Racist cake name changed after Israeli social media campaign

Naaman Bakery's chocolate cake left a bitter taste for some Israeli Facebook users.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN
Updated: JULY 3, 2017 23:42
Chocolate cake (photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Chocolate cake
(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
An Israeli baker has succumbed to an outcry on Facebook against naming a dark chocolate cake “Kushit,” the feminine form of a racist term often used to describe people of African origin.
The campaign erupted on April 9 when Ella Danny Bar David posted an image of the cake alongside a comment that read: “I was sure they already stopped making these kinds of cakes, I’m finished with Naaman Bakery.”
After someone contacted the bakery, the owners posted a reply: “Maybe the time has come to change the name of the chocolate cake,” and said it would relay the issue to its 57 branches nationwide.
“Thanks for messaging us. We try to be as responsive as possible,” the bakery wrote on June 14.
In a subsequent June 29 post on the Facebook page “My Nude,” which seeks to encourage diversity in consumerism, anti-racism activists celebrated the small victory with a photo of a chocolate cake being sold with the new name “Fanny’s chocolate cake.”
A response from the bakery followed: “Hello, the name of the cake has been changed at all the branches, have a wonderful day.” Comments that followed noted the activists were glad they were not alone.
The case comes amid several publicized cases in recent years of racism and outcries against discrimination against Israelis and other nationals of African origin.
In April, a Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court judge handed down an NIS 121,000 judgment against a waitress and restaurant in Bat Yam for labeling a couple of Ethiopian origin as “kushim” on their bill.


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