The racially sensitive domain name SandNigger.com expired and was auctioned off at Namejet.com today. The domain ended up selling for $840. A quick look at the NSI whois reveals the new owner (who will likely be buying privacy protection very soon. . . .you’re welcome NSI ). Justin over at Namebio posted an open letter regarding this story. He’s calling for the companies involved to donate the profits from the sale to a reputable charity. I decided to feature this story as a way to back Justin’s idea up, but I’m also going to expand on this call to action, so keep reading. . . .
I’ve written about Network Solutions in the past with regard to racially sensitive domain names, so I wasn’t too surprised to see that this domain name expiration wasn’t handled better. With this past example in my mind, I’d also like to add to Justin’s open letter and say this would be a good time for NSI to make good and donate any of the profits from the PPC earnings from the Nigger.com domain to the NAACP. One quick press release could kill 2 birds with 1 stone.
There is still more than can be done regarding racist domains, so not one to be shy, I’ll add another couple recipients to this open letter concept : the parking companies. I think it’d also be wise for Oversee (as of this writing the domain redirects to a DomainSponsor page) and all other parking companies to distance themselves from this sort of domain and it’s really easy to do. Sedo did the right thing with the Niggers.com domain. After the story, the domain was sent to a blank page. NSI shut down Nigger.com as well. Deny these names from being added to your systems. Do something right here parking companies. I know this is not the business that these companies want to be involved in and I’m pretty sure they have contractual terms stating this very clearly.
And to the buyer of the domain . . . I can’t read your mind and have no clue why you paid $840 for this domain. I have a domain in my portfolio that I bought to prevent from being used in an offensive manner. It’s not racial, but rather political and I have turned it OFF completely. I suppose I can hope for the new owner to eventually do something positive with the domain. After seeing the results of domain parking pages with a racial term like this, the new owner of sandnigger.com would at least be wise to remove it from a parking page, especially one that auto-optimizes. Maybe the parking companies will take care of this the easier way and prevent these racist domains from being a way to profit. I think that all of us in the busines of domains can do better than this.
