TOPLINE
Trader Joe’s announced Monday that it will eliminate ethnic brand names after criticism including a two-week-old petition to remove “racist packaging” that has been signed more than 2,500 times.
Customers at a Trader Joe’s store in Pembroke Pines, Florida on July 16.
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KEY FACTS
The Change.org petition called out product labels that exploit “a narrative of exoticism that perpetuates harmful stereotypes,” including “Trader Ming’s” for Chinese food, “Arabian Joe” for Middle Eastern foods, “Trader José” for Mexican foods, “Trader Giotto’s” for Italian food and “Trader Joe San” for Japanese cuisine.
The 17-year-old author of the petition, Briones Bedell, wrote that “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.’”
Trader Joe’s said Monday that it decided to use only the Trader Joe’s name on its products several years ago and has since been in the process of updating the labels which should be complete “very soon,” spokeswoman Kenya Friend-Daniel told the Los Angeles Times.
Friend-Daniel explained that the approach was “rooted in a lighthearted attempt at inclusiveness” but that now the company recognizes that it might have “the opposite effect.”
Bedell updated the petition after Trader Joe’s statement Monday and asked the company to commit to a date for changing the packaging or, if that is not possible, to “immediately remove all products that the company recognizes have not been inclusive and have not cultivated a welcoming, rewarding customer experience.”
key background
Amid a national reckoning over race following the death of George Floyd, a number of food makers have announced changes to their packaging due to the racist origins of their names or imagery. In June, the makers of Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben’s, Cream of Wheat, Eskimo Pie and Dixie Beer all announced that they will review and reconsider their branding.
tangent
The petition also raises concerns about the roots of the Trader Joe’s name itself. The brand was inspired by Disneyland’s “Jungle Trip” ride and the 1919 book “White Shadows in the South Seas,” which both contain racist depictions of indigenous people, according to the petition. “The common thread between all of these transgressions is the perpetuation of exoticism, the goal of which is not to appreciate other cultures, but to further other and distance them from the perceived ‘normal,’” the petition says.
further reading
Trader Joe’s to eliminate product names criticized as racist (Los Angeles Times)
Here Are All The Brands That Are Changing Racist Names And Packaging (Forbes)