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‘Biracial is Bad’: How KRAFT’s MilkBites Campaign Perpetuates Stereotypes & White Supremacy

Article about Kraft’s MilkBites ads and how they mess up the whole biracial issue by anthropomorphizing a self-loathing food product that’s part milk, part granola.

At first I thought the article was silly, then the more videos I watched the more I could see the point. I have no idea why Kraft couldn’t make a happy Mel the Milkbite that embraced its deliciousness. Weird, clueless marketing.

Latino Rebels gives the MilkBites campaign the side eye for using the “tragic mulatto” myth to sell cereal bars.

“This is not to say that I don’t think race should be portrayed in pop culture. I am not of the “colorblind” camp. Of course race is an issue, and it would be ridiculous to pretend that it’s not. But part of the reason race is an issue is because of campaigns like this one, campaigns that perpetuate stereotypes and marginalize people who don’t neatly fit into preconceived categories.

Sociological Images writes:

” The problem with a marketing campaign like this is that it trivializes the experience of people with multiple racial/ethnic identities who are still often met with derision and confusion. The first ad above perpetuates the self-fulfilling prophecy about “confused” identities. As a child, I remember family members telling me that they didn’t have a problem with interracial couples but worried about how others might react to their children.”

At first glance, I really did wonder if this was making a mountain out of a molehill. After reading and watching though, the confused-Hapa-kid in me definitely made a -_______- at some of these. Hmm…