Brutal backlash to Indigenous activist who fought for Coon’s name change

It’s been less than a week since well-known cheese brand Coon unveiled its new name to the public, but Stephen Hagan, the Indigenous activist who instigated the name change, has already copped a severe backlash.

Canadian-owned Saputo Dairy Australia, which bought the Coon brand in 2015, revealed on January 13 that the well-known cheese would be rebranded to ‘Cheer Cheese’ from July this year.

Speaking exclusively with The Australian, Hagan said he’s been inundated with hate mail since Saputo’s announcement and is now seeking police protection.

“People don’t like change and they have a lot of trouble accepting that Aboriginal people can have influence changing a racial slur,” he told the publication on Sunday. “They just see a black Australian bringing about change to an iconic food item.”

The activist, who’s fought for more than two decades to change the name, also shared one of the hateful emails he received with the publication. It read, “How does it feel for your life to revolve around inferiority to the white man?” It was signed “may the Aryan man rule forever”.

Saputo Dairy Australia’s decision follows a wave of calls to scrap the name, which has long been criticised as racist, despite being named after American inventor Edward William Coon, who patented a unique ripening process that was used to manufacture the original cheese.

Australian comedian Josh Thomas called out the brand name earlier this year, when he argued that it is offensive and disrespectful towards Indigenous Australians. The word is an extremely offensive slur when used to describe a black person.

Despite such calls to change the name, there was an outpouring of criticism online after the announcement by Saputo last Wednesday. Twitter user @sophieelsworth said, “Cheer cheese? Ridiculous name. Bowing to a minority, won’t be buying it. Bega all the way.”

Meanwhile, @ronInBendigo commented, “Cheer Cheese. Hahaha … Oh dear … did someone actually get paid for that name?”

And while @mvyrmnd was all for the name change, he didn’t quite approve of the new choice, saying, “I agree with the principle of changing the name, but Cheer Cheese just doesn’t roll off the tongue.”

Saputo Dairy Australia is the latest brand to take such action in line with the recent Black Lives Matter movement. In November last year, Nestle unveiled the new names of its Allen’s Red Skins and Chico lollies. Red Skins are now known as Red Ripper and Chicos are now called Cheekies.