Politically correct toothpaste makes your smile brighter

Walt's Chinese new year greeting resulted in a "remember when" chat with an old China hand, which somehow got confabulated with a discussion of political correctness.

Those who think we should be super-sensitive to issues of diversity will be glad to know that political correctness has reached even the People's Republic of China, as the morphing of "Darkie" toothpaste into "Darlie" shows.

Darkie toothpaste -- literally 黑人牙膏, "Black Man Toothpaste" -- was first manufactured in Shanghai in 1933. The maker, Hazel & Hawley Chemical Co., later moved to Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The Darkie logo was, at first, a caricature of a grinning man in blackface, possibly inspired by that well-known African-American entertainer, Al Jolson.

Mr. Darkie (or whatever his name was) would probably be with us still, had not Hazel & Hawley been acquired in 1985 by Colgate. When that happened, the jig was up! After complaints from the NAACP and other US "civil rights" groups, Mr. Darkie was replaced by a top-hatted, grinning man who is, errr, not obviously black.

For good measure, the name got changed to "Darlie". However, a quick glance at the latest package (back row, fourth from left) shows that the 黑人 is still there. Walt's Chinese is not good enough to read all the characters on the box, but I'll bet Darlie toothpaste now makes your smile brighter...not whiter!

Darlie toothpaste is on sale at fine stores throughout China and eastern Asia... and in North America... perhaps at a dollar store near you!

Selling toothpaste the politically correct way

Quick, now! What are some of the things you know for sure? You know that all engineers are illiterate, right? And all people of sub-Saharan African descent have beautiful gleaming white teeth. Right? "It's a good thing he was smiling or I'd never have seen him!" Such is the power of the stereotype.

Which brings us to Darlie toothpaste, which I hadn't seen since my daze in China, but noticed in an Asian convenience store yesterday. As you can see, "Darlie" used to be called "Darkie". In Chinese it's still 黑人 hēi rén, or "black person". In fact they have an advertising slogan in Chinese: "Black Man Toothpaste is still Black Man Toothpaste".

Political correctness dictated the name change when Colgate-Palmolive bought Hawley & Hazel, the Taiwanese manufacturers, in 1985. At that time the original name was "Darkie", which, Wikipedia tells us "is a term used primarily to refer to black people". Ah. I see.

Anyway, rest assured. You can use Darlie with full confidence that your teeth can look just like Al Jolson's. Al Jolson, by the way, was white.