The Ku Klux Klandle

Scientists haven’t found it yet, but there is something in the XX chromosomes that causes women to love candles. But there’s one candle that they won’t (and can’t) buy. Bath and Body Works released a candle called “Snowed In,” a rather perplexing description for a scent. The label design features part of a paper snowflake, a refined version of what kindergartners make in class. Human snowflakes compared the paper snowflake to the infamous Ku Klux Klan hoods, prompting Bath and Body Works to stop selling the item. A spokesperson for the company expressed deep regrets: “We apologize to anyone we’ve offended and are swiftly working to have this item removed and are evaluating our process going forward.”

The complaints about Bath and Body Works are both ridiculous and completely predictable because everything today is deemed racist: According to progressives, valuing punctuality is white supremacy, criticizing our government “without being seen as a cultural outsider” is an example of white privilege, and ballet is an “imperialist, colonialist, and white supremacist art form.” I imagine that progressives just play spin-the-wheel every morning, and whatever random thing it lands on is dubbed an artifact of white supremacy. 

The absurd accusations of racism are laughable and tiresome, yet they still carry cultural weight. Big brands issue groveling apologies, even when the allegations of white supremacy are easily dismissed and the vocal activists form a relatively small group. This month, Heinz extended its “deepest apologies” for a pasta-sauce advertisement that “unintentionally perpetuated negative stereotypes.” (The controversy? A black bride is pictured eating spaghetti with people who are presumably her mother (a black woman), her husband (a white man), and her parents-in-law (white), but there isn’t someone who appears to be a black father. So an image of an interracial marriage was insufficiently anti-racist.)

I’d like to believe that there are very few people who are upset by the supposed Ku Klux Klandle. But companies and corporations defer to delusional progressives who claim to be offended and outraged, and I’m concerned that their influence extends much farther than I can imagine.