![\"Negro](\"http:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/negro.jpg\")
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What’s in a label? Apparently a lot according to an African American teenager who got served a Negro candy as a gesture of good will by an unsuspecting immigrant man.<\/p>\n
Negro is a hard licorice candy. I hated them as a kid. They taste like turpentine and feel like chewing glass beads that just won’t go away.<\/p>\n
Go away they won’t. They’ve been making them for eighty five years in Serbia. The wrapper design has been updated a bit since I’ve been a kid but it still has that old world sensibility. Chimneys and candy don’t mix.<\/p>\n
The tagline under the big red “NEGRO” reads “THROAT CHIMNEY SWEEPER.” Delicious. The lower left seal claims “THE ONE AND ONLY GENUINE.” There is a less-than-genuine Hungarian knockoff also called Negro. See the picture of a man holding a bag of copycat Negroes at the bottom.<\/p>\n
![\"Black](\"http:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/negro3.jpg\")
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The clipping above is from one of my favorite news stories ever. It was reported in a local paper around 2003. The pictured girl was trick-or-treating and a Yugoslav refugee gave her some Negro candy. The girl saw this as a racial insult and went away crying.<\/p>\n
I can’t say that I know more about the incident than was reported. It’s hard to believe that the non-English speaking immigrant was intentionally racist. The man was simply trying to conform to the odd American custom of trick-or-treating the best way he could. He probably thought that the local kids would enjoy some imported (yet foul) tasting candy.<\/p>\n
![\"Negro](\"http:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/negro2.jpg\")
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I visited the manufacturers website<\/a>. It’s very slick but it’s weird. It uses industrial language like “hard molded candy” and “product specifications” which comes at no surprise since they have a chimney on the wrapper.<\/p>\n I’d guess the incident with the teenager was a case of cultural misunderstanding. You’d go nuts if you started taking brand names apart.<\/p>\n Baba appropriated the picture below from Jani Helle. The original photo along many other cool shots can be found at Jani’s Flickr page.<\/a><\/p>\n What’s in a label? Apparently a lot according to an African American teenager who got served a Negro candy as a gesture of good will by an unsuspecting immigrant man. Negro is a hard licorice candy. I hated them as … Continue reading ![\"Negro](\"http:\/\/www.badrecordcovers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/negro4.jpg\")
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