Uncle Ben's Rice To Change Branding Due To Racial Issues

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smudge
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20 Jun 2020, 10:54 am

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Mars foods is to change the name and branching of its Uncle Ben's rice range amid increasing sensitivity to racial issues.

The packaging currently features the name Uncle Ben and the image of an older black farmer - in branding that has been in use since 1946.

The name is that of a fictional African American farmer and the image is one of a chef from Chicago, called Frank Brown.

A Mars spokesman said: “We recognise that now is the right time to evolve the Uncle Ben’s brand, including its visual brand identity, which we will do.

"Racism has no place in society. We stand in solidarity with the Black community, our Associates and our partners in the fight for social justice.

Mars gave no details of how or when- the changes will be made, saying it is “evaluating all possibilities".

It's not the only brand changing it's look in the current climate.

Aunt Jemima pancake mix and syrup, owned by Quaker Foods, is looking at changes too.

Quaker's Kristin Kroepfl said: "We recognise Aunt Jemima's origins are based on a racial stereotype."

"As we work to make progress toward racial equality through several initiatives, we also must take a hard look at our portfolio of brands and ensure they reflect our values and meet our consumers' expectations."


From https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/uk-w ... XxVZTa9p_Y

What does everyone think of this? I personally don't like them making massive changes like this. Are they going to ban Tom & Jerry now?

On the issue of statues, separate to this topic:
Statues I believe of racists and slave drivers should all be moved to museums so people can still look at them and study them. They should stay around because they're history and I think it's important we remember it. I just hope bigger, more ancient historical places, railways and all sorts built by slaves in the past aren't damaged due to all this too. It's history. Cultures and human mindsets were quite different back then and we need to remember them so we don't forget where everything came from and where we made mistakes, how we've evolved from it and what amazing things came out of some of these terrible ways of doing these things.


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20 Jun 2020, 11:26 am

How about "Rabbi Binyāmîn's Kosher Rice" with a picture of an davening Hassidim on the label?

Would that satisfy the politically-correct community?


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Karamazov
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20 Jun 2020, 11:34 am

Sounds suspiciously like the Mars corporation looking at current events and thinking ”marketing opportunity” to me.

Seems a bit peculiar that statuary and so forth is being removed whilst workplace conditions and workforce freedom in the contemporary textile, mining, sex and illicit drugs industries are not being focused on.
Maybe I’m severely out of touch.



Bravo5150
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20 Jun 2020, 11:48 am

Karamazov wrote:
Sounds suspiciously like the Mars corporation looking at current events and thinking ”marketing opportunity” to me.

Seems a bit peculiar that statuary and so forth is being removed whilst workplace conditions and workforce freedom in the contemporary textile, mining, sex and illicit drugs industries are not being focused on.
Maybe I’m severely out of touch.


Freedom in the illicit drug industry? The government doesn't give freedom to sell illicit drugs in the first place. Why would they care about freedoms in the workplace?



techstepgenr8tion
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20 Jun 2020, 11:55 am

Fnord wrote:
How about "Rabbi Binyāmîn's Kosher Rice" with a picture of an davening Hassidim on the label?

Would that satisfy the politically-correct community?

That's cultural appropriation, rice doesn't grow in Israel.

Heck, we probably shouldn't even be eating it in that case if we're not Chinese.


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kraftiekortie
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20 Jun 2020, 11:57 am

Uncle Ben’s does not depict a racist image like Aunt Jemima does. It does depict a black man, but not a stereotype, unless I’m missing something.

I’ll miss Aunt Jemima—but I understand the reasoning.



Last edited by kraftiekortie on 20 Jun 2020, 12:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

naturalplastic
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20 Jun 2020, 12:06 pm

Pictures of Black plantation servants who "knew their place" (like Aunt Jemima, and Uncle Ben) were already annoying anachronisms in my childhood in the Sixties. The only mystery is why did they take half of a century to get rid of them?

But then that time lag maybe the problem. So much time has passed that those characters are actually less offensive than they were in 1964 when the civil rights act was passed. So-yes- folks today may recognize the characters as representing antebellum slaves, or as paid servants in the subsequent Jim Crow era of the South, but the uncle and aunt in question made the best of their predicaments and cooked good food recipes- so its triumpant and a good thing- or some today might see it that way. So to post-modern eyes they arent really offensive anymore- the way they were to the first generation to escape Jim Crow in 1964.



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20 Jun 2020, 12:08 pm

kraftiekortie wrote:
Uncle Ben’s does not depict a racist image like Aunt Jemima does.

I’ll miss Aunt Jemima—but I understand the reasoning.

They don't have to go.

Replace the black people with white people.

No one will care if Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima are white.


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naturalplastic
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20 Jun 2020, 12:11 pm

Actually...I think that it should be called "Charlie Chan's Rice".

The Chinese-American detective was always played by White guys (like Warner Oland).

Its adulterated instant rice.

So..what better face to put on a box of fake rice... than a...fake Chinese guy? :lol:



naturalplastic
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20 Jun 2020, 12:17 pm

techstepgenr8tion wrote:
Fnord wrote:
How about "Rabbi Binyāmîn's Kosher Rice" with a picture of an davening Hassidim on the label?

Would that satisfy the politically-correct community?

That's cultural appropriation, rice doesn't grow in Israel.
.


How is it "cultural appropriation"?

That doesnt even make enough sense to be a joke.



Karamazov
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20 Jun 2020, 12:25 pm

Bravo5150 wrote:
Karamazov wrote:
Sounds suspiciously like the Mars corporation looking at current events and thinking ”marketing opportunity” to me.

Seems a bit peculiar that statuary and so forth is being removed whilst workplace conditions and workforce freedom in the contemporary textile, mining, sex and illicit drugs industries are not being focused on.
Maybe I’m severely out of touch.


Freedom in the illicit drug industry? The government doesn't give freedom to sell illicit drugs in the first place. Why would they care about freedoms in the workplace?


I was thinking more along the lines of examples of industries which sell goods and services produced in conditions of either slavery, or quasi-enslaved degradation.
Whether they operate in the regulated market of legal business, or the free market of illegal business didn’t seem relevant.
It’s still an example of such practices occurring within the contemporary world market.



Mountain Goat
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20 Jun 2020, 12:43 pm

(In answer to the origional post).
That is like saying we should stop black people from being newscasters incase it promotes racism?

One point I want to get across. The protests have caused division between the white communities and the black communities. Is that what the protestors set out to achieve?


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Last edited by Mountain Goat on 20 Jun 2020, 12:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

kraftiekortie
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20 Jun 2020, 12:49 pm

As far as most protesters are concerned—probably not.

I live in an area where many different races encounter each other on a regular basis. We really don’t have the “racial divide” in my neighborhood. I live in a mostly East Indian and Hispanic area.



naturalplastic
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20 Jun 2020, 12:55 pm

Mountain Goat wrote:
(In answer to the origional post).
That is like saying we should stop black people from being newscasters incase it promotes racism?


Blacks being seen as high status, as in being seen as real life newscasters, is the opposite of promoting racism. The opposite of showing Blacks as servant characters (like Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima).



lostproperty
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20 Jun 2020, 1:01 pm

Mountain Goat wrote:
One point I want to get across. The protests have caused division between the white communities and the black communities. Is that what the protestors set out to achieve?


I feel that way too. There's been an incident in the last few days near to where I live of somebody getting beaten up in what appears to be a racially motivated assault. I'm glad my daughter isn't at school at the moment because I'd worry that other pupils will be seeking to act out what they're seeing on the news and social media. There hasn't been a race issue at her school up to now and I'm just hoping this all dies down before she returns.



techstepgenr8tion
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20 Jun 2020, 1:34 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
How is it "cultural appropriation"?

That doesnt even make enough sense to be a joke.

It does make enough sense to be a joke. It's from China.


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