(Actually, I did say something about Tiger Lilly…)
Well, it finally happened. Land O’Lakes capitulated, as spineless corporations are wont to do, to silly and contrived political correctness bullying and is sending its iconic Land O’Lakes Indian Maiden logo to the Happy Hunting Ground. The comely illustration that has appeared on containers of butter and margarine since 1928 will be replaced by photos of real Land O’Lakes farmers and co-op members, along with the phrase “Proud to be Farmer-Owned,” according to a company release. Gee, what fun. As I wrote here, the company had already eliminated the logo’s famous capacity for sophomoric snickers in 2018…
“…so you could no longer do the “boobs trick” by folding the package just right and making a little flap on the butter package that young Elizabeth Warren or whatever her name was held that when raised would show her oddly shaded knees as something less pedestrian. Why they would bother papering paper over one of the longest-running and most famous commercial artist gags ever after decades, I don’t know. In its day, the gag was considered obscene, but by 2018 it was Americana. I had an uncle who kept one of the risque package cut-outs in his wallet.”
(You can see how the gag worked at the link.)
But why banish her entirely? Oh, you know why: Some Native Americans, including North Dakota state Rep. Ruth Buffalo (D), said the logo was racist. Buffalo said the image goes “hand-in-hand with human and sex trafficking of our women and girls.… by depicting Native women as sex objects.” Right..I must confess, when we played around with that logo when we were 13, we were re-enacting the sex trafficking of Native Americans.
I’d love to know if Rep. Buffalo was basing her objections on the old “boobs trick.” I doubt it. I think just the fact that it’s a Native American logo was enough to make her set out to flex her political correctness muscles and grandstand for constituents. We have, after all, seen this act before, and many times.
I couldn’t care less what the logo on butter packages is. I do object to eliminating all references to our history in art, commerce and popular culture as soon as someone sees a benefit to complaining about it. It won’t be long, after all the sports teams and commercial products, state legislators, the theatrical producers, movie exhibitors and the rest have banished every hint of Native Americans from our culture, that future generations will know about as much about them as they’ll know about Robert E. Lee.
Ignorance, after all, is strength.
Or so Big Brother told us.
Ethics Alarms 
Quite frankly, the biggest issue for Native women is the abuse, assaults, rapes, murders, and rampant incest that takes place, especially on reservations, by Native men. No one likes talking about it of course, but having a wife who grew up on a Rez and my own reservation experiences, it’s a serious problem that gets ignored in favor of using Natives as mascots for environmentalist bullshit and whenever some newly woke college student is offended by a sports team name.
For all the bad folks claim about Trump, he has signed bills lately to bring light to this issue. I can’t recall Obama doing much in this way.
Part of the problem is this lingering “Native Americans are so spiritual & exotic” trope that keeps them and the rest of our culture from discussing the rot and sickness that exists in these communities. The Land o’ Lakes woman doesn’t harm Native American women, pretending everything is just peachy among our own does.
I used to get called “Land o’ Lakes girl” because I don braids a fair amount. To me it has always been a compliment. She’s pretty, not overtly sexual (in spite of whatever was done with her image by some goofy boys). And with more and more Native images being taken away in the name of political correctness, will kids in the future even know we exist?
Well I’ll just keep buying Irish butter. It tastes better anyway.
Does it? I’ve never tried it!
I would recommend doing away with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the various funding programs specific to that population because such programs implicitly state that native americans need husbanding by the white man.
Kerrygold is delicious because the fat content is higher and comes from grass fed cows, making it a sun-drenched yellow. It costs more but we get ours at Costco.
(Please note Kerrygold did not pay me for this comment)
I approve of your disclaimer… and your recommendation! 🙂
Totally agree…it’s always a special treat when the Kerrygold comes out of the fridge. Absolutely love it!!!
A bit, but not enough to make me spend the extra money for it instead of buying what’s on sale, except for special occasions, like Easter brunch, which didn’t happen this year, or to butter Irish soda bread on St. Paddy’s Day, which also didn’t happen this year. BTW, you know the “crying Indian” of the old anti-pollution commercials was actually an Italian-American (real name Espera Oscar de Corti), right?
Maybe you can put some of this newly politically correct butter on your Navajo frybread as you celebrate Indigenous People’s Day this coming October and flip a big middle finger to Italian-Americans. The thing, as I have said a few times here, although hopefully not once too often, is that none of this is about the Indians, or righting historical wrongs, or anything like that. It’s all about control, securing pawns, and virtue-signaling. It’s not that there are huge numbers of Native American votes to be had, because there are not that many Native Americans compared to other folks (just over 2% of the population). What there are, however, are a lot of gullible liberals in the rank and file and a lot of bossy liberal visionaries who see a lot of sympathy and guilt in those gullible liberals to play on, as long as they can find a victim group of the month to direct that sympathy and guilt toward. It of course helps if they make the victim group that much more sympathetic.
That’s partly where you get the trope of the “magic Native American” who is somehow mystically connected to the land or to nature and is that much better of a person because of it. He’s certainly much better than the greedy, gold-seeking European who comes with his gunpowder and steel and machinery and One God to push the mystic primitive off his land, drive out the many gods and force the spirits of nature into silence. The thing is, you won’t hear in this narrative about how some of the natives, like the Mohawks, Onandaga, and so on (collectively the Iroquois) in the eastern woodlands, were brutal conquerors who fought wars with the Hurons and other less warlike peoples, and didn’t hesitate to take them as slaves and commit brutal tortures. You also won’t hear about how the natives south of the Rio Grande, like especially the Aztecs, regularly committed human sacrifices, at one point offering 80,000 people to the gods. You certainly won’t hear the family-unfriendly Aesop that once a more developed civilization enters the picture, a less developed one is going to be in trouble.
It isn’t that simple as red man=good, white man=bad, but the liberals who stand to gain from keeping it simple will tell you it is. It’s the same as the IRA thugs telling their adherents it’s as simple as Irish=good, English=bad, while glossing over the fact that an Irish king invited the English in in the first place, or the multi-culti academics who want to keep control of higher education pushing the myth that Islam=good, crusader=bad, while burying the fact that the Muslims had been trying to conquer the world for three centuries and had already conquered some of Europe before Pope Urban called for a crusade. It’s definitely close to the current trend to paint the Confederacy as simplistic slave-owning racist villains, while ignoring the whole federalism question.
If you’re going to push that simplistic narrative for political points, then this packaging was low-hanging fruit, like a tasty, crunchy, ripe red apple hanging from a low branch within easy reach and just waiting to be plucked, that you missed while trying to get the ones higher up. So it was plucked, and political correctness took a big bite.
One of us clearly hasn’t had enough coffee this morning. I’m not sure what “simplistic narrative” I supposedly mentioned that you’re commenting about. My point was similar to yours, that a lot of this comes down to mascots politics while ignoring underlying reality.
My tribe doesn’t eat fry-bread btw. Though occasionally I’ll have an NDN Taco.
You didn’t. The “you” in that paragraph was directed to the liberals in the paragraph before. The snark about fry-bread was more directed to Jack as a mocking comment on the latest developments in political correctness building on bread and butter – I’m not too well-versed in Native American bread and that’s the only bread I’m aware of associated specifically with any such folks. I’ll venture a guess that your background is probably Pacific Northwest, based only on the fact that’s where you are now.
I can confirm that Steve-O’s comment was to me, at least according to my control board. And I LOVE fry bread…
I really appreciate you guys today. Apparently I was the one who needed more coffee.
RIP Sheriff Will Teasle
If there is such a thing as an NDN Taco out your way, and no Guilt-Suffocated White Lefties are blowing a manufactured Gosh I’m Nice gasket, then quite simply, the terrorists have won…
It’s delicious.When I go to the US I buy a bunch, freeze it and bring it home in a cooler, for my household and my son’s.
Eventually, that cow on Kerrygold will have to go — methane, you know. Besides, we all know butter comes from churns, not cows.
That’s a shame. I liked that cow. Oh, well.
jvb
Mrs. Q:
Sadly, much of what I know about Native American culture comes from reading Tony Hillerman novels, but during the late 80s – early 90s one of my best friends (an experienced child abuse investigator) was employed as an instructor by the USDOJ-Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention as part of a multi-disciplinary training cadre that worked with various tribal police organizations, BIA, Indian Health Service and others on the spectrum of domestic issues you mentioned. He was appalled by the scope of the problem which, as you noted, is seldom spoken of. He spent about four years teaching and providing technical assistance for those agencies, but was not optimistic that they had made much of a difference long-term.
Will Land O’ Lakes (a lovely little hamlet on the WESconsin (Vilas County) Michigan U.P. state line whose claim to fame is being the source of the mighty Wisconsin River) need to find a new handle?
Not beyond the realm of possibility; recall the suffocating morons, I mean “Students at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania (were) demanding the college rename ‘Lynch Memorial Hall,’ named for Dr. Clyde A. Lynch, the LVC’s president during the Depression”?
Then President Obama’s AG Loretta LYNCH must have been issued a pass…
Jack wrote, “Well, it finally happened. Land O’Lakes capitulated, as spineless corporations are wont to do, to silly and contrived political correctness bullying and is sending its iconic Land O’Lakes Indian Maiden logo to the Happy Hunting Ground. The comely illustration that has appeared on containers of butter and margarine since 1928 will be replaced by photos of real Land O’Lakes farmers and co-op members, along with the phrase ‘Proud to be Farmer-Owned’ “
Stupid: Having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense.
Being stupid is becoming way to popular in our society. This story is another example of stupid people hammering another nail into the edges of the coffin and sealing logic and critical thinking away before it’s permanently buried in the quaint anecdotes of history.
It seems to me that there are people out there that spend every waking moment of their day in search of things they can twist into being offending.
Is there some new degree offered in colleges across the United States that fully indoctrinates college students and teaches them how to do this?
Is there some special job market out there that I don’t know about that’s paying a hefty salary for the “skill” of being perpetually offended?
Do large corporations now have a department full of perpetually offended social justice warriors that advise the board of directors what to do to avoid being condemned by irrational social justice warriors?
Seriously folks; what the hell is going on?
I really can’t say this enough…
Until “we the people” stand up against this irrational social justice nonsense and say NO MORE the overall intelligence of our society will continue to teeter precariously over the precipice of sanity until it teeters too far and falls directly into the abyss of utter stupidity.
Apathy Fertilizes A Breeding Ground For Stupidity
When are we as a society going to bust the hell out of the coffin that social justice warriors are nailing logic and critical thinking inside of and put a stop to this absurd spiral towards the abyss of stupidity?
When are we as a society going to bust the hell out of the coffin that social justice warriors are nailing logic and critical thinking inside of and put a stop to this absurd spiral towards the abyss of stupidity?
Good news! The date and time has been established: April 28th, 2020 at 2:20PM
This does not mean that stupidity in the interim is condoned or tolerate. But after that date, that’s it. Over. Done.
Whew. Thanks for letting me know. I was afraid I wouldn’t get the memo.
jvb
As long as we are all told that we should feel better about it because “racial justice,” the majority are going to cop to it. Because actually thinking about what racial justice really means is much harder than banning a logo.
After all, they’re just corporations, right? Giving people “what they want?” It’s not that expensive to change your packaging to appease the PC harpies.
What they don’t know is one day, “the people” will want… them. Their business, their profits, their jobs and their livelihood. When that happens, it will be far too late to complain, and an Indian (used in protest of political correctness) girl formerly on their packaging won’t even be on their worry radar.
That, my friend, is the crux of this problem. The Left doesn’t stop. And it won’t stop until it has taken care of everything, the words you read, the songs you sing, and the pictures that give pleasure to your eyes. Here is an Adam Corolla example about cigarettes:
1. Cigarettes were deemed a social good. Everybody smoked. Everyone seemed happy.
2. Then, healthcare providers started seeing smoking related illnesses. So, government acted. It put labels on cigarettes. But people smoked everywhere. Everyone seemed happy.
3. Then, the labels became more pronounced and studies showed that second-hand smoke was dangerous. So, the government acted and decreed that public accommodations should have smoke-free sections. And the people shrugged their shoulders and complied. Everyone seemed happy.
4. Then, second-hand smoke was determined to be just as dangerous as smoking itself. So, the government acted, labels became more alarmist, and public accommodations were required to create smoking zones outside their accommodations. And the people shrugged and complied. Everyone seemed happy.
5. But, then, smoking was declared, not only bad, but frickin’ deadly to everyone. So, the government acted and declared that all public accommodations must be smoke free and smoking zones were moved away from the front doors, and away from the accommodations entirely. And the people shrugged and complied. Everyone seemed happy.
4(a) and 5(a) Then, the government declared that the healthcare costs associated with smoking were just too high, so the government imposed higher and higher taxes on the purchase of cigarettes.
6. But, then, smoking was declared a public and private nuisance, so the government declared homes with minor children to be smoke-free zones. And the people shrugged and complied. Everyone seemed happy, even though the smokers now can only smoke in one 10 foot by 10 foot spot next to the sewage plant.
jvb
PS: That last part was stupid but you get my point. The revolution wasn’t televised; it occurred incrementally and crept ever so slowly that no one saw it, kind of like a frog slowly boiled alive in a pot.
Yep.
The plot Churns…er…THICKENS:
“Over the years, the design was changed two more times. In 1939, the background was changed slightly but Mia stayed relatively the same. In the 1950’s, however, Native American artist Patrick DesJarlait was asked to redesign the famous Land O’Lakes logo.
Patrick DesJarlait was a local Ojibwe artist who was hired to revamp Mia’s depiction. Although claiming to be non-political, DesJarlait did publicly believe in fostering an open dialogue between Native Americans and non-Natives alike. So when Land O’Lakes approached him, he agreed, believing in the value of ‘fostering a sense of Indian pride’ across the Midwest. [8] DesJarlait wrote, too, that “each of my paintings tells a story about some aspect of [Native] life.
“It has always been my hope that my [works] will HELP TO REMIND MY PEOPLE OF THEIR OWN HERITAGE AND THAT THEY. IN TURN, WILL INFORM OTHER PEOPLE BOUT THE TRADITIONAL [NATIVE AMERICAN] WAY OF LIFE.” (bolds/caps mine)
Could be that didn’t cross the desk of the talented Ms. Buffalo.
To be fair, if anyone has a good reason to be angry at white men, its a buffalo.
At white men? Why? Buffalo, NY is a nice town and Buffalo wings aren’t buffalo at all; they’re chicken. And besides, the “noble savages” as social scientists called them, later called Native Americans, ran herds of buffalo off cliffs, plunging to their deaths below. That doesn’t seem so noble. Where’s PETA when you need them?
jvb
“Where’s PETA when you need them?”
Hanging with the #MeToo Lefties when one of their own’s got his t!t in a ringer.
Speaking of Tiger Lilly and people playing characters of a different race (gender, sexual orientation): There’s this today proposing to desecrate a play that you’ve praised many times. https://www.theatermania.com/boston-theater/news/full-casting-1776-revival-diane-paulus_90903.html
Who gives a crap about how they cast their showing of 1776; it’s their choice to take the financial risk of limiting their audience to only those that agree with their virtue signaling nonsense. Their choice, their consequences.
I’m afraid to click on it.
You might want some cranial tape first, but you can probably handle it. It shouldn’t be anything that surprising except for how blatantly woke and discriminatory it is.
Stumbled upon it elsewhere. Hey, if it works, it works. But it won’t, and therefore is moronic.
Jack, Great article. I don’t know what disturbs me more, the fact that the PC police who perpetuate this nonsense do not see the hypocrisy or damage in their actions, or the fact that society lets them get away with their bullying tactics? Is it not ironic that in their blind attempt to erase racism from society, PC bullying tactics forced a company to further erase an entire culture from our minds, keep the land, and replace the indigenous image with working class white people? In the words of Yogi Bera, ” Seems like deja-vu all over again”. Somewhere I see people jumping up and down celebrating their historic effect on our culture, ignoring all social distancing proticals? The only outcome I see from the actions of Land-O-Lakes will be people buying a competitors product, because their stance as a company is not only softer than the character of the PC police, it is softer than their butter at a hot summer picnic. Regards Jack.