Posted on June 24, 2016
Speaking of racism…
This week we discussed racist logos and brands in our ethics class and it inspired an interesting topic I’d like to bring up now.



Living in Stillwater, OK, everyone knows about Eskimo Joe’s. Known for it’s unique restaurant, good burgers and fries, live music and good drinks, the people of Stillwater love Eskimo Joe’s! In fact, it’s a bit famous. People often drive to Stillwater just to go eat at Joe’s. But there is something I’ve noticed in the last year that greatly concerns me.

Has anyone ever considered the fact that using an Inuit and calling him an Eskimo is racist? Down in Oklahoma we don’t know a lot about the Inuit culture. Inuit’s consider the term “eskimo” extremely offensive and derogatory, to the same degree of the N-word to describe black people.

Stan Clark and his businesses have been great for our community, no doubt. But each restaurant has exploitative qualities to them. Eskimo Joe’s, Joseppi’s (now closed), Mexico Joe’s, and our newest addition Mojo Joe’s.

Eskimo Joe’s environment and food has nothing to do with Inuit culture. An Inuit is simply being used as a gimmick to grab people’s attention and nothing else. The Inuit’s have a rich and intriguing culture and plastering an “Eskimo” with a big toothy smile on our billboards, T-Shirts, cups, etc. is pretty disrespectful.

Sadly I think rebranding Eskimo Joe’s is out of the question. It is such a staple in our community and changing anything to make it more politically correct would result in absolute outrage. The only thing you could do, if you felt passionate enough, is to just not go to Eskimo Joe’s.