It is urgently necessary to recontextualize these representations and not leave them uncritically on our products. Depictions of people from not european cultures on packaging often draw on racist stereotypes and reflect the power dynamics of the colonial era. They trivialize the brutal effects of colonialism and help normalize and legitimize these narratives in the public space. Meanwhile, the affected groups often have little to no control over how they are represented, which further reinforces existing inequalities.
An example of change is the renaming of “Uncle Ben’s” to “Ben’s Original” in 2021, or the Italian brand Lucaffè replacing their mascot (a dark-skinned, heavyset man) in 2020 with two new icons: a child and his mother. Meanwhile, companies like the Swiss firm Dubler still use the term “Mohrenkopf” for their sweets, despite public debates – a name that other manufacturers have long changed to “Schokokuss.” Such decisions show that we still have a long way to go to eliminate racist representations from our daily lives.