Tuesday, October 27, 2009

racist biscuits to go




Do we really need to be careful about what we say? Are some of the expressions that we use racist and offensive but we just don't think about it until someone else notices?


"The name of the Coles brand biscuits, Creole Creams, has sparked controversy.
Sam Watson, the deputy director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit at the University of Queensland, said the word "Creole", often used to describe a person of mixed European and Africa ancestry, was a racially loaded term.

"The word Creole comes from a period when people's humanity was measured by the amount of white blood they had in their bloodstream. This is the same kind of thought that underpinned horrific regimes like the Nazis," Mr Watson said."

"People need to exercise their intellect. This so-called blending was actually the institutionalised rape of black women. They were victims of brutal regimes of rape and victimisation."

Mr Watson described the biscuit name as deeply insensitive and indicative of a "deep undercurrent of racism in white Australian society".


"It virtually infects every level of Australia's consciousness, language, culture and history," he said.
Very strong words. And can you really argue that they are false. Just think about it - why use derogatory terms when you don't need to, to sell bloodly lollies FFS.

"Why the need to use that sort of language to market a confectionery?"

We are represented in this hall of shame.
"Eskimo lollies caused controversy in New Zealand this year, when a Canadian tourist objected to the name.

In the mid-1990s Arnott's renamed its controversial Golliwog biscuits Scalliwags before finally discontinuing the line of biscuits altogether.

In Europe, chocolate and marshmallow biscuits produced by the Dutch biscuit maker Van der Breggen were still marketed as Nigger Kisses as late as 2006, when they were finally rebranded as Buys Kisses."
Why should these lolly companies be allowed to get away with it. Where do you think negative attitudes towards others comes from - thin air?

Jeepers that was quick -
"Supermarket giant Coles will change the name of an in-house brand of biscuits amid claims it is racist.
Coles Spokesman Jim Cooper said the name of the "You'll Love Coles" brand of chocolate and vanilla biscuits, called Creole Creams, will be changed as part of the company-wide rebranding of Coles products.
The name change comes on the back of claims of racism, with the word Creole used to describe a person of mixed European and African ancestry."
That is how you sort out problems - don't moan, don't fight just accept and sort it out.

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