More details have emerged in Sean Diddy Combs’ lawsuit against the liquor conglomerate Diageo, which had been partnered with the artist/producer/actor/whatever else he does now on the distribution and marketing of his Cîroc vodka and DeLeon tequila brands. They’re not great! Rolling Stone obtained an unredacted version of the suit (filed in New York State Supreme Court in June) and reports that one of Combs’ examples of Diageo’s allegedly “racially insensitive behavior” is that, despite his explicit objections to the idea (emphasis mine):
Diageo showed up in person to Mr. Combs and his team with a developed watermelon-flavored DeLeon Tequila. They did this despite DeLeon not having flavored tequila, Mr. Combs’ consistent objection to adding flavors, and the efforts to educate Diageo about the racial history and connotations relating to watermelon.
In the suit (the general thrust of which is that the multinational booze firm deprioritized and hamstrung Diddy’s booze brands due to racism) Diddy also claims the brands’ handlers regularly referred to them as “urban.” Just in case you can’t quite hear the dog whistle, the term was allegedly used in an internal Diageo presentation to describe Cîroc as an “urban African American brand tied to one personality.” The suit also has Diddy alleging that one Diageo executive “admitted” to him that “race was part of the reason Diageo limited the neighborhoods where the Combs brand were distributed.”1 So, y’know, not exactly microaggressions we’re talking about here.
Regardless of the veracity of any of these allegations (which for now remain that and only that), I think it’s insane and wonderful that Diageo didn’t immediately sort this out away from the public eye.