Dear Cako Cupcakes Company–Irish Car Bombs Are Neither Funny Nor Clever!

The name given to this product advocates violence & supports the concept of that the history of oppression against the Irish people is now reduced to a joke. This is not funny.

This is a redux. We live in a violent world. Groups are singled out in ways that go beyond ‘unfair.’ Jokes that are made at the expense of a group in order to sell a product are, in the very least,cheap. Add to that, the concept that your company is putting down a group of people–Would you now sell Boston Car Bombs?

Would you have Columbine Specials? Rename your product. Give it a name that does not put my people down. Do not sell cupcakes that you name “Irish Car Bombs.” The joke is dreadful & tasteless & offensive. Do your job, and change the name of this product.

Cako: The company that uses the sad political history of Ireland to sell cupcakes. This is another form of racism. How can you not understand this?

Slurs & Loathing In San Francisco-Michelle Shocked & Cako Chaos

Today, with a huge degree of sadness, I read about the anti-gay rant carried out Sunday evening by singer Michelle Shocked @ Yoshi’s. My initial information came from reading the San Francisco Examiner & later confirmed via Friends from Facebook, re-posting various Internet articles about the same topic.

I did not attend the concert, so my information may be technically 2nd hand, but I consider it reliable. I actually feel a sense of grief about this, how someone who seemed potentially with us (if, not, indeed, one of us) could allow self-hatred to devour her inner core.

Shocked to the core. Please note the heart as part of her autographing process. Somehow, she lost her heart. Will she ever get it back?

I met her briefly, many years ago, at the Castro Theatre–about the time Tower Records on Market Street was closing. The sense I had of her during that very brief ‘meet & greet’ encounter was nothing like whatever it is she has become.

From Cako Cupcakes: IRISH CAR BOMBS! This was their contribution to St Patrick’s Day? The sign was removed the next day.

And continuing with the topic of slurs, different focus…Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day, I noticed for sale @ the Cako Cupcake kiosk, Westfield Center, cupcakes given the name IRISH CAR BOMB!
I did not have a camera in hand @ that moment to record the sign, but took a photograph of two of these items. I returned the next day, and noticed that the sign with the rather inflammatory descriptive had been removed. So, unable to provide proof of what I saw, but here are the two of the cakes, and a photograph of one of Michelle Shocked’s compact discs, this one with the ironic & weirdly prophetic title, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”

Michelle Shocked is dead, totally self inflicted, but she managed to harm many on her way downhill. Is there hope for her? The cupcakes, may not be in the same league as the rant from Michelle Shocked, but the managers who made the choice to name cupcakes IRISH CAR BOMB just because a whisper of supposedly Irish-made liquors are part of the ingredients, made a terribly foolish & insulting choice.

Make that a sort of triple or quadruple whammy, being Irish, gay, used to enjoy Michelle Shocked, cupcakes…I am glad it’s not the end of the world, but both coming one on top of the other were just plain ugly, and entirely inexcusable.