Inappropriate Eskimo Pie Name Will Be Retired, Company Says

Time for a change the company says, so Eskimo Pie will be seeing a name change in the future.  Last week Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben's, Mrs. Buttersworth and Land O'Lakes were making changes away from racist images, and as those companies look at making changes, Cream of Wheat said they will also make changes in their packaged products.

The brand name Eskimo Pie, yielding to mounting pressure that it is culturally insensitive,  will be retired. The company said that they plan to have a new name by the end of the year and would discontinue the character of the Eskimo.

The Eskimo Pie was invented back in 1920 at a candy shop in Iowa. The story goes that a young boy came in and could not decide between ice cream or a chocolate bar.  The boy could not afford both, but it put an idea in the shop owners head, so he worked at how to get chocolate to stick to ice cream. He figured it out, and the ice cream bar was born.  Originally called " I- Scream Bars", but the name was changed when the owner went into business with Russell Stover.

The term Eskimo is commonly used in Alaska to refer to all Inuit and Yupik people, but it is considered derogatory by many who associate it with racist, non-native colonizers who settled in the Arctic and used the term.

The owner of Eskimo Pie ice cream treats says it will change the name of its 99 year old brand because the term is "derogatory" and they are committed to being part of the solution on racial equality.  In a statement, the company said "this move is part of a larger review to ensure our company and brands reflect our values."

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