A Group Of Siblings Ask Blue Bell Ice Cream To Change Flavor Name

A family is asking the makes of Blue Bell ice cream to change the name of one of its ice cream flavors in order to be more inclusive. According to reports, a family from Louisiana, with both black and white children, is asking the company to change the name of one of its popular flavors, "The Great Divide" to "Better Together" instead.

Mom Traci Schmidley is a mother of six, but a foster mother to many more. She told CBS news that it was her 10-year-old son who first made a comment about the ice cream flavor’s name, and even compared it to the Mason-Dixon line.

Schmidley wrote in a blog post for Love What Matters, “[He] jokingly commented that the Great Divide flavor should be called the Civil War flavor. The ice cream immediately reminded him of a time in history when our nation appeared to be irrevocably divided.”

Schmidley’s post has since gone viral. During a snack time ground discussion, the family talked about how the name of the ice cream may be misunderstood to represent the division that exists in our world because of different skin colors.That’s when the Schmidley kids brainstormed on a much better name: Better Together.

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"My husband and I are both teachers and together we teach our children, along with several of their friends, out of our home," Schmidley added. "We have a huge dining room table that is almost always full of people, which is just the way we think it should be."

The family then wrote a letter to Blue Bell with the suggestion and also posted the letter to Facebook, where it has since gone viral. The kids wrote, "We began to talk about the name and we think some people might misunderstand the name and think the name the Great Divide is about people and the division that exists in our world because of different skin colors."

As many people can imagine, the family has gotten their fair share of criticism, although plenty of fans are rallying behind the name change, too. Some critics have accused them of making Blue Bell look like a racist company while others simply think it’s a good idea to simply update the name to reflect more modern times.

Blue Bell for their part, doesn’t have any plans to change the name of their ice cream flavor anytime soon. The company said in a statement that families shouldn’t choose between two favorites and that’s why it’s best to choose two popular flavors in one container. A spokesperson for the company also added that the love the sentiment behind the Schimdley family’s idea but plan on keeping things just the way it is for now.