Hallmark Pulls Card With Audio Clip Over Accusations Of Astronomical Racism

It’s so hard to understand each other in this life. First there was that unfortunate honey bun mixup, and now Hallmark is trying to prevent a bunch of press conferences from happening (too late!) by pulling a graduation card from shelves. Why? Because either Hoops or Yo-Yo–I don’t know which character is which–spouts shockingly racist insults and threats when you open the card. Well, maybe.

Okay, maybe not:

The actual spoken phrase, if you can’t watch the video, is “You black holes, you’re so ominous! [Other character laughs and says 'Ooooo!'] And you planets? Watch your backs.”

The president of the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP says the card is intentionally demeaning African-American women, by first calling them prostitutes and then threatening them. He also says that “if reasonable people can listen to this and interpret it the way I did,” then Hallmark should pull the card.

The inside of the card also displays the word “saturn,” all lowercase. I don’t think the group is complaining about that but I do have to wonder: if it’s not a slur against somebody, then why isn’t it capitalized properly?

“The Hallmark of a black hole” [Discover Magazine] (Thanks to Parv!)