Thug Chips controversy
New York councilman Leroy Comrie (D-Queens) is angry at the new food and beverage company O.G. Nation because, he claims, their marketing of products like "Thug Chips" and "Atomic Dogg" energy drinks is "enticing young people into thug life." O.G. Nation, founded by athletic stars Larry Johnson and Jim Brown, responded with a press release claiming that Comrie's remarks are racist. Unfortunately, Thug Chips are not longer listed on the O.G. Nation site. From The Grinder:
Comrie has been crusading against the marketing of gang paraphernalia. But he may have overstepped a bit when discussing food and beverage maker OG Nation, which is headed by ex-athletes Jim Brown and Larry Johnson: “It’s even more insidious because these are people that work directly with gangs … enticing people into thug life and gang life. It makes no sense to me,” the lawmaker told The Post.Link (Thanks, Carlo Longino!)
Jim Brown actually does have a history of working with inner-city youth, but not recruiting them into gangs. Comrie clarified his remarks on a New York Times City Room blog post. He acknowledged Brown’s philanthropic work, but questioned why “he would consider flooding our community with garbage..”
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Since it's obvious that inner-city youths will modify their behavior based upon the name of their junk food, perhaps Comrie should market Upwardly Mobile, Educated, and Professional Baked Snack Crisps. If aiming for the snack-food stars seems impossible, there's always Law Abiding, Vocational Job Blue Collar Blue Corn Chips or Junior College and Then Manager of a Blockbuster Popcorn.
Doesn't "OG" stand for "Original Gansta"? I think it's being a bit disingenuous, attempting to deny thug affiliation while still implying it.
Saying someone is racist when the other person is opposing something like gang affiliation is racist. because the person implying racism is implying that something like gang affiliation is also a race affiliation.
This is what happens when clueless politicians attempt to shut down clueless people attempting to market food and drink to youth culture.
Leroy Comrie has been on something of a crusade for some time to eliminate or outlaw anything that denigrates African-Americans. I'm not saying he's wrong or right; merely that this is the latest in a series of moves that originated, I think, with his desire to pass a resolution that would ban use of the N-word.
He also opposed the decision to name a street in Brooklyn after Sonny Carson, a black activist whose activism was born after a conviction for kidnapping, and who spent much of his youth in gangs. Comrie has had death threats leveled at him, and the chief of staff of a different council member, who was in favor of Sonny Carson Street, called for Comrie's assassination. She later claimed she was referring to the assassination of his political career, but she was fired by the city council president, thus setting off a kerfuffle of epic proportions between her boss and the council president.
All of which is to say that Leroy Comrie has very strong and decided principles, and that his anger at O.G. Nation (which does, indeed, stand for Original Gangsta, making its presidents' stance disingenuous in the extreme) does not exist without a decided context.
Why doesn't he just wait a while and see if they fail? Most new snacks do.
So Leroy Comrie, a black man, is "racist" for saying that a company named "O.G. [Original Ganster] Nation", which made a line of chips named "Thug Chips", is glamorizing thug (or O.G.) life. This may be one of the dumbest ass things I've ever read.
Here's another instance where they're playing the racism card: http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/071214/0340380.html
News flash, geniuses. If you don't want to come across as being pro-gang, DON'T CALL YOUR COMPANY O.G. NATION. And definitely don't release a product called "Thug Chips".