SACRAMENTO — Trader Joe’s has been under fire during the last month over its labels on some of its ethnic food items. More than 6,000 people have signed an online petition that demands the grocery chain removes its "racist packaging" from its products.
Briones Bedell, 17, who started the petition last month, says labels like Trader Ming’s, Trader Jose’s, and Trader Giotto’s are racially insensitive and exoticize other cultures.
“My family and I have been fairly regular shoppers at Trader Joe’s previously, and the branding always felt a little off color to me personally,” Bedell said.
In a statement posted on its website, the company states the naming of those products are fun and show appreciation for other cultures.
“It’s not true cultural representation or celebration. You don’t have to have a stereotypical name of a person to represent that it’s from that culture,” adds Bedell. “These products are considered exotic and alternative to the euro-centric cuisine that is perceived as ‘normal.’”
Bedell explains her issue with Trader Joe’s isn’t just about what she considers racially insensitive branding. She also has a problem with the company’s corporate brand philosophy.
According to the Trader Joe’s website, during the time founder Joe Coulombe opened the first store in Pasadena, he had been reading a book called, White Shadows in the South Seas, and he’d recently been on the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland. The website states, “it all just…coalesced."
Bedell believes the book is racist because it portrays the white exploitation of Polynesian pear divers and the Disney ride depicts indigenous African people as savages.
“This book depicts and celebrates these myths of the noble savage and the white god narratives, and it relies heavily on these aspects of exoticism that we can then also see mirrored in the Trader Joe’s branding of international foods,” said Bedell.
Bedell says she still hasn’t received a direct response from Trader Joe’s since she launched her petition last month.
However, the company released three separate statements. The first one states its been in the process of updating older labels and variations with the name Trader Joe’s, and will continue to do so.
The second one says they disagree the labels are racist and they don’t make decisions based on petitions. Then this month, Trader Joe’s told the New York Times it discontinued their Arabian and Armenian Joe labels.
“I think a more direct response to the petition would be appreciated, but my main goal is to just have them modify those brands regardless of the specific path that it takes,” says Bedell.
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