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So you want to know why the Aunt Jemima brand is changing it’s name and look? Read this thread #AuntJemima #AuntJemimaMatters
It was created in 1889 by Chris Rutt and Charles Underwood and is named after a song from a play in which men would where black face and dress as an older woman. The play, and in turn the syrup itself, used the Mammy caricature.
During slavery, the mammy caricature was posited as proof that blacks -- in this case, black women -- were contented, even happy, as slaves. Her wide grin, hearty laugher, and loyal servitude were offered as evidence of the supposed humanity of the institution of slavery.
Abolitionists claimed that one of the many brutal aspects of slavery was that slave owners sexually exploited their female slaves, especially light-skinned ones. The Mammy caricature was deliberately constructed to suggest ugliness.
Mammy was portrayed as dark-skinned, often pitch black, in a society that regarded black skin as ugly, tainted. She was obese, sometimes morbidly overweight. Moreover, she was often portrayed as old, or at least middle-aged.
The attempt was to desexualize mammy. The implicit assumption was No white man would choose a fat, elderly black woman instead of the idealized white woman. The de-eroticism of mammy meant that the white wife -- and by extension, the white family, was safe.
It’s not we’ll know anymore but the racism is still apparent in the brand today (albeit toned down), and I’m happy the company has chosen to revamp itself to distance itself from its now racist undertones (Uncle Bens is also following suit)
