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

[brooklynite]

Source: NBC News

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."

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/aunt-jemima-brand-will-change-name-remove-image-quaker-says-n1231260?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Waiting for Uncle Ben's Converted Rice to follow suit.

"

[NurseJackie]

4. And "Rastus" on Cream of Wheat packages.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. Good point!

[dewsgirl]

13. Exactly my thought.

[OnlinePoker]

43. Done

Uncle Ben's owner Mars is planning to change the rice maker's "brand identity" — one of several food companies planning to overhaul logos and packaging that have long been criticized for perpetuating harmful racial stereotypes.
In a statement on its website Wednesday, Mars wrote that "now is the right time to evolve the Uncle Ben's brand, including its visual brand identity, which we will do."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/business/uncle-bens-rice-racist/index.html

[no_hypocrisy]

45. That's cool !

[hlthe2b]

2. Always interesting how long they wait to try and how they attempt to change an iconic brand...

Should be interesting.

[NurseJackie]

3. Minstrel and slave images... indeed. I'd almost forgotten...

https://www.google.com/search?q=old+aunt+jemima+packages&tbm=isch

Ugh.

[pansypoo53219]

5. the onion got there 1st.

[melm00se]

7. According to one source

"Uncle Ben" was an African American rice farmer from Texas who won many prizes for his methods and quality in growing rice and the picture itself is Frank Brown who was a maitre d' at a Chicago restaurant in the 1940s.

[Igel]

14. True or not,

it's been labeled and judged. To challenge it might well be deemed defending the underlying assumption, not the labeling and judgment, and have the label and judgment spread to include the defender.

[melm00se]

17. If judgment is to be passed

it must be done with all the information.

and that is what I have provided: additional information.

Not sure if my signature shows but that is sums up my belief and it is far more true than I would like.

[nilram]

21. +10

[denem]

22. And this one? Aunt Jemima 1950s

[LanternWaste]

38. What is the objective source you refer to?

[melm00se]

44. here's the source

https://www.prmuseum.org/pioneer-moss-kendrix

Uncle Ben, whose kind face smiles out at consumers from bright orange boxes of rice, was a real person. Uncle Ben was a rice farmer from Houston, Texas whose rice crop continually won awards for its high quality. In the 1940s, Gordon L. Harwell, who later became president of Uncle Ben's Converted Rice Company was dinning in a Chicago Restaurant with his partner planning the development of this famous company, when he saw the person whose familiar face is now widely known as Uncle Ben. The men decided to name the company after Uncle Ben, after the deceased farmer whose name stood for quality. To represent Uncle Ben the men used the restaurant's maitre d', Frank Brown whom they considered a good friend.

[TNNurse]

8. OMG, I am eager for the meltdown from some consumers.

They will complain about erasing history, it will be ridiculous.

[hlthe2b]

31. Yes... The mature among us realize the symbolism is wrong and needs to go

Admittedly, my first thought, though is from childhood--fond memories of family breakfasts and the iconic brand. We have surely evolved since childhood when we were unaware that images used to promote the product and the name had such negative connotations. Mature enough to know the time is past due, but still remembering that time of blissful innocence.

[bucolic_frolic]

9. Two of these brands were named for real people

Sort of like Orville Redenbacher, or Ben & Jerry. But Aunt Jemima was taken from a minstrel show in the late 1800s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima

https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1605/were-uncle-ben-and-aunt-jemima-real-people/

[riversedge]

10. Here is the current image and a bit of history of how the image came about...........

Link to tweet

?s=20





https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/aunt-jemima-brand-will-change-name-remove-image-quaker-says-n1231260?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma
................In a 2015 piece for The New York Times, Richardson wrote that the inspiration for the brand's name came from a minstrel song, “Old Aunt Jemima.”

The logo, Richardson wrote, was grounded in the stereotype of the “mammy ... a devoted and submissive servant who eagerly nurtured the children of her white master and mistress while neglecting her own.”

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."

[Voltaire2]

11. This was pointed out at least 50 years ago

All the corporations suddenly acting woke need to explain what they have been doing for decades.

[KS Toronado]

12. They'll change it to Aunt Jerry

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

23. Or Aunt Karen. nt

[FailureToCommunicate]

15. Here are a few more to take a second look at...

https://www.centerforcompassionateleadership.org/blog/five-books-on-systemic-racism-every-white-leader-can-learn-from

[heckles65]

16. It was a step in the right direction

to take the kerchief off of her. Now she could be a suburban housefrau who happens to be black. I don't know why they didn't knock the "Aunt" off her name at the same time.

[RhodeIslandOne]

30. Is "Aunt" the worst part of the name?

[hlthe2b]

33. Not sure... I once adopted a 4 yo cat named "Jemima" from her owners. She answered to the name

and no other. I felt very uncomfortable keeping the name, though. Fortunately, she was an indoor cat and I thus avoided the issue of calling her name in public. I didn't know her original owners, but the foster group seemed to think the naming was "innocent."

But, yeah. A black and white cat named Jemima--even 15 years ago--just seemed 'problematic.'

Not sure if I was overreacting then or now, but...

[FreddyWhite]

18. its about time!

Now it's time to drop the racist sports team mascots, The Chiefs, the Redskins, all of them!

[jmowreader]

24. What about the Spokane Indians baseball team?

When sports started getting woke, the Spokane Tribe of Indians (it’s in Eastern Washington) decided they liked the name and bought the team.

[LanternWaste]

39. Small, individual steps are by their very nature, individual in content.

Seems PepsiCo took a cost benefit-analysis and chose the potential for higher rather than reduced net market shares for a product.

[CTyankee]

29. Dartmouth used to be the Indians and at Ivy League football games they had a "mascot" which

was a student in body makeup, no shirt, pants and mocassins out doing war whoops. That got banned a few years back.

[RobinA]

19. So Only

images of white people are allowed to be brands now? Weird. Not very diverse.

[AwakeAtLast]

27. How about authentic images?

Madame C. J. Walker comes to mind. Her image was authentically used on her products It's not that difficult.

[BumRushDaShow]

35. Here is an example of the issue...

C.B. Stubblefield created and sold "Stubbs BBQ sauce" (that I buy) not long before he died.

Here he was -





And his product -




Contrast that with "Aunt Jemima" which was nothing more than a fictional trope whose stench is soaked in the American fabric and appears everywhere, including in "popular (bullshit) entertainment" like "Gone With the Wind" or "Tom and Jerry".






There are very few products out there nowadays with "faces" on the packaging (including "Better Crocker", another fictional character, that is not on any packaging). Nowadays, that type of thing seems to be limited to "private label" brands like Stubbs or Paul Newman's "Newman's Own" brand -

[LanternWaste]

40. Unsurprising someone would make that inaccurate inference

Removing perceived racist content does not imply the denial of all races as branding... intimating as such seems at best, irrational, and little more than another knee-jerk, triggered reaction.

[RhodeIslandOne]

46. Not really

It would seem highly unlikely those two brands would return with African American “figure heads” for their product as it would just lead to accusations of not having really done a thing.

Of course, I’m not really shocked to see you rather belligerent towards a fellow poster.

[Polybius]

20. I remember this commercial vividly from the 80's

[jmowreader]

25. And while they're at it...

Would it be possible to get rid of that 50,000-gallon drum of HFCS she makes her syrup with? It’s only the second ingredient.

[hunter]

42. It could be Yoshiyuki Takasaki's pancake syrup!

Commercial production of corn syrup began in 1964. In the late 1950s, scientists at Clinton Corn Processing Company of Clinton, Iowa, tried to turn glucose from corn starch into fructose, but the process was not scalable. In 1965–1970 Yoshiyuki Takasaki, at the Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) developed a heat-stable xylose isomerase enzyme from yeast. In 1967, the Clinton Corn Processing Company obtained an exclusive license to manufacture glucose isomerase derived from Streptomyces bacteria and began shipping an early version of HFCS in February 1967. In 1983, the FDA approved HFCS as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS), and that decision was reaffirmed in 1996.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-fructose_corn_syrup

[rictofen]

26. Just figured that out, did they

[geralmar]

28. Uh, guys...

[LanternWaste]

41. False equivalences are fun, but wholly without merit.

I've little doubt you're clever enough to take a step back to see the precise and relevant difference between the two.

Or not. Your choice.

[geralmar]

47. Happy now?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/other/acknowledging-derogatory-term-eskimo-pie-owner-to-change-ice-cream-s-name/ar-BB15J9Ea?ocid=AMZN

[Polybius]

48. That one hurt

I will always remember Eskimo Pies as a kid.

[BumRushDaShow]

32. Hallelujah!

[EX500rider]

34. Is the Irish Lucky Charms guy next? nt

[BumRushDaShow]

36. Anything considered a negative stereotype

should be removed.

In a number of cities, police vans used to be "Paddy Wagons" as a pejorative to denigrate the Irish with the trope of the "red-nosed drunkard Irishmen" who they always had to haul away to jail.

[Demonaut]

37. how it survived this long is a wonder, I've never bought the brand because of the stereotype