Asking Kraft to Remove the Derogatory 132 Year Old Logo on Calumet Baking Powder
Asking Kraft to Remove the Derogatory 132 Year Old Logo on Calumet Baking Powder
The Issue
Calumet Baking Powder. If you’re a die-hard King fan you might recognize the label from The Shining*. Maybe you absentmindedly bought it from a store, never thought twice about it or maybe you’re more like me, and discovered a very expired can of Calumet Baking Powder in the depths of your grandma’s pantry thinking surely this label does not exist anymore. Sadly, the label is not a thing of the past. In fact, Calumet baking powder is considered a key player in the Global and United States Baking Powder market (as detailed in Baking Powder Market by 360 Research Report 8/31/2020). Then, thanks to COVID, baking powder sales are on the rise and are expected to rise at a yearly rate of 2.7% from now until 2025.**
To say that another way, during the Pandemic the CDC found:
“AI/AN are among the racial and ethnic minority groups at higher risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes. Persisting racial inequity and historical trauma have contributed to disparities in health and socioeconomic factors between AI/AN and white populations that have adversely affected tribal communities.”
Meanwhile, Calumet’s revenue grew (with Kraft Inc. profiting) and continues to do so while using a logo that presents a misleading image of American Indians, perpetuates stereotypes and the idea that they are a myth. The research on the negative impacts of such branding on American Indians is alarming. As stated in this article from 2018 in Global Sports Matters:
“The social science research and literature on this is pretty overwhelming that the use of these caricatures is bad for everyone. Particularly, it’s bad for children,” said Bryan Brayboy, President’s Professor of Indigenous Education and Justice in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. For native kids, it damages their self-esteem, he explained. “For non-native kids, it largely insures them toward racism toward native people. It ends up giving them the sense that native folks and peoples are a thing of the past or are to be caricatured, so they are less likely to have empathy with native peoples, and they come to see us as these relics of the past and stereotypes rather than vibrant, viable, productive human beings.”
Furthermore, Calumet is not even an American Indian name. The name Calumet is said to come from French interpretations of either the Potawatomi name for the rivers and lake in question or is a corruption of the Old French term Chalemel, which means "reed".*** Considering that most non-native Americans know Calumet as a “peace pipe”, the latter is probably more true. The name itself is whitewashed and it’s meaning corrupted by colonization and appropriation of indigenous land. All to which begs the question: What does a war bonnet have to do with a “peace pipe”? And why was it chosen as a logo if not for--at the very least unconscious bias--or the very worst conscious, explicit racism, against Indian Americans. And why has company after company not changed the logo given that issues concerning this very kind branding has evolved since 1889. I think it is not unreasonable to suggest a more current and conscientious re-brand for a product after 132 years of use.
This Petition is simply asking that Kraft Inc. join the many sports teams and other companies (like land-o-lakes) that have removed derogatory and misleading images of American Indians in their branding.
Until then, I am going to ask that if you sign this petition, you also refrain from buying as little Kraft products as possible-or ideally ANY Kraft product. Kraft inherited this label when General Food merged with them in 1990 and nothing was done. This logo is just offensive then as it is now and it is just time for this to end. And it will take more than signatures to make that happen. But signatures can and do matter. We need to reach 100,000 signatures in 30 days in order to receive a response.
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shining_(film)#cite_note-115
**taken from the executive summary on https://marketprimes.com/baking-powder-market/
*** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calumet_Region
Reference for further reading:
https://www.ncai.org/proudtobe
https://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/indian-mascots
https://www.apa.org/about/policy/mascots.pdf
https://www.360researchreports.com/global-and-united-states-baking-powder-market-16322944
586
The Issue
Calumet Baking Powder. If you’re a die-hard King fan you might recognize the label from The Shining*. Maybe you absentmindedly bought it from a store, never thought twice about it or maybe you’re more like me, and discovered a very expired can of Calumet Baking Powder in the depths of your grandma’s pantry thinking surely this label does not exist anymore. Sadly, the label is not a thing of the past. In fact, Calumet baking powder is considered a key player in the Global and United States Baking Powder market (as detailed in Baking Powder Market by 360 Research Report 8/31/2020). Then, thanks to COVID, baking powder sales are on the rise and are expected to rise at a yearly rate of 2.7% from now until 2025.**
To say that another way, during the Pandemic the CDC found:
“AI/AN are among the racial and ethnic minority groups at higher risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes. Persisting racial inequity and historical trauma have contributed to disparities in health and socioeconomic factors between AI/AN and white populations that have adversely affected tribal communities.”
Meanwhile, Calumet’s revenue grew (with Kraft Inc. profiting) and continues to do so while using a logo that presents a misleading image of American Indians, perpetuates stereotypes and the idea that they are a myth. The research on the negative impacts of such branding on American Indians is alarming. As stated in this article from 2018 in Global Sports Matters:
“The social science research and literature on this is pretty overwhelming that the use of these caricatures is bad for everyone. Particularly, it’s bad for children,” said Bryan Brayboy, President’s Professor of Indigenous Education and Justice in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. For native kids, it damages their self-esteem, he explained. “For non-native kids, it largely insures them toward racism toward native people. It ends up giving them the sense that native folks and peoples are a thing of the past or are to be caricatured, so they are less likely to have empathy with native peoples, and they come to see us as these relics of the past and stereotypes rather than vibrant, viable, productive human beings.”
Furthermore, Calumet is not even an American Indian name. The name Calumet is said to come from French interpretations of either the Potawatomi name for the rivers and lake in question or is a corruption of the Old French term Chalemel, which means "reed".*** Considering that most non-native Americans know Calumet as a “peace pipe”, the latter is probably more true. The name itself is whitewashed and it’s meaning corrupted by colonization and appropriation of indigenous land. All to which begs the question: What does a war bonnet have to do with a “peace pipe”? And why was it chosen as a logo if not for--at the very least unconscious bias--or the very worst conscious, explicit racism, against Indian Americans. And why has company after company not changed the logo given that issues concerning this very kind branding has evolved since 1889. I think it is not unreasonable to suggest a more current and conscientious re-brand for a product after 132 years of use.
This Petition is simply asking that Kraft Inc. join the many sports teams and other companies (like land-o-lakes) that have removed derogatory and misleading images of American Indians in their branding.
Until then, I am going to ask that if you sign this petition, you also refrain from buying as little Kraft products as possible-or ideally ANY Kraft product. Kraft inherited this label when General Food merged with them in 1990 and nothing was done. This logo is just offensive then as it is now and it is just time for this to end. And it will take more than signatures to make that happen. But signatures can and do matter. We need to reach 100,000 signatures in 30 days in order to receive a response.
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shining_(film)#cite_note-115
**taken from the executive summary on https://marketprimes.com/baking-powder-market/
*** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calumet_Region
Reference for further reading:
https://www.ncai.org/proudtobe
https://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/indian-mascots
https://www.apa.org/about/policy/mascots.pdf
https://www.360researchreports.com/global-and-united-states-baking-powder-market-16322944
586
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Petition created on June 25, 2021