Mom gets pickle co. to drop "midget" from jars
CRANSTON, R.I. A Cranston mother of a daughter with dwarfism has persuaded a Minnesota food company to drop the word "midget" from a line of pickles.
The Providence Journal reports that Chelley Martinka, who says she has craved pickles, said she was incensed when she saw jars of what Cains brand calls kosher dill midgets at a supermarket.
Adelaide
/ aisforadelaide.comThe mother of 10-month-old Adelaide, who has dwarfism, thought she would smash the jars. Instead, she took pictures and blogged.
Gedney Foods in Chaska, Minn., which produces pickles and food lines by Del Monte and Cains, says it will change its labels and stop using the word "midget."
The company did not return calls from the newspaper. It confirmed its decision, but said it does not want media attention or recognition for doing what's right.
In a blog post about the decision, Martinka said the company's president said "that the person or people who named the pickles never meant harm, it was just a word when the marketing was done for the pickles. He agreed that in these times that same word is offensive, and he and the company would never want to offend anyone."
Martinka also said in her blog that there were other pickle companies still using the word "midget," and that she intended to work on them too.
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But let's also stop the knuckleheaded complaints about the awful tyranny of "political correctness." It's completely reasonable for people in some identifiable group to tell you how to refer to them. If you can't be bothered to avoid derogatory or demeaning language, just don't speak.
http://knoahsarc.org/2010/04/25/the-m-word-repost-from-0909/
read the press release here: http://classicpickles.com/
It has gotten to the point now that you don't know what to call people or what to say to people. Of all the things that this mother could have gone after pickles was her great cause. These moms really do have a lot of extra time on their hands to pick a cause like this. I say no to PC and your child is a midget bottom line and that term is not that bad. We have to stop cowering to the PC movement. To Cains nobody is going to buy more or less pickles because it says midget on the jar.
The most telling line of the article is this one: "The mother of 10-month-old Adelaide, who has dwarfism, thought she would smash the jars." Meaning the unpaid for jars of food that don't belong to her.
This is a sad woman who is obviously angry at the world and needs a hobby.