Darlie Toothpaste used to be called Darkie toothpaste. Darkie toothpaste is a brand sold out of a company in Hong Kong called Hawley and Hazel. In 1985 the United States’ corporation Colgate-Palmolive acquired Hawley and Hazel and it’s product Darkie toothpaste.

The package featured an image of an over exaggerated black stereotype. The image as you see to your left featured a black male wearing a top hat and bow-tie.

After Colgate acquired Darkie toothpaste in 1985 the toothpaste was reluctantly renamed “Darlie” toothpaste because of the pressure that it received from various religious and black advocacy groups.

The company gradually changed the image of the new Darlie toothpaste. It also pocketed the cost to advertise the new toothpaste. The new image on the packaging was altered to show a white face in a top hat. The Chinese name of the brand, “黑人牙膏” (in English, “Black People Toothpaste”), remains the same and a Chinese-language advertising campaign reassured customers that “Black Man Toothpaste is still Black Man Toothpaste”.

The toothpaste is still sold and remains popular in Asian countries such as including Japann, Taiwan, People’s Republic of China, Hong Kongg, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia.

As a result of Darkie toothpaste, Taiwan lauched “Whitemen” toothpaste after the Revolution. I assume this is there way of making sure no one gets left out.

The racism that is still exhibited globally is appalling. It is my conclusion that Martin Luther King’s dream is still a dream. It has yet to become reality with products like this still being sold.

For additional information on Darkie toothpaste click: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/27/business/colgate-to-rename-a-toothpaste.html

For additional information on Whitemen toothpaste click: http://shanghaiist.com/2009/05/11/whitemen_toothpaste_finally_a_darli.php#photo-2