What the crap!
I first read this in The Week and I just remembered now to check up on it and apparently it got into today's State News. Beaner's coffee is changing their name because "beaner" can be a derogatory term against latinos. I both love Beaner's and knew of the term "beaner" (I learned from Carlos Mencia) but I never connected the two in my head. One is a slur (or joke) and the other is from "coffee bean".
They said no one ever complained but they want to be sensitive.
Why this is lame: They're changing their name to something forgettable, generic, boring, and generally stupid: "biggby coffee" now I realize you want to keep your "B" logo but surely you can think of something better than "biggby" which is now making me think of the Bigheads from Rocco... which IS pretty cool. Also lame is the fact that something innocent gets punished from doing nothing but serving some of the best chain coffee in MI (and surrounding area). The first thing my cousin in DC does when she comes for a visit is go to Beaner's. It is an institution around MSU.
I'm so damn racist I think I'll just keep calling it beaner's I also hope I can go to beaner's tomorrow and buy a beaner's mug before everything gets switched over! Although I think a lot of them just use the B logo.
PS:
I like the comment in the State News that wonders when they're going to change the name of The Cracker Barrel. XD
PPS:
Nevermind. It has become apparent it is just a business expansion business expansion plan.
"As we've continued to expand into new markets, we've heard more and more comments about our name, to the point that we had to take a hard look at changing it," said Bob Fish, BEANER'S CEO and co-founder. "We ultimately felt we would be condoning the use of a disparaging term if we chose to do nothing.
"I understand that BEANER'S loyalists may have a hard time with the name change, but at the end of the day, we believe our customers will be supportive of our choice to do the right thing," said Fish. "What matters most is that the store experience will be exactly the same, only our name will be different.""
Apparently they want to move further South and South west and the more they do the more people who would be familiar with beaner as a racial slur. I've personally never heard anyone use beaner besides Carlos Mencia and other latino comedians but I guess it is a more hardcore prevalent term than I thought.
Also apparently the name is actually Big B instead of Big Buy - which is how I would pronounce biggby.
PPPS: Most people seem to think the name change is dumb - including all the latinos (but people who live in CA and other western states do say they were shocked the first time they moved in Lansing/entered MSU but quickly realized no one had any idea) I've come across but this comment is priceless:
"This is another example where a few nuts make it like they are speaking for the whole country. I think 99% of the people who saw the name 'Beaner's Coffee' would be smart enough to associate Beans with Coffee. I doubt most people even know Beaner is considered a derogatory term used against Hispanics. I thought it was a reference to someone who lives in Boston.
One day an alien race is going to come down to earth and wipe out the planet because Starbucks means Alien Douchebag in their language."
They said no one ever complained but they want to be sensitive.
Why this is lame: They're changing their name to something forgettable, generic, boring, and generally stupid: "biggby coffee" now I realize you want to keep your "B" logo but surely you can think of something better than "biggby" which is now making me think of the Bigheads from Rocco... which IS pretty cool. Also lame is the fact that something innocent gets punished from doing nothing but serving some of the best chain coffee in MI (and surrounding area). The first thing my cousin in DC does when she comes for a visit is go to Beaner's. It is an institution around MSU.
I'm so damn racist I think I'll just keep calling it beaner's I also hope I can go to beaner's tomorrow and buy a beaner's mug before everything gets switched over! Although I think a lot of them just use the B logo.
PS:
I like the comment in the State News that wonders when they're going to change the name of The Cracker Barrel. XD
PPS:
Nevermind. It has become apparent it is just a business expansion business expansion plan.
"As we've continued to expand into new markets, we've heard more and more comments about our name, to the point that we had to take a hard look at changing it," said Bob Fish, BEANER'S CEO and co-founder. "We ultimately felt we would be condoning the use of a disparaging term if we chose to do nothing.
"I understand that BEANER'S loyalists may have a hard time with the name change, but at the end of the day, we believe our customers will be supportive of our choice to do the right thing," said Fish. "What matters most is that the store experience will be exactly the same, only our name will be different.""
Apparently they want to move further South and South west and the more they do the more people who would be familiar with beaner as a racial slur. I've personally never heard anyone use beaner besides Carlos Mencia and other latino comedians but I guess it is a more hardcore prevalent term than I thought.
Also apparently the name is actually Big B instead of Big Buy - which is how I would pronounce biggby.
PPPS: Most people seem to think the name change is dumb - including all the latinos (but people who live in CA and other western states do say they were shocked the first time they moved in Lansing/entered MSU but quickly realized no one had any idea) I've come across but this comment is priceless:
"This is another example where a few nuts make it like they are speaking for the whole country. I think 99% of the people who saw the name 'Beaner's Coffee' would be smart enough to associate Beans with Coffee. I doubt most people even know Beaner is considered a derogatory term used against Hispanics. I thought it was a reference to someone who lives in Boston.
One day an alien race is going to come down to earth and wipe out the planet because Starbucks means Alien Douchebag in their language."