An indigenous rights activist in Australia – who succeeded in getting the Coon cheese brand scrapped from shelves – is now campaign for Pauls to rename its ‘Smarter White’ milk.
In July, Dr Stephen Hagan convinced Canadian dairy giant Saputo to axe an 85-year-old moniker, named after American cheese ripening pioneer Edward William Coon, because of its racist connotations.
The former diplomat and academic, who now works as a social justice consultant, has now called on Pauls’s French parent company Lactalis to replace the ‘Smarter White’ label, which has been used to sell low-fat milk since 2002.
‘Aboriginal people are saying that there’s an inference that it’s for smart white people, not for smart black people,’ Dr Hagan told Daily Mail Australia.
‘There’s a lot of Aboriginal people who take offence, who don’t drink that milk because of the interference that it’s “smarter white”.’
Dr. Hagan said ‘these enlightened times’ of the Black Lives Matter movement meant a name change was ‘worthy of consideration’.
‘I recall having conversations with people who don’t buy that because of the connotation ‘white people are smart’,’ he said.
‘A lot of people have raised it with me: they asked the question about the Smarter White milk – ‘Why couldn’t it just be Smarter Milk? Why does it need to put the ‘white’ in there?’
‘If enough people want to bring it to my attention, I’m happy to write a letter to the owners of Pauls and say, “Look, will you consider changing the name?”.’
Pauls’s French owner Lactalis declined to comment.
‘Unfortunately, we’re unable to make any further comment,’ a spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia.
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