Trader Joe’s Must Apologize For Not Being Inclusive of People Who Are Not Named Joe
We will no longer be overlooked while shopping for cauliflower gnocchi.
Last August, beloved grocery store Trader Joe’s was called out by a seventeen year old in San Francisco who started an online petition claiming that labels used on the company’s products were racist. Swapping out “Joe” for international versions such as “José” on Mexican beer or “Giotto” on Italian pasta sauce was employing a “tool of othering,” according to the petitioner and her followers.
As an even better activist than last year’s teenage Trader Joe’s protestor, I’m here to tell you that the store with employees garbed in the fabric of Hawaii despite currently living in South Pasadena or Spokane and the shelves made of wood even though they are not a tree did not go far enough in 2020 to bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice.
Trader Joe’s, it’s 2021. José, Giotto, Josef, okay —but what about the people who are not named any translation of Joe at all? What kind of welcoming, rewarding customer experience do those not born into the toxic masculinity of being called Joe, Jonathan, or Johannes even hope to receive in such a hostile grocery environment? Do you not wish that the experience of those you have marginalized would…
