The mini cultural revolution unleashed by the Black Lives Matter movement, this campaign of cleansing society of any reminder of a more racist past, has been remarkable in its speed and scope. Statues have been toppled. Sitcom episodes have been memory-holed. Actors have been forced into grovelling apologies for once playing a non-white character. Now, perhaps inevitably, they’ve come for the rice products.
This is the news that beloved rice brand Uncle Ben’s is set to scrap its brand character – the eponymous fictional rice farmer – for some reason or other to do with Black Lives Matter. The reasoning behind this will be curious to most. After all, Uncle Ben is not a racist caricature, mocking black people. He’s just black. But in the name of anti-racism, food giant Mars feels it is time for him to go.
‘As we listen to the voices of consumers, especially in the black community, and to the voice of our associates worldwide, we recognise that now is the right time to evolve the Uncle Ben’s brand, including its visual brand identity, which we will do’, Mars
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