The Source of Offense (and a recipe)

Recently, I have resurrected (with the help of my mother -- Thanks, Mom!) a recipe from my childhood. It is a recipe for chocolatey, oatmealy refrigerator cookies.

I was so excited about these cookies that I posted about them (including the recipe) on facebook. But that meant I had to use their name.

The cookies, in their original context -- which is my mother's 4-H cookbook, so, the 1950s -- were called "Eskimo Cookies."

I thought quite a bit about whether this is an offensive name or not. I decided, at first, to go ahead and use it. And I did get some push-back.

First of all, as most of you know, "Eskimo" is a name put upon a people who call themselves "Inuits". So you're already treading into the territory of denying self-determination. So should we call them "Inuit Cookies"?

Somehow that also seems wrong.

I had thought a lot about why these cookies had this name in the first place. Because they are chocolate in the middle, with a powdered sugar coating, I wanted to make damn sure that the name wasn't a reference to their color. (Something like the opposite of the racial slur "oreo".) As far as I could figure out, that probably wasn't what the name was about, since it didn't really make any sense.

So I decided it must just be a reference to the fact that they are refrigerator cookies, i.e. cold cookies. It might also have to do with the fact that they look like mini snow balls, since they're covered in powdered sugar.

So. Coldness, possibly snow. Temperature is not generally considered something that qualifies as a slur. Does that make it okay?

I decided it does not. Because calling a cold cookie, a cookie that lives in a cold place an "Eskimo cookie" has the effect of reducing the Eskimos, or shall we say, the Inuits, to people who live in the cold. It is offensive because it is reductionist, and therefore, de-humanizing. There are many realities about the Inuit people besides the fact that they live where it's cold. To imply that their essence is summed up by something you keep in the fridge is to diminish their unique complexity as a people.

I believe it is this reductionism that is at the root of most offensive uses of groups' names. But we usually don't talk about it that explicitly. We talk about generalizations or stereotypes; we talk about whether something is derogatory or not. But the truth is that it's diminishing to emphasize one characteristic above all others because it reduces people's humanity. That should be enough of a reason to avoid doing it.

Thus, I have re-named this dessert. I am now calling them Bon Bons.


Here is the recipe for Bon Bons:

Soften 1 and 1/2 sticks of butter (3/4 cup).
Mix in 3/4 cup sugar.
Add 1 tablespoon water, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and 3 tablespoons cocoa.
Stir in 2 cups of oats.
Chill in fridge for a good long while. (4-H says overnight. I think an hour does it just fine.)
Shape dough into balls and roll them in powdered sugar.
Keep in the cold, wintery refrigerator. (Humor is also important!)