Huge criticism has emerged on social media against a racist NFT project depicting black people; called the “Meta Slave” NFT collection. The collection is said to have 1,865 NFTs, Vice reported.
So far, at least 971 NFTs have been released; all of them featuring black people with the first one depicting an image of George Floyd entitled: “Meta Slave #1 ‘I CAN’T BREATHE.’”
In case you haven't seen it yet, someone is selling NFT's associated with pictures of Black folks and calling it "Meta Slave". Their Twitter is a series of listings of Black people up for sale. Gross, despicable, and angering don't even begin to describe this. pic.twitter.com/weBVYIjomV
— wells (oakland enby) (@WellsLucasSanto) February 1, 2022
The NFTs are uploaded for auctions with a start price of 0.01 ETH, around $276. But not all the prices are the same as ‘The George Floyd’ one is priced at 25.04ETH ($69,146), Sealth Optional said.
What was described as more sickening is that a Twitter page related to the ‘META Slave’ project was created with the name ‘BABY META SLAVES’ featuring black babies.
Good people,
— Shaun #TheBlkGaze ?????? (@shotbyshaun) February 5, 2022
Today, I bring this to your attention for you to take immediate action as an ally.
If you're mildly concerned about this, then report the account. Question Opensea.
Don't leave a comment of solidarity without doing at least that. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/KECWg0Jd62
On the other hand, the META SLAVE project has responded to backlashes saying: “In creating our project, we wanted to show that everyone is a slave to something. A slave to desires, to work, to money, etc.”
The project also added that: “There will be other collections in the future: white, Asian, etc.”
selling meta slaves…… shut the whole nft collection down.
— nakiya ☥ (@_nakiyaaaa) February 4, 2022
‘Black Lives Matter’ activists and human rights advocates have slammed this insulting business as some people have described it as ‘racist crypto-art’. Twitter users have urged for a united action to report this shame account with the aim to close it permanently.
Despite the fact that the META SLAVE project said that this came to honor BLM and George Floyd, people are calling for the closure of the project describing it as racist.
Holy shit. Just when you think we've reached the bottom of the barrel, the bottom falls out and you realise there's another barrel underneath it pic.twitter.com/YePBp7hLL2
— Chris Scullion (@scully1888) February 1, 2022
Due to the huge backlash and the campaign to close and stop the project, not a single NFT was sold, sources said.