While recent events and the Black Lives Matter movements that followed will hopefully lead to positive societal change, it has also unfortunately encouraged some people to look for (and apparently find) racism where there isn’t any.
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Former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya caused Coco Pops to trend on Twitter this week after she revealed she had emailed Kellogg’s UK office asking for an explanation as to why the Coco Pops mascot is a monkey:
You might think Fiona was onto something here… until you realise that the monkey is the face for both milk chocolate Coco Pops and white chocolate Coco Pops. It’s simply the face of Coco Pops, and the three boys/elves are the face of Rice Krispies. Wouldn’t it be more reasonable to assume that the reason the Coco Pops mascot is a monkey is because that’s how children behave from an adult’s perspective?
As you might expect, Twitter let her have it:
Oh my days coco pops is trending because people claiming kellogs are racist for having a monkey on the front ! Pleasseeeeeeeee this is my child hood cereal ! I’m black I’m not offended it’s fineeee ! You lot are reachingggg now honestly 😭😭
— RowBlack (@RowBlack_) June 15, 2020
Asif Coco Pops is trending because people are claiming Kelloggs are racist because they have a monkey on the box of their white choc cereal! The monkey is on the front of the Choc version too. Seriously stop looking for things, it is getting embarrassing now! pic.twitter.com/eDENsvVlz7
— ⚽ Simon BRFC Hopkins ⚽ (@HopkinsBRFC) June 15, 2020
What is wrong with a monkey? My 4 year old daughter loves monkeys. Can we not have monkeys on cereal boxes?
— Nikki Stix💥 (@NikkiStix55) June 15, 2020
If the people think Kellogs are racist because of the coco pops monkey, wait till they find out that Weetabix had a gang of skinheads as their mascot #cocopops pic.twitter.com/gLdVucu6n9
— Nigel Campbell (@nigelccampbell) June 15, 2020
um…
Frosties – tiger
Cornflakes – chicken
Sugar Puffs – honey monster
Coco Pops – monkey
Froot Loops – toucan
Nesquik – rabbitKids seem to like animal characters on cereal packets for some reason. Can’t imagine why. Maybe we should make them all people instead? 🤔
— Chris Moore (@christhemusic) June 15, 2020
You are such an amazing idiot. pic.twitter.com/VJPWV8trdJ
— Ministry of Truth (@BanTheBBC) June 15, 2020
The cacao tree from which cocoa beans and hence cocoa powder is derived is native to the Amazon Basin where there are monkeys.
— Sapere Aude ✝️🔍❔ (@SapAud) June 15, 2020
Also, why can we not buy milk of colour to pour on our Coco Pops instead of that white(supremacist) stuff?
— Borstal Boy (@PhilipBendle) June 15, 2020
I’M BLACK LEAVE KELLOGS ALONE!!! You are one of those black people that make the rest of us look bad. It’s embarrassing. If they issue any sort of apologie I’ll never ever buy from them again. Seeing all these black people go mental over everything is a joke!
— KatieAriesMoonScorpioMars (@KatieGuernseyCI) June 15, 2020
Well it looks like most people aren’t taking the Coco Pops = racist theory seriously, which is a relief. Hopefully Kellogg’s won’t poop their pants and come out with some kind of apology or re-branding, which is what too many companies do when someone accuses them of this stuff.
It’s just another pointless culture war debate that sidetracks from the real issues at that moment – police brutality and legitimate examples of inequality within society. People are trying to fight real racism and you’ve got idiots like Fiona trying to remove a cartoon monkey off a cereal box. As if we don’t already have enough real problems to deal with.
For the time PETA claimed that milk is a symbol of white supremacy, click HERE.
