Split Thread Tearing Down Statues Associated With Racial Injustice

[Pixel42]

I'm simply asking you a question. What makes it racist?

Once again: it doesn't need to actually be racist to be changed. The marketing team just need to think there's a significant possibility that changing it will increase sales.

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

Because the company doesn't know that.....

Does the company know anything about this strange individual known as Uncle Ben?

 

[JoeMorgue]

Racism is not something you can overturn on a technicality.

Something can't be "technically not racist."

 

[William Parcher]

Imagine being so privileged that a brand changing its logo ruins your day.

Imagine being so disconnected that you think people here are having a ruined day.

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

You're asking a question that has already been answered multiple times and one for which you've already pre-rejected all answers.

Quote someone answering it and then quote me rejecting that answer. Talk about "playing games," Joe.

There's been several explanations of why "Domestic Black Imagery" when used as an archetypal character are problematic. At this point your ignorance is a deliberate choice.

No matter what any of say, you'll just ask us to explain it again forever.

Joe, you've offered no explanations, although you're happy to believe others have done so for you, since your own theories seem to be missing what with all of the gratuitous hand-wringing you've been doing.

 

[Darat]

Once again: it doesn't need to actually be racist to be changed. The marketing team just need to think there's a significant possibility that changing it will increase sales.

It's really all about how they balance any changes either way in customer satisfaction/retention and sales (and costs - rebranding can be very very expensive for large companies).

And it may shock some people but it could be some people in the company who can influence or make decisions are thinking "is that really how we want to brand the range today?"

Times change.

 

[I Am The Scum]

Imagine being so disconnected that you think people here are having a ruined day.

Some people actually are. Tiny disruptions to the status quo trigger right-wingers like you would not believe.

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

Once again: it doesn't need to actually be racist to be changed. The marketing team just need to think there's a significant possibility that changing it will increase sales.

I already gave my reply to that position. There's no evidence that doing so will increase any sales, much like there's no evidence to suggest that keeping it will decrease them.

Also, if the problem is with the name itself, doesn't that put the company in an awkward position where changing its entire brand name might possibly hurt the brand itself?

 

[I Am The Scum]

Once again: it doesn't need to actually be racist to be changed. The marketing team just need to think there's a significant possibility that changing it will increase sales.

Seriously. "We just decided to cut ourselves off from the controversy" seems like the safest bet.

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

Imagine being so privileged that a brand changing its logo ruins your day.

Imagine being so privileged that you can spend multiple hours every day discussing how brand mascots are offensive to black people you probably don't even know or communicate with.

I'd ask that we put it to a vote for our black members here, but I don't seem to ever recall seeing many amidst all of the white folks.

 

[I Am The Scum]

There's no evidence that doing so will increase any sales, much like there's no evidence to suggest that keeping it will decrease them.

That you know of. Large brands don't often publish their marketing data.

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

Some people actually are. Tiny disruptions to the status quo trigger right-wingers like you would not believe.

If you believe I'm right wing then it's a wonder you never see me in all of the threads I imagine you frequent that relate to right-wingers and their topics of conversation.

 

[Garb]

I already gave my reply to that position. There's no evidence that doing so will increase any sales, much like there's no evidence to suggest that keeping it will decrease them.

Also, if the problem is with the name itself, doesn't that put the company in an awkward position where changing its entire brand name might possibly hurt the brand itself?

Who cares? Companies change branding all the time, for a myriad of reasons.

If they don't want to associate with a mascot that potentially has a problematic history, why is that a big deal?

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

That you know of. Large brands don't often publish their marketing data.

I sincerely doubt that any has been done recently, what with everything going on. Brands aren't shy of telling people that they've checked these matters out with the public.

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

Who cares? Companies change branding all the time, for a myriad of reasons.

If they don't want to associate with a mascot that potentially has a problematic history, why is that a big deal?

There's no big deal with any of it, to be quite honest.

If the supposedly racist connotations of Uncle Ben reside in the naming of the brand itself, then ridding the smiling black man on the packet won't change that, will it?

Will Uncle Ben's genuinely take the chance to rename an already established brand name, though? I doubt it.

 

[Garb]

There's no big deal with any of it, to be quite honest.

If the supposedly racist connotations of Uncle Ben reside in the naming of the brand itself, then ridding the smiling black man on the packet won't change that, will it?

Will Uncle Ben's genuinely take the chance to rename an already established brand name, though? I doubt it.

If they rename it then this conversation is moot.

But if they remove the black signifier for "Uncle Ben" then the racist connotation doesn't follow. Maybe they will take a headshot of Cliff Robertson and make him the new mascot.

 

[jimbob]

Uncle Ben has a "contentious history," Stuart Elliott wrote in a 2007 New York Times piece recently cited by Delish. "White Southerners once used 'uncle' and 'aunt' as honorifics for older blacks because they refused to say 'Mr.' and 'Mrs.,'" he said.

And do we know that this is the reason Uncle Ben is known as Uncle Ben? How do we know he wasn't a black man called Ben who happened to be someone's uncle?

Because the company doesn't know that.....

We know he was an invented character.

Who happened to fit with the stereotypes of a black servant who was too old to be called "boy".

You're asking a question that has already been answered multiple times and one for which you've already pre-rejected all answers.

Stop playing games. Or at least stop pretending everyone can't see you playing games.

There's been several explanations of why "Domestic Black Imagery" when used as an archetypal character are problematic. At this point your ignorance is a deliberate choice.

No matter what any of say, you'll just ask us to explain it again forever.

Does the company know anything about this strange individual known as Uncle Ben?

He was a fiction.

So the fact that he's also an offensive fiction is enough.

 

[Joe Random]

If they rename it then this conversation is moot.

But if they remove the black signifier for "Uncle Ben" then the racist connotation doesn't follow. Maybe they will take a headshot of Cliff Robertson and make him the new mascot.

I'd buy this dude's rice.

 

[Gilbert Syndrome]

If they rename it then this conversation is moot.

But if they remove the black signifier for "Uncle Ben" then the racist connotation doesn't follow. Maybe they will take a headshot of Cliff Robertson and make him the new mascot.

I don't really get that, though, I mean I get what you're saying, but I don't follow the logic in the idea that removing the black man makes "Uncle Ben" less unpleasant a name for the brand when the supposedly racial problem with said brand is the name itself.

Unless they just stick Peter Parker's uncle on the packet and have the new slogan be: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility, enjoy as part of a balanced diet.

 

[Darat]

I sincerely doubt that any has been done recently, what with everything going on. Brands aren't shy of telling people that they've checked these matters out with the public.

Lots of marketing research has been going on, I literally between making posts in this thread had an email and done a survey from Samsung Smartlab.