Walking Dead T-Shirt Controversy: Primark Chain Pulls 'Racist' T-Shirts, And Customers Aren't Happy About It

An official "The Walking Dead" t-shirt was removed from the shelves of Primark, a U.K. department store chain, Wednesday after a concerned customer termed it "racist" and "offensive."

The t-shirt was inspired by the AMC's famous television show's villain Negan. It contained a reprint of the nursery rhyme "Eeny meeny miny moe…" that he used before killing his victims along with an image of his barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat. This popular kids' rhyme was featured in the sixth season finale of TV’s highest-rated drama.

During the Jim Crow era, there was a version of the rhyme that contained a racial slur to replace the word "tiger" in the phrase "catch a tiger by the toe." The older version of the rhyme was taught to American schoolchildren over 100 years ago. One can still find the transcript of the original song online by Bert Fitzgibbon, dated 1906.

Apparently, a Primark customer named Ian Lucraft spotted the shirt, and was familiar with the rhyme's lesser-known usage.

"We were shocked when we came face to face with a new T-shirt with a racially explicit graphic and text. It was fantastically offensive and I can only assume that no-one in the process of ordering it knew what they were doing or were aware of its subliminal messages," Lucraft told the Sheffield Star.

"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.'"

"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. It is directly threatening of a racist assault, and if I were black and were faced by a wearer I would know just where I stood," he added.

"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. Any offense caused by its design was wholly unintentional and Primark sincerely apologizes for this. Primark has removed the product from sale," Primark said Wednesday.

Primark faced criticism over its decision to discontinue the shirt. Numerous people mocked the retailer's decision on social media.