Pinkberry Removes Racist Juice Gadgets from Stores

Sylvie Kim
July 24, 2008

072308mandarinjuicer.jpg

Without the conical hat and slanted eyes, I would have actually thought this was cute. Maybe the Alessi company can throw in a juicer with a sombrero as well. You know, for diversity's sake.

According to the Gothamist article, Pinkberry initially denied that the juicers were offensive but have since stated the all the juicers will be pulled from stores. Let the backpedaling begin.

Categories: 
Race
Contributor: 

Sylvie Kim

contributing editor & blogger

Sylvie Kim is a contributing editor at Hyphen. She previously served as Hyphen's blog coeditor with erin Khue Ninh, film editor, and blog columnist.

She writes about gender, race, class and privilege in pop culture and media (fun fun fun!) at www.sylvie-kim.com and at SF Weekly's The Exhibitionist blog. Her work has also appeared on Racialicious and Salon.

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Comments

Comments

lisalee wrote on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 12:01pm
yeah i remember seeing this when i was at a pinkberry a couple of days ago in nyc. i didn't know what to feel really. is it cute? is it just offensive? should cute slanty eyed dolls/products be appealing? another site that has something similar is pylones, designed by a company in france.http://www.pylones-usa.com/product.php?osCsid=7eb40eff975d481370c6717c3e9a2756&product=418uncle ho what?
Asianmommy wrote on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 4:49pm
I have to admit, those images make me feel uncomfortable. I'm glad they're being pulled.
namja wrote on Fri, 07/25/2008 - 7:21am
The people responsible for getting the juicer pulled are named Chai Park and Jin Hee Lee, both Koreans. There is no mention of any Chinese in the Gothamist article, so why credit "Asian American customers".Chinese are a passive lot. They are like Lisa Lee, who saw the offending juicers and did nothing. Don't take credit, Chinese, for what others do.
sylvie wrote on Fri, 07/25/2008 - 7:51am
namja, i made no mention of the ethnicity of the customers because the Gothamist article referred to them as Asian American and as far as i recall did not name Park or Lee. nor did I say (or suggest) that the customers were Chinese. Probably because a lot of people within the Asian American community (and hopefully outside of it as well) found the juicers to be offensive. The conical hat and slanted eye imagery doesn't really escape any of us, though perhaps historically it is most recognizable as a Chinese "coolie" image.this was in no way a pitting of Chinese against Korean. though from your use of "passive lot" and your unfounded assumptions of Lisa (yes, the "passive" Lisa who happens to be the publisher of this very magazine), it seems like you've got your own issues with that. just for future reference, Hyphen does not tolerate inter-ethnic bashing, within the Asian American community or otherwise. it's not really our thing.
Jessica L. wrote on Fri, 07/25/2008 - 12:01pm
to Namja--I would simply like to say: Suck it.But perhaps Sylvie's detailed and less passive-aggressive response was the way to go, afterall.
la la wrote on Tue, 07/29/2008 - 4:52pm
WTF, Namja? No one is taking credit for anyone else. They are called Asian American because they are. Asian American does not mean "Chinese."Get off the Hate-orade dude.