Social Aunt Jemima has been cancelled

[HockeyBjj]

Far too late OP

https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/product-cancel-thread-breakfast-as-we-know-it-is-over.4115171/

Uncle Bens, Mrs. Butersworth, and Cream of Wheat guy have also been slain

 

[jx820]

Why would she be cooking pancakes in a nice dress?

For the same reason Aunt Jemima pancakes thought this white woman would.

Also, she wasn't cooking pancakes. At best she was posing with pancakes. She was a brand embasador.

 

[jx820]

Is that really a slave costume though?

That's just kind of how people looked like in those days:

Funny I looked up African American fashion 1920s, and no one looked like that.

 

[TheGreatA]

Funny I looked up African American fashion 1920s, and no one looked like that.

None of those people were cooking.

It's obvious that the character wasn't supposed to represent a stylish urban person.

 

[Hadron90]

You know there were nice clothes in the 19th century. Moreover, you do understand that Quaker Oats had the money to buy one or two nice dresses for their wardrobe. See the white lady below:

She's always depicted poorly dressed, typically in servitude and enjoying her servitude. Always waiting on white people.

Chef Boyardee got a chef's uniform and a hat with his name on it.

She could triumph in a nice dress and without wearing a slave costume. Treating her like a person instead of a cartoon slave isn't erasing the past. Not celebrating slavery isn't saying it didn't happen. It's just saying it was bad.

She wasn't a slave anymore. She was a corporate spokesperson and brand embassador.

Ok guys, based off jx820's criticism of the Aunt Jemima character, I have designed a new, political correct boxart that emphasizes her wealth, non-slave heritage, corporate sponsorship, and that downplays ministrel stereotypes like white smiles.

 

[jx820]

None of those people were cooking.

It's obvious that the character wasn't supposed to represent a stylish urban person.

Oh, you are sooo close to actually getting it.

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

It’s an indisputably racist holdover from a foregone era

Bullshit. Seems to me to have been been effectively disputed in this very thread. Instead of claiming there is no dispute that the symbol is racist, why don't you make an argument explaining how it is racist. Maybe you could explain when it is and when it isn't right use the image of black people in advertising.

 

[Lowiqredneck]

Having lived in the South forever, I have never seen a single person denigrate aunt Jemima, nor hold her in anything but an endearing light.

Nancy Green seemed like a wonderful soul. I don't think there should be any shame attached to the likeness on those syrup bottles over all these years.

 

[jx820]

Ok guys, based off jx820's criticism of the Aunt Jemima character, I have designed a new, political correct boxart that emphasizes her wealth, non-slave heritage, corporate sponsorship, and that downplays ministrel stereotypes like white smiles.

Or, here's another take on it. What about something like this, only with Nancy Green:

Modern kitchen, not serving slave masters, hair done, well dressed spokesmodel.

Honest question, is that a crazy representation for a black woman, but not a white woman?

 

[TheGreatA]

Oh, you are sooo close to actually getting it.

Is it racist to depict a poor black woman as they were?

All I see is just a bunch of people erasing history because they want to pretend it was all sunshine and rainbows for everybody.

 

[Hadron90]

Or, here's another take on it. What about something like this, only with Nancy Green:

Modern kitchen, not serving slave masters, hair done, well dressed spokesmodel.

Honest question, is that a crazy representation for a black woman, but not a white woman?

The modern Aunt Jemima logo has all those elements though. She is wearing a white collar and has pearl ear rings.

And what is ironic about your picture, is that it would be cancelled today also. There is no way you could depict a woman in an apron cooking without offending someone now.

 

[Hadron90]

Having lived in the South forever, I have never seen a single person denigrate aunt Jemima, nor hold her in anything but an endearing light.

Nancy Green seemed like a wonderful soul. I don't think there should be any shame attached to the likeness on those syrup bottles over all these years.

Same. I never viewed her a slave, subservient to me. I never even really emphasized her blackness. She just looked like a friendly grandma who wanted to make pancakes for the grandkids.

 

[jx820]

Is it racist to depict a poor black woman as they were?

All I see is just a bunch of people erasing history because they want to pretend it was all sunshine and rainbows for everybody.

No, but that's not what they were doing. We've gone over that ad nauseam.

• Charicature, based on a minstrel show, based on slavery, but happy slavery with lots of deep heart felt smiles.
• Really she was a corporate brand embassador living in Chicago playing a character mocked up by a publisher from Milwaukee.

There are sources of historical information and reference points to history beyond breakfast food packaging. There are acutally whole books and even whole museums dedicated to the subject of slavery. So if your pancakes don't remind you of slavery, and that's for some reason a problem, you still have other resources at your disposal.

 

[Hadron90]

No, but that's not what they were doing. We've gone over that ad nauseam.

• Charicature, based on a minstrel show, based on slavery, but happy slavery with lots of deep heart felt smiles.

The name is from a minstrel show (one written by a black comedian, and that was very popular with blacks). The character itself shares the name only. She is derived from the actual model, who by all accounts was exactly as she is depicted here. She was a former slave who became a cook afterwards, then picked up by the brand and travelled the country doing cooking shows and becoming a celebrity. Its not some fake story. She really WAS a former slave that went on to have a lot of success because of smiles and pancakes. Its a true story, not a caricature.

 

[jx820]

The modern Aunt Jemima logo has all those elements though. She is wearing a white collar and has pearl ear rings.

And what is ironic about your picture, is that it would be cancelled today also. There is no way you could depict a woman in an apron cooking without offending someone now.

Yeah, I think they did the best the could with the redesign. The name is still the name, but nobody could object to that look in and of itself.

Unfortunately it's probably just a situation where you can't scrub the origins off the product. Same as some people won't buy a Mercedes or Hugo Boss because of the holocaust, and some people won't go see a Cleaveland Indian's game. At some point it's not worth the hastle. You just rebrand the damned pancakes.

 

[TheGreatA]

The name is from a minstrel show (one written by a black comedian, and that was very popular with blacks). The character itself shares the name only. She is derived from the actual model, who by all accounts was exactly as she is depicted here. She was a former slave who became a cook afterwards, then picked up by the brand and travelled the country doing cooking shows and becoming a celebrity. Its not some fake story. She really WAS a former slave that went on to have a lot of success because of smiles and pancakes. Its a true story, not a caricature.

Some notes about this comedian:

Despite Kersands's reinforcement of negative black stereotypes, very few African Americans disdained his act. Part of his appeal for them lay in his mixing of elements of African American folklore into his show in a way that would appeal to his black audience but be ignored or derided by whites. "Old Aunt Jemima", one of his signature songs, serves as a good example. The song exists in three texts, two published 1875 and one in 1880, suggesting that Kersands made up verses as he sang. All three versions begin in a church, a locale that white minstrels tended to avoid. The 1875 texts describe charismatic black worship practices, but the 1880 edition begins with a black character fleeing a white church because they "prayed so long".[8] Verses from the song soon entered the African American tradition and appeared in later collections of folklore. Other songs Kersands performed featured African American elements like talking animals and weak-versus-strong match-ups. His popularity led many theatre owners to relax rules limiting black patrons to specific sections of the playhouse.

Seems to me like it might not be such a great idea to erase all of this stuff from history.

 

[Mamba Mentality]

Funny I looked up African American fashion 1920s, and no one looked like that.

Dude, you are GONE. How emotional can you get? So sensitive over this issue, you must suffer racism everyday.

 

[MMA Time Soldier]

Popeye's Chicken Lady? Should she be cancelled for promoting a stereotype?

 

[jx820]

The name is from a minstrel show (one written by a black comedian, and that was very popular with blacks). The character itself shares the name only. She is derived from the actual model, who by all accounts was exactly as she is depicted here. She was a former slave who became a cook afterwards, then picked up by the brand and travelled the country doing cooking shows and becoming a celebrity. Its not some fake story. She really WAS a former slave that went on to have a lot of success because of smiles and pancakes. Its a true story, not a caricature.

Except she's a well to do professional living in the city and working as a model and spokesperson in clothes that were picked out by a wardrobe department to make her look like she's none of the things I just mentioned, and painted into slavery era imagery of a bygone era.

 

[jx820]

Dude, you are GONE. How emotional can you get? So sensitive over this issue, you must suffer racism everyday.

I'm not even upset honestly. I just like to argue, and this shit is easy. Tell me a successful woman living in chicago in the 20s is dressed like field worker and it's just practial to google what urban people of the era dressed like.