Kellogg's Sorry About Racially Insensitive Cereal Boxes

Why do yellow corn pops get to have fun at mall while the only brown one waxes the floor?
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 25, 2017 3:44 PM CDT
Kellogg's Corn Pops Accused of Racism
Corn Pops are a delicious part of a bigoted breakfast. Er, balanced breakfast. Balanced.   (Twitter)

"Why is literally the only brown corn pop on the whole cereal box the janitor? This is teaching kids racism," Saladin Ahmed tweeted Tuesday. The Marvel Comics writer and fantasy author was looking at the artwork on a box of Kellogg's Corn Pops that USA Today reports shows a bunch of yellow corn pops hanging around and having fun at a mall—except for a single brown corn pop, which is working as a janitor. "Yes it's a tiny thing, but when you see your kid staring at this over breakfast and realize millions of other kids are doing the same..." Ahmed tweets.

Grub Street agrees, filing the story under "casual racism" and saying the art "makes incredibly racist assumptions about the occupations of darker-skinned people." Kellogg's responded to Ahmed's tweets, saying the artwork is being redone and the new boxes will be in stores soon. "Kellogg is committed to diversity and inclusion," the cereal-maker tweeted. "We apologize." In a statement to USA Today, a Kellogg's spokesperson added: "It was never our intention to offend anyone." But AdAge is still unclear on how the art was ever approved, calling it a "how-did-they-not-catch-this marketing blunder." Still, Ahmed seems moderately satisfied with Kellogg's response. "Today I used the computer in my pocket to get a cereal company to make their boxes less racist. What even is the 21st century?" he tweets. (More cereal stories.)

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