More than 1,400 people signed the petition.
Trader Joe’s supermarket chain says it is changing its ethnic food packaging after more than 1,400 people signed a petition describing brands like “Trader Ming’s” and “Trader Jose’s” as racist.
The popular grocery store is the latest American company to announce product labeling changes that critics say are similar to racial stereotypes.
Merchant Joe responded to the request on Change.org, which asked the company to “remove racist brands and packaging from its stores.”
The company acknowledged that the name of the product may have had the “opposite effect” of its intention.
“While this approach to product naming may have originated in a lighthearted attempt at inclusion, we recognize that it may now have the opposite effect, one that is contrary to the welcoming and rewarding customer experience that we strive to create. days, “Kenya Friend-Daniel, a spokesman for Trader Joe’s, said in a statement.
Friend-Daniel said the company had been updating its product labeling long before the Change.org petition was initiated last week by California high school student Briones Bedell.
“We have been in the process of updating the old labels and replacing any variations with the Trader Joe’s name, and we will continue to do so until we complete this important work,” Friend-Daniel said. “At this time, I don’t have an exact date, but we hope to have the work completed very soon. The packaging for various products has already been changed, but there are a small number of products where the packaging is still working through the process.” .
Trader Joe’s packages its Chinese, Mexican, Italian and Middle Eastern foods under the brands “Trader Ming’s”, “Trader Jose”, “Trader Giotto” and “Arabian Joe”.
In the petition, Bedell wrote that some of the company’s ethnic food labels “hide a narrative of exoticism that perpetuates harmful stereotypes.”
After Trader Joe’s statement that the labeling would be changed, Bedell wrote that the company should “commit to a date that the packaging changes will be completed. If a date cannot be set, we request that Trader Joe immediately remove all products that the company acknowledges have not been inclusive and have not cultivated a welcoming and rewarding customer experience
Trader Joe’s move comes about a month after Quaker Oats announced that it will recall Aunt Jemima’s syrup brand, saying the company recognizes the origins of a smiling black woman on its label “based on a racial stereotype.”
Most of the decisions have come in the context of a national dialogue on racial issues sparked by widespread protests over the murder of George Floyd, a black man from Minneapolis, on May 25.
Mars, Inc. also said last month that its Uncle Ben’s rice brand, which features a black cartoon inspired by a Chicago restaurant waiter in the 1940s, “will evolve” in response to criticism that the product encourages racial stereotypes.
Land O’Lakes, a dairy cooperative, announced earlier this year that it was removing from its packaging the image of a Native American woman kneeling on a pile of grass and holding a package of butter.
.
