Fast Community Action Leads to Victory

(New York, New York) February 21, 2012 - In a victory for civil rights, community uproar has led CafePress to remove racist t-shirt designs from its website. The t-shirts which said, “No More Ragheads!” and “No More Towelheads!”, prompted over 4,000 people to sign a petition created by the Sikh Coalition calling for their removal.

In addition to removing the t-shirts, CafePress issued a statement expressing "regret" for "any problems or concerns caused by the images in question."

Quick Community Action, Quick Results
The Sikh Coalition issued an open letter to CafePress CEO Bob Marino last Thursday, February 17.  The Coalition's open letter also urged community members to sign an online petition which garnered 2,000 signatures in a day.  By late Saturday morning, February 19, the racist images were removed from the CafePress website.

The Coaltion's open letter also called on CafePress to improve its internal controls to prevent hateful material from being sold on its site. The Coalition will continue to push for such controls  with other civil rights organizations.