CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Confectionery giant Nestle has today done their part to destabilise systemic racist structures by changing the name of two of the lollies in the Allens family.
The decision follows similar corporate decisions in the US in response to widespread protests decrying racism in recent weeks, a number of corporations have begun changing the names of products and product logos promoting racial stereotypes.
However, rather than just quietly rebranding these sweets in the middle of the night, like Queensland did with all of those mountains and creeks that had N-words in their name, Nestle have taken the opportunity to performatively announce their bold strategy to end racism on social media
“These names have overtones which are out of step with Nestle’s values, which are rooted in respect” the company said in a statement.
“While new names have not yet been finalised, we will move quickly to change these names.”
This bold act of virtue signalling has in turn created yet another pointless vortex of culture wars debate that achieves nothing other than giving boomers licence to whinge about the fact that life isn’t exactly the same as it was in the fun-loving 1960s when everyone’s parents hit them with belts and the Church was free to molest kids without repercussions.
The two lollies at the centre of this name-change scandal are the famous raspberry flavoured Red Skins, and this other type of lollie called Chicos – which is far less popular.
This has lead hundreds of thousands of Australians who were born after the moon-landing to quietly ask ‘what the fuck are chicos?’.
According to the internet, Chicos is a gelatinous lolly, similar to Jelly Babies, but rather than being fruit flavoured and in a variety of colours, they are all dark brown and are chocolate flavoured. So, basically a chewy version of chocolate, without the milky deliciousness.
However, just as Australian learnt what the fuck chicos are, the lollies name has been changed, presumably to ‘chocos’ or something less racist than the American racial slur for A Spanish man.
Red Skins, another chewy lolly, are under fire because their name is considered insulting to native Americans – something that anyone who watches American sport has always known and have alway been surprised this hadn’t been addressed sooner.
Early front-runners for the new and improved Red Skins is ‘Red Necks’.
This will serve as an accurate way of testing whether or not these pearl clutching white boomers really don’t think it’s a big deal to name a lolly after a racial stereotype.
