Why these children want an ice-cream flavour renamed
A group of young children have suggested a name which they think is more suitable for an ice cream flavour which consists of both chocolate and vanilla.
Traci Schmidley, a mother to six children, and foster mother to more, posted a letter on Facebook which was written by two of her children and their friend to the company Blue Bell Creameries about the flavour, called “The Great Divide” proposing it be changed to “Better Together”.
The children Isak, Kaleb and Jayden explained that two of them have lighter skin and one has darker skin – but Isak and Kaleb have adopted siblings who have darker skin as well.
The letter read: “We are all our own colour and own flavour and there is no divide between us.
“We think we are all delicious in our own ways.”
The children wrote that they love the ice cream but people might misunderstand the name and think it is about division due to skin colours.
“We think having a big bucket of Better Together chocolate and vanilla on dinner tables across the country will make our families and communities stronger than ever!” they wrote.
Ms Schmidley wrote an article for the Love What Matters website and said no one claimed the original name was racist, just that the children did not think it was the best name for something like ice cream, which brings people together.
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Ms Schmidley said following discussion she challenged the kids to come up with a different name “that could capture the intent of Blue Bell ice cream but would reflect the remarkable progress our country has made.”
“He (Kaleb) had realised that the intention of Blue Bell was probably to comment on the fact that in one family some people would prefer chocolate and some people would prefer vanilla, so some families are divided along the flavour line,” Ms Schmidley told The Advocate.
Ms Schmidley’s post on Facebook containing the childrens’ letter has been shared more than 12,000 times and generated lots of discussion.
The mother has said diverse families and communities from around the world have also been sending them pictures with the tag #bettertogether.
“I hoped the post would get to Blue Bell and the kids could learn more lessons about social media, and the power of their voices, but I never anticipated the reaction from the post,” the mother said in a Love What Matters article.
