You can do it! A Newsday reporter called this morning to investigate.
This diary is follow up to my previous entries:
Wednesday, Sept 30, 2009
My Day Working Against Racist Imagery
Friday, Sept 25, 2009
I Need Your Advice About Racist Imagery
A very nice reporter, Mr. Jim Bernstein, who had been given the fax I sent to Newsday, called to ask me about it. I told him that I was offended by the Tabu Black Licorice which uses racial imagery on its packaging. I had told the store manager about it, that it was offensive, and was basically blown off and my criticism ignored. I wanted the product taken off the shelves because of the Jolson-type, blackface image on the carton. It's wrong to use that type of marketing to sell a product. This is 2009, not 1909.
Yesterday, after going to the store and seeing the licorice still there in its offensive packaging, I did a little graphic work with details of my complaint, printed it up and faxed it here and there to local politicos and appropriate agencies, and more importantly (I think) I hoofed it up and down the strip mall where Uncle Giuseppe's Market does business and talked to the other merchants doing business there. Though a few seemed indifferent, many said they would call Uncle Giuseppe's and ask them to pull the product.
Mr. Bernstein, the Newsday reporter, told me that he would go and see about it himself. After going to the store, he emailed me this reply:
Hi Trudi! I wanted to tell you I just went to the Uncle G's in East Meadow. The offensive tins are gone! Without identifying myself as a reporter, I asked a store clerk if they had licorice in tins. She said they had but that they received "complaints" about them and removed from from the shelves. So I guess you did a good thing.
Thanks for the call
Jim Bernstein
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So, the wrap-up is that when you're confronted with people clinging to their use of stereotypes, and you're treated with apathy and excuses, you don't have to accept it as the way things are and always will be. Any person can make a difference by simply presenting your ideas logically and making those ideas understood by merchants, local agencies and politicos. Racism, at any level, shown and distributed in any manner, is wrong. It needs to be fought globally, nationally, and sometimes the fight is for your own neighborhood.
I'd like to thank everyone at Kos whose kind words and inspiration helped me win this local fight!
Kindly,
Trudi aka SeedFreak
UPDATE:
I just got a phone call from the Nassau County Police, it was an officer from their Hate Crimes/Bias Unit. They had been forwarded the fax I sent to Kate Murray, the town supervisor. The cops take this SERIOUSLY and are greatly concerned about racially incindiary problems. The officer said that even though this a grey area--a first-amendment rights issue--they are very concerned. I agreed with him and said that yes, the store has the right to advertise a product as they will, but I also the same right enabling me to protest. I also told him that the reporter had said the product had been pulled. It's good to know that the cops are on the side of the people and have little tolerance for divisiveness.