Of all the big American supermarket chains out there, none have shown greater devotion to the 14 Words than Whole Foods.
You might remember that time in April 2010, for example, when a Whole Foods employee – later discovered to be the CEO – shouted “all blacks leave the store” over the PA system.
Then there was that incident in February 2013 when a Whole Foods store erected a sign depicting President Obama eating chicken. Unsurprisingly, the masterminds behind this shocking act of racism were none other than the Board of Directors, who were apparently sick of being governed by a “piece of outdated farm equipment” and his “transsexual husband.”
But Whole Foods isn’t just about negrophobia. That’s a big part of its corporate policy, yes, but management have also acquired a reputation for questioning the Holocaust, sending fan mail to Anders Breivik, bullying the mods on /r/The_Donald and, as we’re about to see, mocking the mongoloids of the East.
Whole Foods sparked backlash after partnering with an Asian restaurant called “Yellow Fever” that critics called “racist and unappetizing.”
On April 25, Whole Foods announced on Twitter that a Yellow Fever location had opened for business inside its Whole Food 365 store in Long Beach, California.
The grocery chain does not own the restaurant, which is operated by an independent franchise with two other locations in the Golden State, SF Gate reports.
“Already ready for lunch? #YellowFeverEats has you covered with fresh, customized bowls at our brand-new #LongBeach365 location – now open!” Whole Foods 360 tweeted, sending the Twitterverse into a frenzy over the controversial name.
Yellow Fever for an Asian restaurant? That's both unappetizing and racist. https://t.co/uzRDnaMrEt
— Sam Ro 📈 (@SamRo) April 27, 2018
Super cool that no one in your company, from concept to construction to this tweet, saw nothing wrong with this
— 𝖘𝖕𝖆𝖈𝖊𝖑𝖔𝖘 (@crlshtchr) April 27, 2018
Gosh. Nothing like a racist meal that might *also* give you a horrific disease.
— Dr. Hanne Blank (@hanneblank) April 26, 2018
I would like to suggest that making the name both racist and disease ridden was overkill.
— Estarianne, BS, MA, A.N.T.I.F.A. 👩🏼💻 (@estarianne) April 27, 2018
“When we finally came up with the concept, all the names we thought of just plain sucked. Buzzwords like ‘traditional’, ‘bamboo’, ‘lotus’, and ‘golden’ weren’t memorable,” the restaurant’s co-founder Kelly Kim told Next Shark in 2017. “One night, we just said ‘Yellow Fever!’ and it worked. It’s tongue-in-cheek, kind of shocking, and it’s not exclusive — you can fit all Asian cultures under one roof with a name like this.”
“We just decided to go for it,” she added.
The chain’s two locations in Torrance and Venice tout themselves on serving “Asian bowls for your soul,” according to their website.
See, here’s the situation: in the West, companies are expected to meet strict racial quotas. A certain percentage of people associated with a business needs to be non-white or else a diversity enforcement agent comes knocking on the door and threatens legal action.
Being a neo-Nazi business that caters to upper-middle class Aryans, there’s no way in Helheim that Whole Foods is going to associate with – and I’m quoting from their official website here – “niggers, kikes, Irish, ragheads or any other untermensch from the genetic basketcases of the world.”
So, what do you do? What if you need to meet diversity quotas to stay afloat, but don’t want to lose your racist street cred in the process?
Simple: you partner up with a bunch of gooks, but ensure that doing so upsets most other Asians at the same time. In this case, because of a dubious restaurant name.
Of course, it’s just a temporary solution. Those diversity officers will come knocking on Whole Foods’ door again at some point because – let’s be honest here – Asians ain’t all that dark.
But at least the company has bought itself more time to build that Auschwitz-themed superstore it’s promised us since 2016.