We’re returning to the theme of renaming, for two food-related renamings: the first one that mostly happened, the second that mostly did not - but in a good way. Dr Erin Pritchard persuaded a British supermarket to rebrand a type of sweets that had a slur in their name. And Chris Strikes recounts the renaming conflict that was the Toronto Patty Wars of 1985. Content note: the first part of the episode concerns an ableist slur, so there are incidences of that slur, and discussion of ableism and later anti-Black racism. Get the transcript of this episode, and find out more about the topics therein, at theallusionist.org/gemsandpatties. This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. Martin Austwick of Neutrino Watch and Song By Song podcasts provides the Allusionist music. Become a member of the Allusioverse at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you get regular livestreams and watchalong parties - AND to hang out with your fellow Allusionauts in our delightful Discord community. You can also sign up for free to receive occasional email reminders about Allusionist stuff. The Allusionist's online home is theallusionist.org. Stay in touch via facebook.com/allusionistshow, instagram.com/allusionistshow, youtube.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/allusionistshow. Our ad partner is Multitude. If you want me to talk lovingly and winningly about your product or thing on the show in 2024, sponsor an episode: contact Multitude at multitude.productions/ads. This episode is sponsored by: • Catan, the endlessly reconfigurable social board game. Shop at catanshop.com/allusionist and get 10% off the original base game CATAN by using the promo code ALLUSIONIST at checkout. • Ravensburger, who make the world's largest Disney jigsaw puzzle - 40,320 pieces! As well as many other sizes of puzzles. Buy Ravensburger puzzles in your preferred puzzle emporium.• Bombas, whose mission is to make the comfiest clothes ever, and match every item sold with an equal item donated. Go to bombas.com/allusionist to get 20% off your first purchase. • Squarespace, your one-stop shop for building and running your online empire. Go to squarespace.com/allusionist for a free 2-week trial, and get 10 percent off your first purchase of a website or domain with the code allusionist. Support the show: http://patreon.com/allusionist See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is the illusionist, in which I, Helen Zaltzman, get a great deal on language.
30% off with only minor stains.
In this episode, we're returning to the theme of renaming for two food related renamings.
The first one that mostly happened, the second one that mostly did not, but in a good way.
Content note the first part of the episode concerns an ableist slur, so there are incidences of that slurred and discussions of ableism and later anti black racism.
Also, if you are involved or have been involved with a renaming project of any kind, then I'd love to hear about it.
It's a topic I plan to keep returning to get in touch on with the show.
In the UK, there's a fairly common type of suite of candy in Us English that is a kind of medium firm gummy that comes in fruit esque flavors and vivid colours shaped like very small truncated cones or pyramids decorated with little grooves.
And in 2022, some retailers started selling these sweets under a new name, mini gems.
But a lot of manufacturers and vendors still use the sweets previous name midget gems.
And it took Doctor Erin Pritchard pointing out that midget is a slur to get any of them to do anything about it.
I'm Doctor Erin Pritchard.
I'm actually a doctor of human geography, but I specialize in geographies of disability and so now I am a lecturer in disability studies and special educational needs and core member of the center for Cultural Disability Studies.
In August 2020, Erin published an article in the big Issue north with the title, why don't we just stop using the word midget?
And then I thought, right, let's try and be proactive about it.
So Erin wrote to the supermarket M and S, which has more than 1000 stores within the UK, as well as around 400 internationally.
And I wrote to M and s and I said, look, I don't think you're intending to cause any offense, but this word is a form of hate speech and not many people know that because with dwarfism there hasn't been much activism.
And they got back and they said, oh, well, you know, we don't mean to cause any offense.
And I go, okay, fair enough.
So you're going to change it then?