Aunt Jemima brand to change name, remove image that Quaker says is 'based on a racial stereotype' - Syrup Lives Matter

Article: http://archive.is/pi6Os

The Aunt Jemima brand of syrup and pancake mix will get a new name and image, Quaker Oats announced Wednesday, saying the company recognizes that "Aunt Jemima's origins are based on a racial stereotype."

The 130-year-old brand features a Black woman named Aunt Jemima, who was originally dressed as a minstrel character.

The picture has changed over time, and in recent years Quaker removed the “mammy” kerchief from the character to blunt growing criticism that the brand perpetuated a racist stereotype that dated to the days of slavery. But Quaker, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, said removing the image and name is part of an effort by the company “to make progress toward racial equality.”

“We recognize Aunt Jemima’s origins are based on a racial stereotype," Kristin Kroepfl, vice president and chief marketing officer of Quaker Foods North America, said in a press release. “As we work to make progress toward racial equality through several initiatives, we also must take a hard look at our portfolio of brands and ensure they reflect our values and meet our consumers’ expectations."

Kroepfl said the company has worked to "update" the brand to be "appropriate and respectful" but it realized the changes were insufficient.

Aunt Jemima has faced renewed criticism recently amid protests across the nation and around the world sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.

People on social media called out the brand for continuing to use the image and discussed its racist history, with the topic trending on Twitter.

“It’s time to let go of symbols like this because of how weighted they are and what they represent,” Riché Richardson, an associate professor at Cornell University, told the “TODAY” show on Wednesday.

Aunt Jemima is “a retrograde image of black womanhood on store shelves," Richardson said. “It’s an image that harkens back to the antebellum plantation ... Aunt Jemima is that kind of stereotype is premised on this idea of black inferiority and otherness.”

The company's own timeline of the product says Aunt Jemima was first "brought to life" by Nancy Green, a black woman who was formerly enslaved and became the face of the product in 1890.

In 2015, a judge dismissed a lawsuit against the company by two men who claimed to be descendants of Anna Harrington, a black woman who began portraying Jemima in the 1930s, saying the company didn't properly compensate her estate with royalties.

Quaker said the new packaging will begin to appear in the fall of 2020, and a new name for the foods will be announced at a later date.

The company also announced it will donate at least $5 million over the next five years "to create meaningful, ongoing support and engagement in the Black community."

 

[Opiophile]

I'm favor of a new, better name! Maybe Fat Nigger Syrup! The slogan could be DASSS RITE! Uncle Ben's rice will be renamed Uncle Tom's rice, just watch.

 

[stuffandthings]

“The question becomes, ‘do we want to hold onto images that hearken back to a past when blacks were servants and expected to know their place?’” Richardson said. “People who are holding onto these symbols are almost suggesting that those are times they are nostalgic about. I don’t think people intend to send that message but at this time, we cannot afford to send mix messages.”

Yes. No mixed messages. Any black person who was anything more than an enslaved person, and less than a college graduate rocket surgeon sends mixed messages that some black people actually dared to smile and enjoy life and work while surviving a racist society. Let us erase from history that blacks were ever employed as servants by anyone. In fact, lets just go and erase from every news article, book, documentary, tv show, and biography the names of real black women and men who happened to be employed as servants. Just blot them from history like they never existed. That would be progressive, right?

 

[Foolish Samurai Warrior]

So what's next with this cavalcade of fail?

Famous Amos will soon be declared RAYCISS!

Pls no, that's my go to cookie brand.

 

[Cheesegirl78]

replace her with a fat white dyke with shaved sides and pronouns listed on the bottle to show support and solidarity for those who really pushed for this

Bite your tongue, that's probably in the works.

 

[Lunete]

Everyone wants to get mad at Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben for just existing but nobody wants to discuss the fact that "Captain" Crunch is wearing a commander's uniform?

 

[Deer Warts]

Everyone wants to get mad at Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben for just existing but nobody wants to discuss the fact that "Captain" Crunch is wearing a commander's uniform?

Stolen valor is the term, I believe.

Also, give the old Mrs. Butterworth ads a listen. That gentle lady is 100%, dyed-in-the-wool, grade-A Honky-American.

 

[Napoleon Bonerfart]

ALL PANCAKES MATTER

 

[Jason Wynn]

ALL PANCAKES MATTER

I'm a proud waffle supremacist! Just like my daddy and his daddy before him!

On topic: I can kinda get the reasoning behind Aunt Jemima. I think it's still autistic, but I get the reasoning. Uncle Ben though? How is he a racial caricature? Just looks like a regular old black dude to me.

 

[Napoleon Bonerfart]

It's not the picture. The "Uncle <black man name>" is a stereotype.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

https://www.theonion.com/quaker-oats-replaces-historically-racist-aunt-jemima-ma-1844015205

http://archive.is/93XG3

Aunt Jemima - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Marketing materials for the line of products centered around the stereotypical mammy archetype, including the slogan first used at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois: "I's in Town, Honey".[15] Anna Julia Cooper used the World's Columbian Exposition as an opportunity to address how young African American women were being exploited by white men.[18] She predicted the appeal of Aunt Jemima and the southern domestic ideal and went on to describe the north's fascination with southern traditions as part of America's “unwritten history”.[18] Progressive African American women[who?] post emancipation saw Aunt Jemima's image as a setback that inspired a regression in race relations.[citation needed]

Just let SJWs celebrate their kill. The target has been on Aunt J's back since at least 1893.

 

[WonderWino]

Now Mrs. Butterworth may be getting tainted now.

After Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben and Mrs. Butterworth Feel the Heat

The protests over police brutality and racism have led several companies to reconsider how they use African-American stereotypes in marketing.

www.nytimes.com

After Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben and Mrs. Butterworth Feel the Heat
The protests over police brutality and racism have led several companies to reconsider how they use African-American stereotypes in marketing.


View attachment 1384581

Uncle Ben, whose face has appeared on the box of rice since the 1940s, was promoted in 2007 from a servant to chairman of the board. Now, the brand will “evolve” further, a spokeswoman said.Credit...Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters
By Maria Cramer

• June 17, 2020, 6:10 p.m. ET

Within hours of the announcement that Aunt Jemima was being retired from store shelves, at least two more food companies rushed to respond to complaints about other brands that have been criticized for using racial stereotypes.
Mars Food, the owner of the brand Uncle Ben’s rice, which features an older black man smiling on the box, said on Wednesday afternoon that it would “evolve” the brand as protests over racism and police brutality across the country continue.

“We recognize that now is the right time to evolve the Uncle Ben’s brand, including its visual brand identity, which we will do,” Caroline Sherman, a spokeswoman for Mars, said. The company does not know the nature of the changes, or the timing, she said, “but we are evaluating all possibilities.”

Shortly after that announcement, ConAgra Brands, the maker of Mrs. Butterworth’s pancake syrup, released a statement saying the company had begun a “complete brand and package review.”

Critics have long associated the shape of the Mrs. Butterworth’s bottle with the mammy, a caricature of black women as subservient to white people.

The recent widespread protests have renewed the focus on food manufacturers who for decades have used racial images to sell rice, porridge mix, dairy products and snacks, among other products and services.
The companies have fielded complaints about these depictions before, and they have sometimes made adjustments. In 2007, Uncle Ben, whose face has appeared on the box of rice since the 1940s, was promoted from a servant to chairman of the board.
But Kevin D. Thomas, a professor of multicultural branding in the Race, Ethnic and Indigenous Studies Program at Marquette University, said he hoped the current push for change would finally lead to a substantial overhaul in the marketing world.
“I’m hoping this is a reckoning and we’re going to start seeing something that becomes pervasive,” Professor Thomas said.

What other troubling brands remain?
Quite a few, according to marketing observers.
The image on a box of Cream of Wheat, a beaming black man in a white chef’s uniform, has not been altered much since its debut in the late 19th century.



Image

The chef on the Cream of Wheat box has not been altered much over the years.Credit...Associated Press Photo

The character was named “Rastus,” a pejorative term for black men, and he was depicted as a barely literate cook who did not know what vitamins were. The brand is owned by B&G Foodservice.

For decades, many have expressed concerns about the matronly shape of the Mrs. Butterworth’s container.
“I think the key issue with Mrs. Butterworth is her physical shape, which strongly resembles the mammy caricature,” Professor Thomas said. “So while she’s been personified as an elderly white woman, mainly through vocal affect, her physique and style of dress bear a striking resemblance to that of the mammy.”

In its statement, Congara Brands said Mrs. Butterworth was “intended to evoke the images of a loving grandmother.” But the company said it wanted to stand in solidarity with “our black and brown communities, and we can see that our packaging may be interpreted in a way that is wholly inconsistent with our values.”
The images of placid, smiling African-Americans on commercial products were often created during times of racial upheaval, Professor Thomas said.

Characters like Aunt Jemima, who was first depicted as a mammy, followed Reconstruction when white people were scared of what it meant to live alongside newly freed slaves, he said.
Race and Policing ›
Recent Changes Sparked by the Protests

Updated June 16, 2020

• President Trump signed an executive to encourage changes in policing, including new restrictions on chokeholds. But the order will have little immediate impact, and does not address calls for broader action and a new focus on racism.
• Aunt Jemima, the syrup and pancake mix brand, will change its name and image amid an ongoing backlash, with its parent company Quaker Oats acknowledging that the brand’s origins are “based on a racial stereotype.”
• Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta issued a series of executive orders to overhaul the Atlanta Police Department’s use of force policies following the fatal shooting days earlier of Rayshard Brooks, a black man, by a white police officer. Earlier, New York became one of the first states to take action to restrict police forces, banning chokeholds and repealing a law that has kept police disciplinary records secret in the state.
• The New York police commissioner announced that he was disbanding the anti-crime unit, a plainclothes team of hundreds of officers that targeted violent crime and was involved in some of the city’s most notorious police shootings. The officers will be reassigned to other duties.
• For the first time, the reality television show “The Bachelor” will have a black lead. The show, which kicked off in 2002, has long received criticism for its lack of diversity.

“There was a lot of angst around that. There was terror and a sense of what does this mean for white supremacy?” he said.
Professor Thomas suggested that the advertisers were trying to market products around those fears: “Can we assuage some of that to get back to those quote-un-quote calmer days when we had the slave in the kitchen taking care of our kids?”

Another intent of stereotypes in marketing is to make some goods seem more exotic, experts say.
Chiquita Banana’s ambassador is Miss Chiquita, who carries a basket of fruit on her head and wears a tight, stereotypical Latin dance costume made up of ruffles.


View attachment 1384587
Image

Chiquita Banana’s ambassador, Miss Chiquita, is meant to portray something exotic, but that can have the effect of marginalizing people, one expert said.Credit...Marco Ugarte/Associated Press

“Chiquita Banana has that sort of alluring representation that is meant to give people this vision of something that is exotic and other,” said Rebecca Hains, a professor of media and communication at Salem State University in Massachusetts. “But othering people is really problematic. It marginalizes people and suggests that they’re not important or equal to the majority.”
This is not only a phenomenon in the United States. In 2009, a young Inuit woman publicly denounced Pascall, a candy manufacturer in Australia and New Zealand, for appropriating her culture to sell its “Eskimo” marshmallows and other sweets. The company refused to change the name.

Have companies dropped or modified brands in the past?
Indeed.
The Native American woman who once adorned packages of Land O’Lakes cheese and butter was removed this year.
Beth Ford, the Land O’Lakes chief executive, said in February that it was time the company recognize the need for “packaging that reflects the foundation and heart of our company culture.”

In 1967, Frito-Lay introduced the “Frito Bandito,” a gun-toting Mexican who spoke with a thick accent and threatened to steal chips from kids.

Mexican-American advocacy groups denounced the character and demanded the company stop using it to sell chips. Frito responded by making Frito Bandito less unkempt. His beard was shaved and his gold tooth was removed, but the character did not fully disappear until around 1971.

In the 1950s, the Sambo’s chain began opening pancake restaurants by the hundreds across the United States. The founders, Sam Battistone Sr. and Newell Bohnett, said the restaurant’s name was based on the first letters of their names. But the name was long reviled as racist, and in many towns the restaurant rebranded itself as “The Jolly Tiger” under local pressure.

Last week, the last Sambo’s in the United States, located in Santa Barbara, Calif., where the chain started, decided to finally change the name. For now, workers have covered the sign outside with a peace symbol, an ampersand and the word “love.”

Customers had circulated a petition this month seeking the change, and the owners agreed it was time.



“Our family has looked into our hearts and realize that we must be sensitive when others whom we respect make a strong appeal,” the restaurant owners said on Facebook.
“We are starting over and will try again until we get it done,” the owners said. “Let’s continue to pull together as a community and be better for this moment in history.”

View attachment 1384557

The syrup is racist now.

Edit for images and ease of reading.

Not to worry, they've already come up with two new ideas for what to replace the uncle bens logo with:

 

[Zero Day Defense]

It's not the picture. The "Uncle <black man name>" is a stereotype.

Because... black people have uncles?

 

[Snekposter]

They've got Uncle Ruckus (no relation).

 

[Deer Warts]

So I started looking around for other brand icons that might be due for revamping, and I came across this cutie. She won the Gerber Baby contest for 2020. But something about the pictures bothered me.


Well, it turns out, she's adopted! Lucky girl. Here's the fam.


Ladies and gentlemen ... progress?

 

[Dysnomia]

Pls no, that's my go to cookie brand.

Wally Amos is a real guy. And he is still alive. He's 83. If they try to claim a black entrepreneur who advocated for illiterate adults and hosted a tevevision show to teach them to read.

Just let some keyboard warrior who can't even wikipedia before they twitter try to declare Famous Amos cookies racist.

 

[Shield Breaker]

Wally Amos is a real guy. And he is still alive. He's 83. If they try to claim a black entrepreneur who advocated for illiterate adults and hosted a tevevision show to teach them to read.

Just let some keyboard warrior who can't even wikipedia before they twitter try to declare Famous Amos cookies racist.

Didn't Famous Amos basically get stolen from him?

 

[Full Race Replay]

They’re gonna get more mad about the black lady on the front than the high fructose corn syrup on the inside of the bottle...ok

 

[XYZpdq]

Didn't Famous Amos basically get stolen from him?

I don't know about stolen but yeah I recall something about the brand leaving his control relatively early in its life.
Also he was on the Taxi where Latka made cookies that were accidentally laced with cocaine.

 

[Inflatable Julay]

Ain't Jemima

 

[Terrifik]

HAHA
Aunt Jemima’s Great-Grandson Is Furious That Her Legacy Is Being Erased

Yesterday, we reported that Quaker Foods caved to calls to “cancel” Aunt Jemima, and that the brand will be renamed. Now, the great-grandson of the real Aunt Jemima, Anna Short Harrington, is speaking out to express his anger and disappointment that her legacy is being erased.
Great-Grandson Of “Aunt Jemima” Anna Short Harrington Speaks Out
“This is an injustice for me and my family. This is part of my history, sir,” Larnell Evans Sr. told Patch. “The racism they talk about, using images from slavery, that comes from the other side — white people. This company profits off images of our slavery. And their answer is to erase my great-grandmother’s history. A black female. … It hurts.”
Former enslaved woman Nancy Green debuted the first “Aunt Jemima” at the Chicago’s World’s Fair in 1893. Green was a cook who worked in the South Side of the city. She was hired to wear a headscarf and an apron while serving pancakes to those visiting the fair.
She continued to portray the character of “Aunt Jemima” until her death in 1923. Then, Evans said his grandmother Anna Short Harrington took her place.

RELATED: Now That Aunt Jemima Got Canceled, These Brands Might Be Next
Quaker Foods Uses Anna Short Harrington’s Likeness
Harrington worked as a cook for Syracuse University fraternities where members loved her pancakes. She was discovered by a Quaker Foods representative while serving her pancakes at the New York State Fair in 1935.
Quaker Foods hired her immediately and used Harrington’s likeness on products and advertising while also sending her all over the nation to serve her pancakes dressed as “Aunt Jemima,” making her a national celebrity in the process.
“She worked for that Quaker Oats for 20 years. She traveled all the way around the United States and Canada making pancakes as Aunt Jemima for them,” Evans said. “This woman served all those people, and it was after slavery. She worked as Aunt Jemima. That was her job. … How do you think I feel as a black man sitting here telling you about my family history they’re trying to erase?”
Evans, a 66 year-old veteran of the U.S. Marines who lives on disability, said that Quaker Foods also used Harrington’s pancake recipe. Her descendants tried to sue the company for $3 billion for not paying them royalties in 2014, but they lost the case.
RELATED: HBO Decision To Blacklist ‘Gone With The Wind’ Backfires When This Key Fact Comes To Light
Evans Doubles Down

Evans said that Quaker Foods should admit that they profited off images of slavery as well as the likenesses of Green and Harrington, rather than erasing them from shelves completely.
Some folks are like minded and shared their thoughts:

“How many white people were raised looking at characters like Aunt Jemima at breakfast every morning?” he said. “How many white corporations made all them profits, and didn’t give us a dime? I think they should have to look at it. They can’t just wipe it out while we still suffer.”

“After making all that money —and now’s the time when black people are saying we want restitution for slavery — they’re just going to erase history like it didn’t happen?” Evans added. “They’re not going to give us nothing? What gives them the right?”
But, Quaker Foods has announced that Aunt Jemima imagery and branding will be removed from all products by the end of the year.