This ‘Walking Dead’ shirt was banned from stores for racism

A shirt sporting a popular line from The Walking Dead was just discontinued by UK retailer Primark, after complaints regarding the racist history of the phrase.

The white t-shirt depicts Lucille—the name given to a barbed-wire wrapped bat owned by Walking Dead villain Negan, along with the phrase "eeny meenie miny moe"—a reference to the words spoken by Negan before deciding which Walking Dead character to kill off.

Ian Lucraft came across the shirt while shopping with his wife in the UK. He then spoke to The Sheffield Star this week about how "shocked" by how "fantastically offensive" he believed the shirt was.

"The slogan is “Eeeny meenie miny moe…..” It stops there, but of course we all know what the original said: “catch a n***** by his toe," he said to The Star.

"The graphic has a large American baseball bat, wrapped round with barbed wire, and covered with blood. This image relates directly to the practice of assaulting black people in America," he explained.

While the racial slur isn't used in the show itself, Lucraft told the paper he believed it still was "directly threatening of a racist assault, [and] if I were black and were faced by a wearer I would know just where I stood."

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Lucraft's letter of complaint was sent directly to clothing retailer Primark's Chief Executive Paul Marchant and circulated to media outlets, forcing the company to respond formally.

“The t-shirt in question is licensed merchandise for the U.S. television series, The Walking Dead, and the quote and image are taken directly from the show," the statement read. "Any offence caused by its design was wholly unintentional and Primark sincerely apologises for this."