Rep. Steve King Leads Right-Wing Outrage Over Land O’ Lakes Butter Removing Native American Character From Box
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Iowa Congressman Steve King was among the social media users who were displeased to learn that Land O’ Lakes is removing the picture of a Native American woman from its butter packages.
The change in packaging was announced via a press release in February, but the story gained traction only this week when a local Minnesota reporter wrote it up, and the story got picked up nationally. That article, by Max Nesterak, included copious background, and quotes from Native American voices like the son of Patrick DesJarlait, the artist who designed the old package.
Fox News published their article on the subject with the headline “Land O’ Lakes drops ‘racist’ Native American image from packaging after nearly 100 years.”
King — last seen going over charts defending his remarks about white supremacy — was one of the conservatives outraged by this obvious sop to the forces of sensitivity to racism, also known as “political correctness.”
The PC millennials have taken over at Land O’ Lakes! https://t.co/eMNKMUoTFI
— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) April 17, 2020
Insane. Another company bows to the far #Left political-correctness mob. #LandOLakes what a shame. https://t.co/9uSj3FfrEx
— Tom Basile ?? (@Tom_Basile) April 16, 2020
Thank God we’re taking care of the really important stuff https://t.co/WwxAxK5jiZ
— Jessica Fletcher (@heckyessica) April 17, 2020
Local Fox Orlando reporter Danielle Knox drew ire just for asking her Twitter followers what they thought about the change.
What do you think of this decision? Land O’ Lakes drops ‘racist’ Native American image from packaging after nearly 100 years https://t.co/9J7CDFUkyC. #FOX35 #FOX35ORLANDO
— Danielle Knox (@Fox35Danielle) April 17, 2020
Hi Terry! Surprised you said that. I didn’t say that. The post and quote from Land o’ Lakes said after 100 years they’ve decided to change their packaging. That’s all. How did you come to that conclusion? Serious question because that is and would NEVER be something I’d say.
— Danielle Knox (@Fox35Danielle) April 17, 2020
Some users had already chosen other brands of butter. Yes, there are other brands of butter.
Kerrygold it is for me from now on. No more Land O’Cucks
— Josh Busby (@JoshBusby10) April 16, 2020
You removed the Native American woman as your logo. Our family has removed your butter from our shopping list. Hotel Bar Butter now resides in our refrigerator.
— Joseph Sampson (@jrsamps00) April 17, 2020
Bob’s tribute to the Land-o-Lakes box. pic.twitter.com/iKluylg6DH
— The BOB & TOM Show (@bobandtom) April 17, 2020
Land O Lakes changes their branding cause Karen called the manager! ? https://t.co/Oc0LlKpjvD
— Phil. (@philthatremains) April 16, 2020
Sportswriter Pete Vecsey managed to be both racist and misogynist with his take, bashing Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren in rancid terms:
Land O Lakes Butter, which has used illustration of lovely Native American maiden on its packaging forever, apparently was told it’s racially insensitive, thus it’s gone. Tentative plan—ahem, I have my reservations—is to replace it with a wet T-shirt photo of Elizabeth Warren…
— Peter Vecsey (@PeterVecsey1) April 16, 2020
But they were more than balanced out by people who were happy about the change, and dismissive of the outrage.
? ? ? Land O Lakes. Bout time! ???@Redskins! Time to wake up from the 21st century hibernation Daniel Snyder has you in. Make the change! #NFL https://t.co/Pzz535mfmJ
— Alec Garnett (@AlecGarnett) April 17, 2020
About time…. Can the Washington Football Team be next ???? #NFLDraft #NFL #LandOLakes pic.twitter.com/GGJvtK2OrL
— Jason Johnson (@DrJasonJohnson) April 16, 2020
OMG FINALLY
Land ‘O Lakes removes Native American woman from its container after nearly 100 yearshttps://t.co/F3CsGSK5VE
— Raw Story (@RawStory) April 16, 2020
First the Trumpers took to the streets to protest life-saving social distancing. Now they’re giving #landolakes hell because it removed the Native American “maiden” from a pack of butter. Don’t these people have better things to do? A book burning perhaps? https://t.co/O1yhVIRAlL
— tonythecase (@tonythecase) April 17, 2020
But perhaps the best response came from a Twitter user named Benjamin, who zinged King with buttery smoothness:
bro we saw your cash-on-hand, you can’t afford Land O’ Lakes anyways ?
— Benjamin (@BenCNelson) April 17, 2020
Dr. Adrienne Keene, who is a professor at Brown University, author of the Native Appropriations blog and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, broke the bad news to the irked that the time to vent about this has come and gone.
So the interesting thing about the Land O’ Lakes logo is they changed it in February. The stores haven’t had the Indian for almost 2 months…and no one noticed or cared.
— Dr. Adrienne Keene (@NativeApprops) April 16, 2020
But King and his fellows need not have been so outraged. As Keene explained to Colorlines, Land O’ Lakes seemed to go out of its way to avoid making a statement.
Even though the company has been around since 1921 and has used the image of a Native American for nearly a decade, the press release doesn’t mention the old packaging or explains exactly what this “divide” was. Brown University professor Adrienne Keene—who is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and author of the Native Appropriations blog—is happy that younger generations will not see the “mascot” every time they buy groceries, she feels Land O’Lakes could’ve been more introspective.
“It could have been a very strong and positive message to have publicly said, ‘We realized after a hundred years that our image was harmful and so we decided to remove it,’” Keene told Minnesota Reformer. “In our current cultural moment, that’s something people would really respond to.”
Although they’ve got a prominent voice in Steve King, the number of people outraged appears to be relatively strong, their voice margarine-al at best.
