policies against the selling of artifacts from the Nazi regime and the Ku Klux Klan, but in a quick search, I found this rule to be ill-enforced. Just searching under "KKK," I found Nazi and Ku Klux Klan antiques as well as T-shirts, patches and stickers made specifically for neo-Nazis. eBay policy also dictates to "judiciously disallow listings or items that promote or glorify hatred, violence, or racial intolerance, or items that promote organizations (such as the KKK, Nazis, neo-Nazis, and Aryan Nation) with such views." \nOne can buy bumper stickers reading "David Duke -- For Senate." I'm not sure I understand what eBay defines as offensive, because a bumper sticker is definitely a form of promotion, and promoting David Duke is promoting the KKK, isn't it?\nThe panel that decides what items fall into this category must have little or no competency because it sure wasn't hard to find items that fit the above description. Of course, these are items that I personally found to be offensive, but then again, so does the N.A.P.A.\nMany merchants and collectors could argue that the collectibles are historical artifacts that should be remembered. For me, this argument parallels the placement of the Thomas Hart Benton murals in Woodburn 100. I tend to agree that the items are reminder of the past, but eBay specifically denies the sale of such items. According to eBay's current interpretation of their own rules, one could not sell homemade T-shirts that say "I hate black people," but he or she could sell items portraying racial stereotypes and doing so using derogatory words. \nThe fact that eBay does not consider such items as offensive is absurd. Many of these items include "Jolly (racial obscenity) Banks" -- an 'antique' featured in Spike Lee's "Bamboozled."\nDefenders of eBay might be quick to argue that those who monitor the sales have no time to check each and every auction. I believe that if eBay is going to state such policies, they owe it to their customers to follow through. It is the Web site's own self-applied rule. \nI think that eBay needs to seriously take a look at the complaints brought up by the N.A.P.A. because their reputation is on the line. I also think that items like the ones the N.A.P.A. is concerned about should not be sold on eBay unless the site decides to allow the sale of all racist items -- an action that would quickly spoil their image.\nOnly on eBay would one be able to purchase a "Jolly (racial obscenity) Bank" and buy Nazi Germany coins to fill it.