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The cancel culture and Black Lives Matter are pushing us toward a sterile society were no celebration of ethnicity will be allowed when it comes to marketing products.
Trader Joe’s is feeling the effects of the push for accepted speech only — a push that features the radical left as the arbiter on what is offensive.
There is a petition from a San Francisco Bay area high school student calling on the popular grocery chain to rename international food products with ethnic-sounding names, claiming those product names are racist because they perpetuate harmful stereotypes, Spectrum News reported.
The petition states: “The Trader Joe’s branding is racist because it exoticizes other cultures — it presents ‘Joe’ as the default ‘normal’ and the other characters falling outside of it — they are ‘Arabian Joe,’ ‘Trader José,’ and ‘Trader Joe San,'”
Other products include “Trader Ming’s, and “Trader Giotto’s,” representing Chinese and Italian foods.
The media is reverberating the petition and it has gained over 3,500 signatures.
The company said in a statement that in the spirit of “inclusiveness,” it has already started eliminating ethnic-sounding labels and using “Trader Joe’s” on its products.
“While this approach to product naming may have been rooted in a lighthearted attempt at inclusiveness, we recognize that it may now have the opposite effect — one that is contrary to the welcoming, rewarding customer experience we strive to create every day,” company spokeswoman Kenya Friend-Daniel said, according to Spectrum.
Little does the company know that, based on the wording of the petition, they will be coming for the Trader Joe name as well — and considering the Washington Redskins caved to the social media rage mob, and that Aunt Jemima failed to make the cut, it remains to be seen how much of a fight Trader Joe’s puts up.
Hell, the company folded to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) last year, redesigning some of its packaging, to include the removal of circus elephants.
The petition notes that “the Trader Joe’s company takes pride in the fact that the founder, Joe Coulombe, took inspiration in building the Trader Joe’s brand from a racist book and a controversial theme park attraction.”
The book is “White Shadows in the South Seas,” which the petition claims “is racist because it perpetuates the myth of the ‘white god’ and the ‘noble savage’ stereotypes.”
“It becomes even more racist in context because the founder of Trader Joe’s said that he was inspired by this book in some way when creating his company, a book which shows traders’ exotification of non-Western peoples turned into violent exploitation and destruction,” the wording continues.
Welcome to Post-Obama America.
Speaking of, an online poll with more than 40,000 votes shows the split is practically 50-50, with common sense barely edging out censorship 47.6 to 44.7.
Trader Joe’s is changing packaging on its ethnic food that many call racist. TJs said they’ve been in the process of doing this for years. Trader Ming’s orange chicken and Arabian Joe’s flatbread are just some products. Thoughts?🛒
More info: https://t.co/p2R3C4UGIu @KTVU
— Sara Zendehnam (@szendehnam) July 20, 2020
That the student behind the petition is white was not lost on some who responded online:
I’m a POC (Chinese) and found the names of the products very endearing. Of the things you could do, this was insignificant. Income inequality, opioid addiction, and police reform are far bigger.
Did you ask POC how they felt before doing this? Plenty to ask in SF.
— Albert Qian (@albertqian) July 20, 2020
There are various ways in which our allies can help our minority communities in this country.
Petitioning Trader Joe’s to change their branding/naming of their “ethnic” food isn’t one of them when it’s not offensive to start with.
— Skylar כוכב (@Skylarieyo) July 21, 2020
It had to be a white woman behind this 🙄
— hiro (@oorpinks) July 21, 2020
Here’s a sampling of other responses to the story from Twitter:
This is stupidity. Racist? For paying homage to ethnic foods.
— Freddy (@FreddyMav) July 21, 2020
Some white millennial decided you should be offended
— Freddy (@FreddyMav) July 21, 2020
This is worth people’s time? They must be so bored.
Instead, study math. Even for only 15 minutes a day. You will get better at it and feel good about yourselves.
— Lois Rogers (@lois_rogers) July 20, 2020
Woke culture ruins everything.
— Angus Drangus 🇺🇸 (@AngusDrangus) July 20, 2020
Aight but we gon let Trader Joe’s get away with this one? pic.twitter.com/8mOBoZcXf0
— Verifried Name (@dickbukakke) July 20, 2020
#traderJoes As a Hispanic let me tell you I’m not offended at ALL by you naming int’l hispanic food Trader José. If anything, I find it cute and actually honored that you changed Joe’s to the Spanish name, but obviously the PC police found it offensive, they don’t represent me pic.twitter.com/3jhXS4op94
— Lina Botero (@linisima) July 20, 2020
Starting to think that this cancel culture thing is targetting other ethnicities. 🤔 In America, I enjoy other cultures. It’s what makes us who we are. So why are those on the left going after Hispanics? What next? Who is the real racists in our environment? #Goya first, now this
— Bree (@Bree000007) July 20, 2020
Has anyone pointed that Jose is the Spanish equivalent of Joseph/Joe? Like Trader Joe’s? Like Peter and Pedro (and Pierre in French) I’m not defending Ming, I’m just saying. I’ll see myself out.
— Turtle Rocket Books (@turtlerocketbks) July 20, 2020
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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