Last week, the Quaker Oats Company announced that the famous name and image of Aunt Jemima – based on a former slave and Kentucky native named Nancy Green – are being pulled from those iconic pancake boxes and the brand name changed.
Yanking this offensive image was long overdue.
But there is a troubling side to “Aunt Jemima’s” demise.
There is nothing more dangerous than a righteous mob on the right side. All over the country, images of racism are being destroyed, torn down, or “disappeared.”
Mobs are running all over America right now, left and right, Twitter and Facebook, Democrat and Republican.
Each of them claims God’s ear and their morality. Mobs don’t think. They react.
Nancy Green, a former slave, and the origin of a historic marketing success would surely have been amazed to find herself at the epicenter of our racial agonies in 2020.
She made a ton of money for the people who hired her.
A symbol like Green is one of the best imaginable ways to teach racism and help white America comprehend it and accept it.
Even Quaker Oats got the message.
But like so many other figures in our history, noble and evil, Nancy Green is about to be “disappeared.”
She will, like those confederate generals, vanish from our memory or consciousness. When you kill off the image or the idea, the people behind it disappear too.
Why not use these images and tropes to teach people about racism rather than simply burn them, tear them down, or hide them from view?
It seems like a good idea to stop worshipping or enabling this endemic and inherently racist way of presenting both black people and the many defenders of slavery.
Why not use Nancy Green to call out the blatant hypocrisy of corporations who will exploit racism for profit for more than a hundred years until they watch the news and fear for their bottom line?
Could this be the first time this company understood that they have been promoting racist imagery for much of American history and tons of money?
People have been telling them for more than a century.
Aren’t some of these monuments and images a way of coming to terms with our history rather than trying to erase it altogether?
Nancy Green is a compelling argument against racism. If it were me, I’d teach her story in every classroom in America.
I knew nothing about this woman until this week, and I found her story profoundly moving.
I learned so much from it that I needed to know and was never told.
I’m not into declaring that I am or am not a racist, African-Americans don’t care. And the truth of it is that I don’t know.
I am into listening and learning, and I am grateful to Nancy Green for that.
I don’t want her to be on that pancake mix box, but I don’t want her to go away either.
Wouldn’t it fit for these statues and images to be used to achieve the opposite of the very thing they tried to promote: the glorification of slavery and oppression?
How are we supposed to face the awful truth of slavery if we can’t see all of it, and how it worked.
So much of it is invisible, unseen, and hidden away. Isn’t it time to bring it out into the light so we can all see it? We’ve been hiding from it and denying it for years?
Do we want to destroy the best evidence of what happened?
Although the current Aunt Jemina was not the original image, in the wake of the George Floyd killing, Quaker Oats, a subsidiary of Pepsi-Cola, suddenly acknowledged that the image was and is based on a racial stereotype.
They were finally convinced that this is was racist. Why didn’t they listen before?
To me, there is no question that the Aunt Jemima image is racist; it doesn’t seem close. (The best history I’ve read about Aunt Jemima and Nancy Green was written by Alicestyne Turley, you can read it here.)
In the corporate nation, it seems that it’s okay to be racist until someone – white consumers usually – threaten to stop buying a product, and then it’s gone.
Maybe the message of Nancy Green is that we need to listen to people before somebody has to get killed and buildings go up in flames.
Conservatives quickly pounced on the cancellation of Aunt Jemima to condemn what they are starting to call the “cancel culture.”
The left-right construct that is crippling our country makes it almost impossible to unite behind right or wrong, even on so horrific an issue like slavery.
Nancy Green sparked a bitter twenty-first-century controversy; her story bears witness not only to how racism works and how white people and businesses have enabled it but also to the art and power of storytelling.
Reagen Escude, a speaker at President Trump’s Arizona campaign event last week, created a Twitter firestorm when she described Nancy Green as “the picture of the American Dream.”
“She was a freed slave who went on to be the face of the pancake syrup that we love, and we have in our pantries today. She fought for equality, and now the leftist mob is trying to erase her legacy,” Escudé added.
Nancy Green’s story is more complicated than it might appear, but calling it the picture of the American Dream reveals the darkest and most ignorant side of white privilege.
I also find no historical evidence that Green was a political activist, a freed slave, she fought for her work and life.
Escude became a hero of Trumpism right away. She will soon pop up as one of those commentators on Fox News, or perhaps the White House Press Secretary. The President was a fan.
“And might I mention,” she added at the end of her talk, “how privileged we are as a nation if our biggest concern is a bottle of pancake syrup.”
Trump said he supported Escude’s position and congratulated her on her talk.
Escude added that Green was just the latest victim of the “leftist mob.”‘
So it works this way, another lesson in how racism works: instead of removing the racist image that started with Nancy Green, we decided instead that she was fortunate to be used in that way.
She made a lot of money for other people, white people, and perhaps the most horrid thing about that is that this is the American Dream.
Who cares about slavery?
To me, this is the dark side of Trumpism, this dog-whistling and winking and nodding at the most blatant examples of racism and white nationalism, examples any leader should be rushing to condemn.
The bad guys are not the few outlaw policeman who kill unjustly, the bad guys are the people from Black Lives Matter, who fight to keep those outlaws running around with guns and badges. This is the very inverted kind of moralizing that keeps racism alive.
This issue, along with the pandemic, is also the subtext of our election this year, the elephant in the room is now outside of the room as well.
If you wonder how racism works, the story of Nancy Green and Aunt Jemina can help you understand it.
It goes back to the worst parts of American history, all the way to today, and what could turn out to be the best in 2020: an honest and sincere reckoning.
Her story is the story. It needs to be told, not just banned.
I’m sorry Escude made her point in such a clumsy way and sorrier that this too became another partisan political issue, like the coronavirus, that people can ignore.
The fact that Escude presented it in such an obnoxious and insensitive way doesn’t mean she didn’t have a point. She did herself a disservice by phrasing it in that offensive way.
On both sides, we seem determined not to communicate with anyone but ourselves. That is the formula for stalemate.
For that matter, Escude’s cringe-worthy talk was itself was a powerful learning tool about how white privilege works. Her talk was all about that.
If it was okay to use this stereotype for 130 years, why is it important to drop it now, and only after white people started to complain? Perhaps things are beginning to change.
But for me, nothing is that black and white.
I get the feeling we are getting into the creepy habit of “canceling” or “disappearing” people who are stupid, offensive, or guilty of sexual crimes of harassment.
Eternal punishment, without beginning or end, our own kind of banishment.
It is so easy to judge people, so hard to understand them.
I wince at the idea of “disappearing” people, removing all traces of them, and executing their public selves. People ought to be responsible for the harm they do, but doesn’t it make sense to use them to understand the hard truths about our country?
And isn’t it more humane and compassionate? Nelson Mandela proved peaceful conciliation was possible if there was a will. He saved an awful lot of lives.
All over the world, victims of enforced disappearance have become a global human rights issue. They go missing when state officials seize them from the street or their homes, and they simply vanish—leaving their loves to search for them, often for years, and usually without resolution.
Sometimes they are tortured and killed, sometimes jailed. Nobody knows.
The very term “disappeared” has become harrowing. I hate the idea of “disappeared” people. All over Latin America, wherever dictators go, there are mothers marching in sun-baked plazas, looking for their sons and daughters.
This is a moral issue that is often lost in the moment. That’s the trouble with mobs. They can do everything but listen.
I feel for any African-American who ever had to see a statue of Robert E. Lee in their town, those statues need to go. But Lee’s life can be used in both ways.
So can Nancy Greem and the ghost of Aunt Jemima.
We can either obliterate Lee’s statue and pretend he was never here, or we can use him as a tool to understand how a man described by historians as a person of honor and character could have led the fight to preserve slavery in America.
Wouldn’t it be valuable to know how a man like that could not only live with such evil but fight for it?
Soon enough, he will have disappeared too.
I don’t believe that art we don’t like ought to be pulled down in the night and burned, any more than it’s right for people to burn books they don’t like.
I don’t believe art should be destroyed in the heat of the moment. Some artist spent years making those statues, they are our culture, like it or not. Take them down by all means, but art should be treated with respect, even if it is evil and must be taken away.
Values and symbols need to be understood and changed or corrected in the context in which they were made, and in the context that comes later. Each statue is a chance to learn.
So are those images of Aunt Jemima.
We change all of the time, what do we think future generations will think of our country in 2020? I shudder to think about it. Are we so pure and noble?
I wonder what they will choose to burn? Congress? Trump Tower?
Burning and obliterating images and objects – or statues or Aunt Jemima – doesn’t educate, it just destroys, like a tornado or a hurricane.
How did a woman described as intelligent and competent and loving end up as a minstrel show character developed by a white male in blackface?
How strange that it took a snarky and unfeeling Trump supporter to raise an issue that goes to the heart of liberty and democracy.
Everybody else was just howling for blood.
Photo of Nancy Green by Carrey Parrish.
Many of us bought this product and didn’t even pay attention to the picture. I’m sure her photo wasn’t the main reason this product sold so heavily. What about Uncle Ben? Never thought anything about his photo on the packaging. Didn’t consider it racist. Do you think things are going a little too far?
No, I don’t think it’s gone too far Nancy. The image has offended lots of people for many years. There is no reason for people to have to be offended by pancake mix. I just didn’t focus on it, neither did anybody else. I think that’s been the problem.
When growing up, Aunt Jemima reminded me of my nurturing and kindly grandmother, but a different color.
The boxes have changed over the years and had different models; the latest being modern and somewhat young and hip as opposed to maternal.
I recently read that at least one of the models (all were known for their fabulous cooking) was celebrated and became a millionaire. One could say that at least for one, her life did become the “American dream.
I also read that the relatives of the latest model are distressed over their loved one’s picture being removed from the product.
I think it’s sad that we cannot admire and celebrate those strong African American women who rose from the ashes of despair and oppression to become successful entrepreneurs and icons of American advertising.
Our country is fast going down the rabbit hole.
Is Aunt Jemima a long-time beloved icon representing a product that people have come to love and has now fallen victim to the politically correct crowd, or is she a derogatory racial stereotype based on the life of a real woman who never received the compensation and dignity she deserved. Is it possible to be both? That back story of Nancy Green’s life was eye opening.
My first trip to Disneyland was in 1972 at age 10. We stayed in a motel across from the park and the motel had a family restaurant named Sambo’s. We ate many meals there and I remember the food being very good. Sambo’s was in the same spot on my next two or three trips to Anaheim and then it was renamed. I don’t remember the new name. The menu and layout were nearly identical; only the name changed. It was then that I learned the negative connotation around the name Sambo. Maybe I was naive or maybe it was because I was Canadian and slavery wasn’t in the consciousness of most people in my country. To me it was just the name of a restaurant, no different from Denny’s or Jack in the Box. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the negative aura around certain words or expressions isn’t always universal. I understand why the name could be construed as offensive but at the time it was just a name, nothing more. There is a restaurant chain in western Canada called The White Spot. I half expect to eventually see a news story demanding that the name be changed because it sounds like the business promotes segregation. Where do we stop?
Things aren’t going too far- they have gone too far and not because the images on pancake mix are changing.
There are certainly teaching points to be had in the life of Nancy Green that should not be lost
I found this article to be helpful as well in helping me to Understand why this isn’t too far.
https://www.npr.org/local/309/2020/06/19/880918717/the-fight-to-commemorate-nancy-green-the-woman-who-played-the-original-aunt-jemima
Wow Jon, this is what we all need to hear. You cut right to the core of white supremacy that so many just can’t see. Thanks for the education.
I worry about this destruction of history Jon, it’s happening over here too, the students in Oxford want the statue of Rhodes removed, others want statues of others, like Churchill, responsible for the history of this Country, some have been torn down by mobs of angry people, others have been removed by Councils. My feeling is that you cannot re-write history but you can learn from it and, hopefully, make sure that these historical horrors are never repeated. If only the people rioting and causing damage could understand that a silent and dignified protest has a better chance of being noticed. When I was young I belonged to CND and went on several marches past military bases where the military personel stood behind the 12 foot fences jeering and hurling abuse at us, mostly women and children who walked past in silence and with dignity, by the time we’d reached the end of the perimeter fence there were no more service people because we kept silent and ignored them, I guess it’s humiliating to be ignored.
Keep, and teach the history.
Statues are put up to celebrate, and I believe we should NOT celebrate those willing and fighting to tear the United States apart to preserve their enslavement of other people. Dont forget what they did, but dont celebrate it.
Lets learn more about the people in our history, like Nancy Green, and lets help ensure that the struggles borne by people of color are lessened as we go forward.
I have an old Aunt Jemima syrup pourer that was in my family when I was a young child. I am conflicted over keeping it, as it is a childhood relic, or getting rid of it. It did belong to my mother and it was passed to me when she died. I have had it sitting on a dish rail in my dining room for years. I will keep pondering what to do with it. I hate just throwing anything plastic into a land fill, but I certainly know the connotation.
“To the victors go the spoils.” The winners write the history, and that is surely true here in the United States of America. The history we are taught in school as we grow up has “disappeared” anything that makes the United States look bad, and that continues to this day. We must speak truth to power, but how are most of us to lean that truth when it was disappeared before it could exist in our schools and untruths, aka lies, are spoken by leaders? Children learn from their parents and peers the many lies those folks have learned over time.