A woke Amazon staffer worked himself to tears over the online retailer’s decision to sell a children’s book that likens being transgender to pretending to be a walrus.
The staffer’s outburst occurred during a meeting allegedly held by Amazon leadership to address the ‘trauma’ some employees endured from the success of children’s book Johnny the Walrus, written by conservative author Matt Walsh.
‘Im sorry, I want to preface this…’ the unidentified staffer says during an online meting the meeting as he wipes away his tears. ‘This is really tough content.’
‘Johnny the Walrus is a bit of a problematic book — not a bit — it is not a bit of a problem, it’s one hell of a problem,’ the employee stated, adding that the book has been a ‘very traumatic experience for transgender Amazonians and our transgender customers.’ Footage from the meeting was first obtained by Libs of TikTok.
Johnny the Walrus was written by conservative political commentator Matt Walsh. The book quickly became one of Amazon’s Best Sellers in LGBTQ+ Books, before being removed from that categorization.
Workers at the meeting hinted they’d like to see it banned from the platform altogether.
The undated meeting begins with the host warning employees that they are aware the content in the book is ‘traumatic’ for transgender individuals.
He explained that Amazon has received feedback from customers and staff about the Johnny the Walrus and asked employees to refrain from complaining about it as the appropriate departments are already aware of the issue and taking action.
He then shared feedback from a customer who alleged the book teaches children to ‘kill transgenders’ or ‘bully them into committing suicide.’
‘The story is about a kid who likes to pretend he’s different things and one day he pretends he’s a walrus and the community tells him he either has to be a human or he has to be a walrus or their going to kill him,’ the customer, who identifies as a member of the LGBT community, said in her formal complaint to Amazon. ‘He can’t be both. He can’t pretend anymore.’
She then cites a tweet from Matt Walsh where he claims has ‘the number one anti-LGBT book in country’ and criticizing him or his book would be ‘homophobic’.
‘You are a selling a manual of how to teach kids to bully other kids to commit suicide,’ the woman accused. ‘It is teaching kids to kill, well to bully transgenders, into committing suicide.
The customer also accused Walsh of bragging that he is ‘glad’ his book is ‘going to make the LGBTQIA kids, especially transgenders, commit suicide.’
‘If you’re transgender, if you’re gender non-binary — and this is super triggering, I would understand if you needed to leave. This is education for people who don’t get it, who don’t understand,’ the meeting host said after sharing the complaint.
‘I would understand if this was a lot, but equally I want folks to know that we’re doing this because this really matters, to get this education out there.’
He then warned staff to ‘brace yourself’ as they were going to show a 30-second clip of Walsh reading the book.
Footage of the book reading and the staff’s post-reading reaction was not immediately available
Walsh, who saw the clip, responded to the criticisms during an interview with Tucker Carlson on Tuesday.
‘I think their behavior to me is marginalizing me and invalidating my lived experience as children’s author, but also the book is about true self acceptance,’ Walsh told the Fox News host.
‘It’s about a boy who identifies as a walrus and his mother goes along with it. But they both learn at the end that you should accept yourself for who you truly are, who you biologically are.
‘A message of self-acceptance, when I was a kid that was the most common message in books that we read. It is just now on the left, with a force on kids is actually rejecting who you really are in favor of a delusion.’
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