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Anyone who knows me well knows I am a huge Trader Joe’s fan. The cult following was one that grew over time; I used to tag along with my mother on grocery runs as a high school student. But the obsession became real once I was an intern at UC Berkeley living on a meager stipend that was considered below the poverty line. Needless to say, on the tightest budget I’d ever lived during an already stressful period of time, Trader Joe’s was both my saving grace and the highlight of my week. I chuckled heartily at their Frequent Flier ad and all the witty puns. I loved the smart humor, whimsical ethos, and I loved the treasure trove of organics I could walk away with for a small sum.
When I recently learned the Trader Joe’s founder Joe Coulombe, who passed at age 89 this February, started the chain in the aim of serving “overeducated and underpaid people,” I was even more smitten with the brand. This described my circumstances as a struggling intern beautifully. Needless to say, recently seeing my beloved store thrown into controversy, over racial matters no less, hit close to home.
Over the years, I’ve had a significant amount of heat for this very column, down to racial threats against me and threats against my life. All for citing empirical research and promoting equality. Years before the recent riots and resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. One might say I am completely unfazed and unsurprised by the uprising and anger as those of us who were persons of color were living with varying levels of racial injustice and intolerance with no real protections whatsoever for a lifetime. In fact, it was probably a decade ago at this point that I got into a “letters to the editor” debate in my small town local newspaper when students had complained about an activity a teacher had them do whereby they renamed racist sports team names. So when I learned yesterday of an issue involving Trader Joe’s, my ears perked up immediately.
The petition that has been circulating appears to be claiming two primary concerns: stereotyping of cultures while positing “Joe” as the all-American norm (though to be fair, the founder appears to have named the store after himself); and exoticization of cultures. As a multicultural researcher and professor, the petition gives me pause. I will be the first to say, I loved Trader Giotto’s. I love all things Italian food and heck, I married an Italian and plan to give my children authentically Italian names one day. I have always loved how Trader Joe’s imports international products (I recall my mom always raving about the opera cake from France), and whenever my husband gives me a hard time about something not being “organic,” I sassily throw back his own words at him about how the European food standards are higher and therefore my items are fully “clean.” In many ways, I believe Trader Joe’s has done an excellent job when it comes to the importing of international foods and exposing Americans to these items.
However, when it comes to exoticization, I am not certain I fully agree. Years ago, I wrote two pieces on exoticization of women of color that can be found here and here. In it, I argued that exoticization at its core is positing a dominant white Eurocentric culture as the norm while presenting something outside of this norm as “alien.” While I cannot attest to how Trader Ming’s or Trader Jose’s makes individuals of those cultures feel, I do question how these products exoticize. Maybe it is my underlying positive bias for the brand at large, but by and large, I appreciate Trader Joe’s attempt to integrate international foods into its product line. I fully see how their attempt at diversity can be seen as insensitive or overly flippant, but given their history of wit and humor, would imagine these multicultural product lines were never meant to be overtly racist.
Granted, my favor of the Trader Giotto’s line could be due in part to the fact that Italians, while facing significant racism decades ago, have largely overcome continued stereotypes (not that Jersey Shore helped any) and can be seen as part of a dominant White culture. Trader Ming’s and Trader Jose’s may not be helping groups that are still marginalized to this day. Should the names for these product lines be changed? I wish there were an in-between solution. I would also hate for international products to lose the cultures from which they originate and now become “Americanized” without due credit being attributed from the rich cultural histories from which they are derived. If taco shells are being imported from Mexico with an authentic Mexican recipe, I would like these to be represented as such. Not just subsumed as another Trader Joe’s product. If my delicious mochi ice cream comes from Japan, I’d like to see that depicted in a culturally sensitive way as well. Perhaps the Trader Jose’s name is dropped, but there is another creative way of giving credit to various cultures and groups.
In summary, while it is wonderful that we are finally questioning institutions and practices that historically have been racist and oppressive to groups, I hope that the changes we make are thoughtful and deliberate. Crying “racist” and asking for rapid change can rob us of the opportunity to think critically about issues of racial inclusion and how to best honor cultures and histories different than our own. We have a long way to go and much work is yet to be done. And for the sake of my favored store, I hope Trader Joe’s can help us start in finding a way.
