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Summary: Is Lewis
Diuguid once again try to make a racial issue out of nothing? KCMO Morning
radio talker Chris Stigall (7/12) says so as did as many of his callers.
The question that should be answered is: Does it make sense that Boulevard
Brewing would want to alienate ANY customers? We doubt it, but the company
took down the billboard within hours of his column being printed.
Posted on Wed,
Jul. 12, 2006
LEWIS W. DIUGUID COMMENTARY
COMMENTARY
remnants of rhyme still
resonate with racism
By Lewis Diuguid The Kansas City Star
“The ‘eenie, meenie, minie, moe’ rhyme grabs
people, but it has an awful history, which is far from cute.”
A friend pointed out an off-color billboard on top of a building at Westport
Road and Southwest Trafficway.
Apparently people hadn’t learned from the bad publicity generated a few years
ago from a lawsuit involving Southwest Airlines.
The Boulevard Brewing Co. beer billboard uses the racist rhyme “Eenie, Meenie,
Minie, Moe….” Each word is positioned with a period over one of four foam-filled
glasses of Boulevard’s popular Wheat, Pale Ale, Bully Porter and Dry Stout beer.
I like Boulevard beer. It’s home-grown. The company founded in 1989 on Southwest
Boulevard by John McDonald is the largest specialty brewer in the Midwest. It’s
distributed in 11 states.
But the company’s success doesn’t excuse the use of the offensive rhyme to
advertise the product. The issue made headlines nationwide in 2004 when a
federal jury ruled against two African-American passengers on Southwest
Airlines. They contended that a flight attendant used the dirty little rhyme
against them.
The Southwest employee said “Eenie, meenie, minie, moe; pick a seat, we gotta
go.” The Lenexa women who were searching for seats said they were the only black
passengers on the flight.
During the trial, a San Jose State University official testified that Southwest
Airlines billboards had gone up in December 1996 using the eenie, meenie, minie,
moe rhyme. After he complained to the company, noting the racist origin of the
rhyme, the more than 30 of the distasteful billboards were removed in the
California city.
But this isn’t San Jose. Bob Sullivan, vice president and chief marketing
officer with Boulevard Brewing, said no one had complained about the beer
billboard. “It’s a choice campaign,” he said.
“It has nothing to do with race, color or creed,” Sullivan said. “You would be
the first person who’s brought that to our attention.”
The billboards started going up in different Kansas City locations in May. They
will remain up until October, Sullivan said. The ads ran for two years in other
media in 11 states.
They carry different messages of choice. One that had been up near 87th Street
and U.S. 71 had used words positioned over the four different glasses of beer,
saying, “Local pints of interest.” A billboard with the same formation at 85th
Street and Wornall Road says, “Collect the whole set.” One at 75th and Wornall
says, “To each their own” (ouch on the grammar). One at 20th and Main streets
said, “Which one are you?”
Those ads are eye-catching, cute and have no foul history attached. The “eenie,
meenie, minie, moe” rhyme grabs people, but it has an awful history, which is
far from cute.
What also was disturbing about the offensive Boulevard billboard was that
Sullivan said company officials knew the origin of the ad and used it anyway.
The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes traced the rhyme in America to the 1850s
when slavery was at its zenith. Then the verse was “Eena, meena, mina, mo, Catch
a nigger by his toe; If he squeals, let him go, Eena, meena, mina, moe.”
The N-word in the mid-1970s was “replaced by tigger, tiger, spider, beggar,
etc.” the book said. Sullivan thinks that time and the wording change in the
rhyme have been enough to disassociate it from its racist past. He said it would
be “a huge stretch” now to make the connection.
I disagree. The history is too fresh. The rhyme still evokes the N-word, and no
amount of beer will wash that down.
Lewis W. Diuguid is a member of The Star’s
Editorial Board. To reach him, call (816) 234-4723 or send e-mail to [email protected].
 
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