Source: Photo Courtesy of CookiePlug Indy Facebook Page / Via Facebook
INDIANAPOLIS – Buying cookies to satisfy your sweet tooth may seem like a harmless decision, but many Hoosiers say one bakery is misappropriating Black and HipHop cultures.
A new CookiePlug location recently opened on Massachusetts Avenue in Indianapolis.
CookiePlug is a California-based company that specializes in serving “part cookie, part cake, and part brownie” sweets. The sweet shop also takes heavy inspiration from HipHop culture.
Following the shop’s opening, though, many have been expressing concerns that it is profiting from racist stereotypes.
Now, you may be wondering how, exactly, it accomplishes this.
The menu offers items like the “Pixie Junkie Cookie” and a lemonade called “Purple Drank.” Certain cookie boxes say, “Thank you for supporting your neighborhood doughp [sic] dealer.”
One Reddit user says, “The references on their products are all drug related… I would never EVER take a child there and have to explain what a ‘plug’ is, what a ‘phat sack’ or ‘doughp dealer’ as they spell it is.”
Another Reddit user comments, “I give them about a year before there’s a for sale sign in the window,” calling the business’s branding “tacky.”
The website’s design seems to take inspiration from graffiti art, and it also features a song title by The Notorious B.I.G., also known as Biggie or Biggie Smalls.
But, even with the controversy, some in the Indianapolis community are still showing their support for the business.
One Facebook commenter writes, “Graffiti as art and popular hip-hop music can be enjoyed; used by anyone. Culture is meant to be shared. If not, then what is the true point of diversity?”
Learn more about CookiePlug here.
