The Indigenous man who campaigned for more than two decades to get Coon Cheese to change its name has spoken about the backlash he's received.
Stephen Hagan urged Saputo Dairy Australia for 21 years to rethink the iconic brand name due to his concerns it had racial undertones.
During the height of the Black Lives Matter movement resurgence in Australia last year, the company revealed it would switch things up and would need a few months to decide on a new moniker.
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Last week it was revealed Coon Cheese would be rebranded to Cheer Cheese.
In the time since then, Stephen has been inundated with hate mail and said he's even received messages from white supremacists.
He told The Australian: "People don't like change and they have a lot of trouble accepting that Aboriginal people can have influence changing a racial slur.
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"They just see a black Australian bringing about change to an iconic food item."
He's since asked for police protection to ensure people who are so upset by the name of cheese don't track him down.
Queensland Police have deferred his request to the Northern Territory, a move Mr Hagan has dubbed 'disappointing'.
Among all the hate mail he's received, one stood out in particular for Mr Hagan.
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"How does it feel for your life to revolve around inferiority to the white man?" The campaigner said the letter was signed: "May the Aryan man rule forever."
In addition to the disgusting comments that have inundated his mailbox, Stephen was also annoyed Indigenous spokespeople weren't contacted for their consultation on the new name.
While the author and anti-racism activist admitted he was pleased at the idea of not seeing the racist term in supermarkets, he raised questions over Cheer Cheese.
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He told News Corp: "I would have liked it to be something a bit more inclusive of First Nations people. We weren't even consulted on names. We would like to have contributed.
"I'm happy with the name change; the new name doesn't worry me but I wish they'd changed the packaging too. If you look at the packaging quickly, you'd think it was still Coon cheese."
He added that he was given no warning of the announcement and saw it first on the news.
"Since then, I've had phone calls and emails from good old redneck Australians still holding onto a lily-white view of Australia where there are no challenges to their status quo," Hagan said. "Well, I'm happy to disrupt that."
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Dr Hagan is also pursuing legal damages of $2.1 million after he says companies undermined his claims that the cheese brand was not named after American cheesemaker Edward William Coon, and instead believes it was named after the racial slur.
Featured Image Credit: ABCTopics: Australia