Because the term originates from a common English word, there are other pre-existing or unknowing uses of
beaner. For example,
beaner has been used to describe someone from Boston (
Beantown,
Boston baked beans,
Boston Beaneaters); when accidentally smoking a marijuana seed (alternatively called a
bean); a nickname (the 2012 book ''In Beaner's Backyard''); in coffee shops (for the
coffee bean); and for a
hit by pitch in baseball (
beanball). Awareness about the offensive meaning of the word is resulting in its usage being criticized and phased out of mainstream use: • On September 15, 2007, regional coffee chain
Biggby Coffee, having been called "Beaner's Coffee" since its founding in 1995, decided to change its name to Biggby Coffee in response to comments about the unintended slur in its name. Biggby CEO and founder Bob Fish said, "We ultimately felt we would be condoning the use of a disparaging term if we chose to do nothing". • In 2019, the use of the word
beaner in the
New York Times crossword, clued as "Pitch to the head, informally", generated controversy. New York Times crossword editor
Will Shortz claimed he knew that the term had a pejorative meaning, but he had never personally heard it used as a slur before and argued that "any
benign meaning of a word" ought to be "fair game" for inclusion in the crossword. Shortz ultimately apologized for including the slur. • In 2019,
Duluth, Minnesota coffee shop Beaner's Central changed its name to Wussow's Concert Cafe. Owner Jason Wussow stated that "Although the name Beaners was chosen twenty years ago out of innocent unawareness, it is undeniable that this word is xenophobic and offensive to many". == Use in film ==