Darkie Toothpaste

I was doing a little research this evening, don’t ask me into what, and uncovered a little ditty called “Darkie Toothpaste”. Darkie is apparently a brand going way back (historical back, yo) which draws upon years and years of blatant racial stereotyping performed by the Chinese. The message here is: Black people have nice white teeth, and if you want nigger teeth, brush up with Darkie! American readers please note the obvious similarity to Aunt Jemima or Uncle Ben’s. The commentary provided by young Asian and American readers of the site is priceless:

Among the pleasantries:

Well, I don’t know if “Darkie” is racist-RACIST, but it’s definitely offensive. Imagine, say, a black hair dye that shows a really stereotypical Asian person–SUPER-slanty eyes, buck-toothed, thick glasses, etc.–and it’s called “Yellowie” or “Chinky,” and you get the idea. It’s always easy to say, “Ahhh, that ain’t a big deal,” if your group’s not the one being made fun of.

The above written by a user who goes by the tag, Da Xiangchang, who I’m pretty sure is a character from Street Fighter. Really interesting reading if you ask me. The real gem here is that this guy who put together the thing on Darkie referenced a website called: Toothpasteworld. Toothpasteworld is an amazing look back at one dentist’s massive collection of novelty toothpastes, which by some measures, numbers over 1400 distinct tubes of toothpaste. A truly noble pursuit.