A Portland, Oregon, bakery owner has changed the name of one of her signature pastries from the “Mr. President” to “The Professional” after a Yelp reviewer denounced the treat’s name as a racist swipe at Barack Obama and a local newspaper picked up on the controversy.
Anjelica Hayes, owner of Fat Cupcake and herself a black woman, dismissed the charge of racism, explaining to the Oregonian newspaper on Monday the origin of the dessert’s name.
“What sounds like it would be really fancy?” Ms. Hayes told the Oregonian in a phone interview. “We thought of the presidential office,” explained the 26-year-old entrepreneur, who describes her politics as conservative on her personal Facebook page.
“I just thought it was an honorary name,” Ms. Hayes added, noting she had heard somewhere that Mr. Obama’s favorite cookie was the Oreo. “I thought I’d be honored if someone named a cupcake after me.”
Ms. Hayes opened her original Fat Cupcake location in Oregon City in September 2014. It’s her brand new Portland shop, which started selling pastries in September, that’s given her unwanted social-media notoriety.
“Since opening in Southeast Portland, Hayes said she’s had to field questions about whether her cupcakes are racist,” the Oregonian newspaper reported. “She also has a cupcake called ’The Intern’ that the same customer quoted above on Yelp took to be a slam on Monica Lewinsky. Hayes said it is not.”
The term “Oreo” has been used as a racial slur against African-Americans who are dismissed as “black on the outside” but “white on the inside.”
This is not the first time an Obama/Oreo comparison made national headlines. In August 2011, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh caused a stir in a monologue in which he compared Barack Obama to the cookie.
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
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