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Ed Do you like your cheese?

arthwollipot

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arthwollipot
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Coon cheese's name to be changed over racism concerns

Coon cheese's name will be changed after a campaign by activists who said it had racist connotations.

Coon's owners, dairy products company Saputo, confirmed the change today after being written a letter of complaint in June by activist Stephen Hagan, who has been fighting for 20 years to have the name changed.

"I said that the cheese brand was offensive, I said that it demeans people of colour," Dr Hagan told the ABC on Friday.

"I said that it was unacceptable as a brand in 2020."

Following a review, Saputo agreed.

"One of our basic principles as an organisation is to treat people with respect and without discrimination and we will not condone behaviour that goes against this," the Canadian company said in a statement.

"We wanted to ensure we listened to all the concerns surrounding the COON brand name, while also considering comments from consumers who cherish the brand and recognise the origin of its founder Edward William Coon, which they feel connected to.

"After thorough consideration, Saputo has decided to retire the COON brand name."
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Do you agree?
 
Just having a quick Google it apparently is the anglosised version of the Scottish name MacCoon which they changed to when they left.

Which doubles up on how stupid it is.
 
cullennz said:
Personally no. As it is stupid.

But it is a private company, so if they chose to be stupid and change it, who am I to argue?
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Why is it stupid? The link says the name was originally a racist joke. Even it wasn't, the current owners are mutiple steps removed from the founders. They're selling a commercial product in a competitive marketplace. Why should they want people mad at them? You think it's stupid to get rid of Aunt Jemima, the Redskins, and other antiquated trade names?

It's an Australian company. There must be some Australian names that would be suitable.
 
It comes from an anglosised version of a Scottish surname, so yes it is stupid.

But it is the companies choice, so mmh

Have no idea what Jemima is. Red skins is probably a bit dodge though.

But if they tried to change the All Blacks I wouldn't want to be in the country
 
arthwollipot said:
The rebranding follows similar decisions about Red Skins and Chicos.
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I knew about the redskins from the team that was probably right to change.

I'd never heard of chicos or the connotations.

I have a feeling the Kentucky area were quite reliant on slave labour and in the US there is connotations around fried chicken apparently

Anyone up for a group forcing KFC to change?

I'll do up a petition.
 
"Getting offended by the name of a cheese brand is ridiculous says guy offended by the new name of a cheese brand."

- Just seen elsewhere.
 
cullennz said:
It comes from an anglosised version of a Scottish surname, so yes it is stupid.

But it is the companies choice, so mmh

Have no idea what Jemima is. Red skins is probably a bit dodge though.

But if they tried to change the All Blacks I wouldn't want to be in the country
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"When I realised I had no real grounds for getting offended by the change I wanted to be offended by, I made up something extreme and stupid that nobody was seriously proposing and got offended about that."
 
PursuedByABear said:
"When I realised I had no real grounds for getting offended by the change I wanted to be offended by, I made up something extreme and stupid that nobody was seriously proposing and got offended about that."
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When did people just start posting made up quotes here?

And where am I offended?
 
The activist pushing for the change said he would back off if they could prove that the cheese was genuinely named for the inventor of the process, rather than the black wax in which it was allegedly originally wrapped.

It has easily been shown conclusively that Edward W Coon was the person who invented and patented the original process and that the alternate story - the black wax coating and that Coon was an uneducated Russian emigrant and factory hand - has been shown to have no basis.

But they still went and retired the brand - even though it is not clear that more than a handful of people were pushing for them to do that.

However, as someone said earlier, they are a private company and can do what they want with their brands. Maybe they feel that even the possibility that this can be taken as a racial slur is enough.
 
The brand is named after its founder, Edward Coon, a man who's name has Scottish connections that in no way is a slur on POC. It is probably derived from McCune, McCowan or McCone.

If we now get to pick a name and insert racist connotations upon it then I'm sorry that I don't have more influence as I'm pretty sure that, on a slow day (like today), I could get worked up enough to make the case that Dr Stephen Hagan is at it.... and he's a minority too!

Within his name he has hidden...

Aseng - Which is a slur on non-Indonesian citizens (particularly Chinese).
Ape - I'll let you work out that one.
Ese - Offensively used by races other than Hispanics
Ganesh - That's a Hindu God's name the bastard has appropriated!
Gans - used by Germans to describe Latvians
Hapa - Means half-white.
NAGA - North American Ground Ape; Affectionately used by the LAPD during the Watts riot in Los Angeles.
NAHA - North American Hairless Apes.
NAPA - North American Pavement Apes.
NASA - North American Street .......... you get the picture here I hope.
Nate - Shortened derogatory name for Native Americans.
Ng - A very common Asian surname that is considered goofy and is used derogatorily.
SAN - Stupid Assed ******
TAP - Typical American Prick

I think a petition is order!
 
From a business point of view I expect there is nothing to agree or disagree with except the bottom line. Plenty of companies who think the name of their product will be negatively affected financially, change the name of the product such as Toyota's MR2, which it had to change for the French market to avoid being called the Toyota ****.

If you are asking should the company change the name because it causes offence regardless of intent and regardless of the financial costs, then I think, no, just as I don't think any company selling "faggots" should have to change the name of its product to "offal balls" or something like that.

That is, providing the company strictly maintained a separation between its brand name/product and the dual meaning. If it were to play up to the secondary meaning then I think the company could expect some censure such as in this case:

The use of the word "faggot" has caused controversy due to its additional meaning as a pejorative term for a homosexual man in American English. In 2004, a radio commercial for the UK supermarket chain Somerfield, in which a man rejects his wife's suggested dinner saying "I've got nothing against faggots, I just don't fancy them" was found to have breached the Advertising and Sponsorship Code and was banned by the industry regulator Ofcom.
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Link
 
You don't get a lot of people referring to cigarettes as "fags" any more, either.

I for one am interested in what alternative name the cheese company comes up with.
 
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