Why Care About the Mandarin Juicer?

Pinkberry, a trendy new frozen desserts place is selling the “Mandarin Juicer,” a product that depicts a racially derogatory caricature of an Asian coolie. To make matters worse, Pinkberry is owned by two Korean-Americans who seem more concerned about making money than their perhaps inadvertent promotion of this demeaning representation of Asian people. In a recent telephone conversation, one of the owners, Young Lee, claimed that no one is offended by this product, as evidenced by a lack of customer complaints. He also stressed that, as a designer, he appreciated the “design” of the Mandarin Juicer and that it is aligned with the overall aesthetics of the Pinkberry stores.

We leave it to you to decide whether you object to the Mandarin Juicer. But we can’t help feeling both sad and disappointed that at this day and age, anyone would find this racially denigrating image to be amusing or even cute. It’s somewhat telling that two black slanted lines and a cone-shaped hat immediately evokes the image of an Asian person. And not just any Asian person — but a stereotypical, foreign coolie that represents how Asians were perceived in the United States for generations. Similarly exaggerated features of other racial minorities would be equally offensive, and they should be no less tolerated because it’s an Asian image at issue.

If you find this product as objectionable as we do, you need to let the owners of Pinkberry and Alessi (the Italian manufacturer) know how you feel. These companies obviously equate silence with approval (and complaints with losing money) — and losing money is always bad for business.