Denmark: Eskimo ice cream renamed because of racist connotations

The Hansens ice cream manufacturing company will change the name of its most popular ice cream 'Eskimo,' as it’s offensive to the Inuit people in Greenland.

In order not to offend this Nordic population, the Danish ice cream manufacturer Hansen has decided to change the name of one of its most popular products, Eskimo. The ice cream, similar to a Cremino or Magnum, will be renamed O' Payo.

The company, located in the outskirts of Copenhagen, has been under pressure to change the name of the product since the 1970’s but only now, following in the spirit of the Black Lives Matter movement, has decided to do so.

"In the beginning we were against changing the name of our ice cream," a Hansens' spokesmen explained to France Presse.

"After years and years of debate, we have managed to make it clear that using the word Eskimo evokes centuries of discrimination against our people," said MP Chemnitz-Larsen, one of the two legislators representing Greenland at the Folketing, the Danish Parliament.

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Calling Eskimo an ice cream," continued the MP, "in our eyes, and not only, is a lack of respect for our ethnicity and evokes centuries of humiliation. With its 55,000 inhabitants, a vast territory affected by mass poverty, centuries of colonialism and now also by climate change, Greenland is one of the poorest territories of the Danish Crown.

However, not everyone agrees on the need for political correctness in the choice of product names in Denmark. Another ice-cream producer in the country, Premier Is, will continue to sell its ice cream that for decades has been called Kaempe Eskimo - Giant Eskimo.