I've been a supporter of Amazon.com for well over a decade. The company was helpful in side income when I was in school (buying and selling used textbooks, selling collectible items and at one point electronics). I used to own an Amazon Store Card, an Amazon Credit Card, an Amazon Vine account, a Seller Marketplace account and an Amazon Connect account. So why would I boycott a company that I've been a supporter of for so long? Sometimes loyalty to a company won't matter to that company, especially if it can take your money and disregard your concerns in the first place.

I have exactly 981 Amazon reviews on that site and have enjoyed reviewing books, music and movies over the years. I've also enjoyed networking. What I didn't enjoy was seeing a review about Toure's book "Who's Afraid of Post Blackness?" from this account. Everyone has a right to his/her opinion, and I can deal with someone's opposing political views. What I won't tolerate is comments like,

"Blacks will still take the side of an obvious black criminal over the police officer who arrested him." (Inaccurate. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty.)

"For every Obama there are 10,000 black underclass who are dangerous to the wider community but especially to the black communities in which they live." (Absolutely no credible source to back up this random [and more than likely made-up] statistic.)

"According to Ebony Magazine, the three most respected black leaders in the black community are Jackson, Farrakhan, and Sharpton, three of a kind, anti-white, anti-semitic, and empowered through grievance." (I asked for a year/date of publication from him considering the rest of his review was so anti-black and I doubt he's ever picked up an Ebony magazine. He could not provide one. I also don't think that standing up for the rights of African-Americans makes you "anti-white." Al Sharpton for one has been very persistent about there not being a "black America" but a "United States of America.")

Now I can't stop someone from having an opinion, but if Amazon's policy is to not accept reviews that are "obscene or distasteful content" or "profanity or spiteful remarks," then I don't understand how that review passed through. I've observed Amazon take down reviews from people for just not reading a full book, but a review saying "Only when this pathologic sense of grievance is left behind will the black community be able to join the rest of the civilized world" is okay? So we're not civilized either?

Again I can't change a person's opinion but nothing about the review even talked about the book. The book was a five-star read and I thought it was spot on. I think a reviewer like this could've learned a lot from it if he actually read the book. Instead he typed one long rant complaining about black people. Keep in mind we're not perfect and some of us could definitely use some improvements (as with any race of people) but I'll never accept someone making grand generalizations about an entire race of people and don't understand why Amazon would let this review stay. I reported it and contacted Amazon.com three times. They refuse to take it down and say it falls within their policy.

All right, cool, if that's how they feel, I can't do anything about their decision. What I can do is not support the company. I cleaned out my information and promptly asked for my seller account, buyer account, Amazon Vine account, Amazon Store Card, Amazon card and my Amazon Connect account to be shut down by choice. After a few e-mail "are you sure" exchanges, they finally closed everything outside of my profile. I wasn't budging. There are entirely too many companies that I can buy (and review) the same products without dealing with the offensive comments, too. One commenter said I was trying to censor free speech. I'm not trying to censor free speech. What I am doing is saying someone else's free (and ridiculous) speech can definitely affect your money and make customers give a side eye to your company's reputation. I refuse to believe had I made those same comments about another race that my review would've stayed there. But I wasn't willing to test that theory out because I simply wouldn't want anybody to believe I thought that way nor do I think that way about my race or anybody else's. I'd be absolutely ashamed to post a review like Abe Krieger did. Not only ashamed but I'd shame those who raised me never to be this prejudice and racist.

But what I can do is spend my money elsewhere. And nothing about Amazon.com is so special that I can't shop from the same sites I was already shopping on when I wasn't on their site. They lost a 10+ year loyal customer. I didn't lose shit but respect for a company I thought was much more professional than this.