I work at Spencer’s Gifts, a store that prides itself on being fairly humourous and “edgy.” We sell a shirt there that shows portrait shots Hillary and Obama side by side, seperated by the words “Bros before Hoes.”

Full disclosure – I immediately purchased one even before we put them up for general sale on the floor, literally as soon as they came into our building. I thought (and think) they are hilarious.

I’ve had uniformly positive responses to the shirt when I’ve worn it or when I’ve pointed one out at work; there was one case where an African-American family misinterpreted it, but a brief explanation and they were a bit shocked but quite amused (which is exactly what Spencer’s is going for – you should see our Hillary Nutcracker and our excellent selection of fart machines ). However, emails have begun flowing in from people who have a problem selling these tshirts, claiming they are both racist and sexist. Notably, these complaints have all (to the best of my knowledge) been internal to the company; although we’ve had one or two customers make snide remarks about Obama (a “black racist”) or Hillary (much worse terms), nobody has directed any serious vitriol at the shirt itself, or its slogan, in my store or when I’ve worn it (which is perhaps a bit too frequently ).

The complainents have taken their stories right to the top and emailed the CEO of Spencer’s (which is the perogative of any Spencer’s employee, it’s a very well run company) and asked him to reconsider selling the t-shirts.

My question is three-fold: do you folks feel that Spencer’s Gifts is crossing the line by selling that shirt; why or why not; and what do you feel that Spencer’s should do in regard to the shirt?