The slow passing of Aunt Jemima

Americans learned recently that Aunt Jemima’s racial stereotype brand and visage would be retired soon.

With increased awareness and consciousness of Black victims of police brutality and deaths, highlighted by that of George Floyd just over a month ago in Minneapolis, the majority of Americans seem to seek justice for all, finally.

Quaker Oats (PepsiCo), which owns the Aunt Jemima Brand, announced recently that it would remove Aunt Jemima, her name and her image from its products, including the pancake mix and syrup that we all know.

Named for a minstrel song and character called “Old Aunt Jemima,” the namesake ready-made pancake mix was first sold in stores in 1889. R. T. Davis bought the brand in 1891 and hired Nancy Green, a cook and former slave born in 1834 in Kentucky, to take on the character and become Aunt Jemima spokeswoman.

Anna S. Harrington, a cook and former sharecropper, picked up the role of Aunt Jemima in 1935 and apparently became a celebrity when then owner Quaker Oats flew her around the country to demonstrate how to make pancakes. The whole image was intended to glorify and romanticize antebellum plantation life, a reason the popular country group Lady Antebellum just changed its name as well.

Aunt Jemima’s appearance on boxes of pancake mix and bottles of syrup morphed through the decades as did that of Betty Crocker, but for many different reasons.

Aunt Jemima’s first facial image portrayed her as the slave cook she had been, complete with scarf tied around her head, polka dot dress and a chubby body that evoked trust that her food would be good and pleasing to the master. Several women subsequently played the Aunt Jemima role, and her image ended up looking like a beautiful Grammy Award-winning rock star, still Black.

Of course Aunt Jemima’s products have quickly disappeared from grocery shelves, even their Butter Rich syrup whose label announced in large letters, “Contains No Butter.”

Meanwhile, Uncle Ben’s Rice is being phased out too, as will be Mrs. Butterworth’s everything, and possibly even Eskimo Pies, the vanilla ice cream bars dipped in chocolate. But don’t Alaska Airlines planes sport a rendering of an Eskimo on their sides?