Kelloggs apologizes for lone brown corn pop on cereal box

[IronLionZion]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/10/26/kelloggs-apologizes-for-lone-brown-corn-pop-on-cereal-box/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_with_top_mostshared_1_na&utm_term=.1dcd634517a4

Link to tweet

Novelist Saladin Ahmed was looking at the back of a Corn Pops cereal box when he noticed a small but jarring detail.

The colorful illustration on the box depicted a chaotic scene of little yellow corn pop characters frolicking through a shopping mall.

But in the middle of the drawing, Ahmed spotted a lone non-yellow corn pop. The character looked as if it had brown skin. It also happened to be the only corn pop in all blue, and appeared to be waxing or scrubbing the mall’s floors.

On Wednesday morning, Ahmed tweeted to Kellogg’s: Why is “literally the only brown corn pop on the whole cereal box the janitor?”

It’s “a tiny thing,” he added, “but when you see your kid staring at this over breakfast and realize millions of other kids are doing the same…”

What I love the most about these stories are racists obliviously outing themselves in their reactions to it in the comments.

Schrodinger's brown person is simultaneously too sensitive and needs to learn his place and shut up. All corn pops matter.

[guillaumeb]

1. Another semi-humorous observation:

The brown corn pop is cleaning the floor while the others are playing.

Edited to add: Does the corn pop have proper documentation?

[IronLionZion]

15. The real question is

did the brown corn pop steal the job away from a yellow corn pop while simultaneously being too lazy to work?

And what is that brown corn pop listening to on the headphones?

[guillaumeb]

17. A winner.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. This story cracks me up.

[dalton99a]

3. Great catch.

[MineralMan]

4. Looks like they're getting rid of that:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2017/10/25/kelloggs-replace-racially-insensitive-corn-pops-boxes-following-twitter-rant/797911001/

[RhodeIslandOne]

5. Can I ask what is wrong with being a janitor?

I was one for 14 years and made a pretty good living at it before moving up in the school department.

The only part that sucked was the folks who seemed to crinkle their nose when I said what I was. It’s not a nice feeling, but I got over it eventually.

The tweet reeks of classism.

[moda253]

6. That's a great discussion....

But it doesn't really have bearing on why this is a messed up thing. You can agree that for terrible reasons being a janitor is looked down on by people right?

So while there is a lot of merit in discussing the way those in the custodial services are treated, it doesn't negate the stigma attached and how that stigma is used to degrade people. And THAT is the point being made. Is it right to shit on Janitors? No but it isn't right to shit on people with a messed up idea about a profession either.

[grossproffit]

13. Awesome post! Thank you for this.

[IronLionZion]

14. Did you choose your profession?

or were you told that's where people like you belong and you don't deserve any better? That's happened to me many times.

A lot of people feel that I don't deserve to work in my profession and I should do something in a very different field with people who look like me. The only part that sucked was the folks who seem shocked and wide-eyed when I said which country I was born and raised in (USA). It’s not a nice feeling, but I got over it eventually.

The struggle continues

And I did work a job where I cleaned toilets and mopped floors. It was a tremendous improvement in comfort and pay from my previous job as a restaurant dishwasher which royally sucked. A lot of people did not want me to go on to other fields as I advanced my career and have told me so to my face.

With folks crinkling their pretentious stuck up noses at you, you have had a small taste of what many brown people have grown up with our whole lives.

[RhodeIslandOne]

23. No

I was supposed to go to college and become a lawyer or businessman or whatever my parents wanted me to be. I don't know because after a certain point I stopped listening and they stopped talking about it.

I applied for the job and got it. It was good pay and good benefits which at the time was all I cared about. Someone said my father "called in a favor", being known around town, but I don't know how he would have done that being I never told them I applied because by that time the discussion of my job search was no longer talked about. The head of the school department at the time I had worked for a few summers painting sheds and such on town property. He knew I was a good worker. I'm pretty sure that's how I got it. When I got the job and told my parents, it was met with "I hope that's not your life, cleaning toilets and mopping up kid's puke.". Most of that stopped when I was able to movie into my own apartment (and eventually a house) and buy a reliable car.

The other day I heard a security guard friend of mine who makes barely minimum wage complain about McDonald's workers striking for more money. He implied his job is tougher. I asked him, what makes you better than them? Why do you complain they are willing to fight for the extra dollar they need? Do you disparage them when they make your food like that? Do so and see the response. In the meantime, why don't you think better of yourself and fight for your extra deserved dollar?

I abhor classism. I get the guy's point in his tweet, but at the same time if the "brown" corn pop had a business suit or a doctor's scrubs on, that would be "wonderful to show someone doing a respected job", but doing the work of a janitor draws basically an "ick, gross.". Why does seeing a janitor, assumed to be a low paid slave at best, draw that kind of response? Is it that even though one can recognize racism, they cannot recognize their own privilege that "there are jobs I'd NEVER do". Here seems to be a gentleman who found his dream job, and god bless him, and now he's horrified a fictional "minority" is relegated to "cleaner".


Oh, and as a side note, no janitor I know would be buffing floors while people are in the building. He must be a private contractor.

[LanternWaste]

18. Of course you allege offense... as doing so better minimizes the actual offense you ignore.

Of course you allege offense... as doing so better minimizes the actual offense you ignore.

Clever job. Bless your little heart.

[RhodeIslandOne]

22. Alleging offense is your projection, echo echo

I made a good foundation for a household off of the dirty money made from committing the "offense" of being a lowly janitor.

Of course, it's no surprise who'd sniff down on a lowly custodian....one who doesn't think their shit stinks.

Bless your heart in spades.

[OriginalGeek]

28. One thing that Trevor on the Daily SHow pointed out

is that until that box, there had never been a brown Corn Pop. They went out of their way to make a brown one and make him the janitor. If they had just stuck with all golden pops, nobody would have worried about a thing. If they had had a history of golden AND brown pops and had some of each on the box and one was a janitor, probably nobody would have bothered noting it.

But all that aside, you are certainly right in that there is nothing wrong with being a janitor.

[bluepen]

7. The Onion has serious challenges these days.

[packman]

8. I'm going out and see if I can buy several of those boxes

before the change. I can just visualize that someday in the future they will be collectors items like that rare Barbie Doll or that misprinted stamp.

[Merlot]

9. Saw the headline and thought I was opening an Onion or Borowitz thread.

But no, it's actually real.

[cwydro]

10. Now I gotta go check my boxes.

This is really funny. I have to admit that I never paid any attention to ANY of the Corn Pops on the box.

[Oneironaut]

11. Furthermore, why is there a brown corn pop?

Seems like that was a deliberate art choice. It would make more sense if there were multiple brown Corn Pops, or just make them all yellow. Why have just one brown one, with the rest being yellow? That doesn’t make sense. I remember Corn Pops only being yellow.

Usually I hate viral “outrage” stories, but I think that this is a legitimate gripe.

[Mariana]

12. There aren't supposed to be any brown corn pops.

Brown corn pops are defective. If you find any brown corn pops in your bowl, you pick them out and give them to the dog.

Whether that fact has anything to do with this ad, I have no idea.

[RhodeIslandOne]

24. What is that shiny coating on corn pops too?

Shellac?

[Mariana]

34. Probably HFCS. nt.

[Henry Krinkle]

16. Is it even a corn pop?

It has a nose and the eyes are different, and its the only one wearing clothes (the two characters
with the green Hawaiian shirts and floppy hats are "mannequins&quot

[IronLionZion]

19. Make Corn Pops Yellow Again

Corn pops are better when they all look exactly the same. Diversity weakens the moral fabric of corn pops and corrupts the younger more impressionable corn pops into believing dangerous liberal thoughts. The next thing you know, those young corn pops become socialists and start demanding organic milk and more comfortable bowls or some such nonsense.

[dembotoz]

20. So here we are all talking about a cereal brand that's pretty much forgotten

Wonder if the marketing guys are sipping champagne over this controversy.

[IronLionZion]

21. It does seem deliberate and not an accident

for those who think all publicity is good for business.

[OriginalGeek]

29. I freely admit

I got a bit nostalgic for a bowl of Corn Pops. Loved them as a kid and had a hankering for a bowl after hearing this story yesterday. Alas, my doc won't let me have such sugary treats. I'd even eat the brown ones - I like well-done in things other than steak.

[RhodeIslandOne]

25. Addition to previous observation: No janitor would wax floors with that many people around

That's a lawsuit.

[IronLionZion]

26. And with that many corn pops around

They might want to roll around in it to get that nice shiny coating.

[MichMan]

27. Just bought a box today.

Took me a while to even find the janitor. None of the yellow corn pops have clothes of any kind. This one is the only one dressed and colored blue.

Like a previous poster, it has a nose and different eyes than all the others. Wonder if it was more of a printing issue than any deliberate attempt

[IronLionZion]

33. It really sticks out

someone would print it out and look at it before approving the full printing. Whether it was put there deliberately or not, it shows that the people who review it lack diversity to even see that it could be a problem.

[Sailor65x1]

30. Not to be the wet blanket at the flame party

But am I the only one who noticed that the brown corn pop is actually shown as the only pop doing any productive work? Hence the most honorable pop? The rest of them look like a frat party.

[IronLionZion]

32. And the only one to wear clothes

the other pops have no shame. So it could be the one hard working conservative surrounded by lazy liberal hippies

[Vinca]

31. Kelloggs should be apologizing for the lousy, sugary, processed cereal.

[Ken Burch]

35. In the new version, the janitor will be the only gay albino Muslim corn pop.