This is a follow up to my last diary entry:
I need your advice about racist imagery.
Sometimes it was depressing but mostly it reaffirmed my belief that people want progress within their community.
I went into Uncle Giuseppes again today--I wanted to see if they had taken the tins of TABU Black Licorice out of the offensive packaging. It was still there. They blew me off last Friday when I complained. They don't care.
Well, screw them. I care.
Image on this page, click to enlarge
I started off by dowloading the image and making a small flier with the image and my complaint about it being a stereotype and its use wrong in 2009. I added that I wanted people to call Uncle Gioseppes and ask them to remove the product from their shelves. I made three different versions of the flier. The version with my contact info was faxed to:
East Meadow Chamber of Commerce
Nassau County Office of Consumer Affairs
Nassau County Commission of Human Rights
Hempstead (NY) NAACP
Kate Murray (the township supervisor)
News12
Newsday Business Coverage
I made two other types of flier with the same image and complaint without my contact info (I'm not putting that out on the street!) but instead one had tear off strips with Uncle G's phone number--these got taped up on poles, phone booths, laundromats, etc.
The third flier had the complaint and image with Uncle G's contact info in bold text. These I took to all the merchants in that strip mall and the merchants across the street from the mall.
For the most part, the merchants were quite understanding. The folks in the lacrosse store, CVS, and McDonalds immediately said they would call and ask Uncle G's to pull the offensive packaging from the shelves. The hospital's office of public affairs said they would review the flier before posting it (I bet that's going to go into the trash can) and the guys in the auto parts store looked at me like I was from another planet when I pointed out the blackface and said it was offensive, one of them even replied "So?" Sigh. You can't connect with everyone.
Well, we'll see how it goes. Hopefully, enough people will make an impact with their phone calls and Uncle Giuseppe's Italian Market will get smart or at least stop being insensitive, and will no longer sell products in racially insenstive and offensive packaging.
I sincerely believe that one person on their own can make an impact that helps a community. I could not sit idly by and let a supermarket sell products with negative stereotypical advertizing. It's wrong. It hurts our community image and it hurts all people who have been the victims of bias. It's got to stop.
SF