Marvel comic writer Saladin Ahmed noticed something racist on the back of his kid’s box of Corn Pops, and because of the power of Twitter, Kellogg’s has actually apologized for it.
Ahmed was perfectly aware that it was a small detail, but his point revolved around the idea of representation. If characters with darker skin tones—whether that’s on television, in a movie, or on a popular cereal box—are only ever represented doing certain types of jobs, or not represented at all, children with darker skin tones will have fewer role models to look up to. And that’s a problem, especially because white children can look up to almost any kind of character imaginable.
Kellogg’s immediately responded to Ahmed, thanking him for bringing it to their attention and assuring him that the illustration would be changed from here on out.
Ahmed was appreciative and cordial with the brand.
Many people agreed with Ahmed and thanked him for bringing the matter to Kellogg’s attention.
However, many thought Ahmed was seeing a problem where there really wasn’t one.
At the bare minimum, the darker corn pop stands out massively in the already busy scene. Not only is he the darkest of the Corn Pops, he’s also one of the only ones who is fully dressed and is not interacting with anyone else besides a machine. Ahmed was not implying that the racism was direct, and instead just a small example of how racist stereotypes and prejudices are propagated in seemingly insignificant ways.
There’s also this depiction of a corn pop getting its corn hair braided by another corn pop. Now, is that racist, corny, or both?