Aldi removes 'racist' Australia Day T-shirt from stores

German discount supermarket chain Aldi has announced it will remove its promotional Australian Day T- shirts and singlets from its stores in Australia after an outcry on social media, local media reported Wednesday. A number of Twitter users on Wednesday called for the T-shirts and singlets designed with a slogan that reads "AUSTRALIA EST 1788"to be withdrawn from sale after deeming it racist and culturally insensitive to indigenous Australians. The "Est 1788" slogan apparently referred to the date of first European settlement in Australia, but indigenous Australians inhabited the continent for at least 40,000 years before Europeans arrived. The T-shirts and singlets were advertised on the Aldi website and through its cataloger and were scheduled to go on sale this week in the lead up to Jan.26. The company said Wednesday in a statement that it had "decided to remove one of its Australia Day special buy products, the Adults Australia Day T-shirt and Singlet from retail". "The decision to remove the Australia Est. 1788 design from the range was taken following comments by a limited number of concerned customers," it said.