Outrage and America's desperate grasp on rotten nostalgia
So Aunt Jemima... she’s causing quite a stir all over the country. Last week, PepsiCo and Quaker Oats announced that the Aunt Jemima brand is being phased out. The company says it recognizes the character’s origins are “based on a racial stereotype.”
Wow, do folks have some strong opinions about this decision. I’ve seen people less passionate about religion and babies than they are about Aunt Jemima’s retirement. Two things to bear in mind:
She’s old. She deserves to rest.
She is a fictionalized character, born out of something truly cruel.
Aunt Jemima was first introduced as a character in a minstrel show — an American form of entertainment developed in the late 19th century. The inspiration for her specifically came from the song “Old Aunt Jemima” written by a black performer named Billy Kersands in 1875. Performed by men in blackface, it depicted a slave “mammy” caricature of the plantation South. The shows were predominantly performed by white people in blackface, portraying Black people as dimwitted, lazy, easily frightened, chronically idle, superstitious, happy-go-lucky buffoons — demeaning and dehumanizing them into racist stereotypes.
Nancy Green
Spokeswoman for the Aunt Jemima brand from 1890-1923.
Nancy Green, a former slave, became the first face of the Aunt Jemima brand in 1890. Her amicable personality and talent as a cook helped establish a successful showing of the new product at the World’s Columbian Expo in Chicago, and Green was offered a lifetime contract to adopt the Aunt Jemima moniker and promote the pancake mix. She remained the working face of the brand until her death in 1923.
This is a success story! Nancy Green received recognition and success because of her work with this brand. But I urge you to remember that Nancy came later. Aunt Jemima wasn’t created by Nancy nor was it created to be a likeness of her. The racist stereotype came first. Her origins speak to something far more derogatory and insidious.
It’s time to let her go.
It feels like a good time to put this tired brand to rest. Don’t panic; the product you know and love (which is nothing more than wheat flour, corn flour, lime phosphate, and salt) can remain. You can have your pancake mix and fake syrup, but they’re going to tone down the celebration and ridiculous musical variety show part of kidnapping people from their homeland and enslaving them.
I’ve mentioned before that I live in a unique place in the world, one foot rooted in my sweet Southern home town, the other planted firmly in the radical big city. And what do I do in the radical big city? I’m a brand marketer. Lots of businesses pay me good money to bring their brands to the masses and bring the masses back to them.
Part of my job is to help business owners understand what the opportunities are, and where the threats lie. Marketing Fun Fact: it is shockingly easy to create a brand, franchise, product, or sports team without offending or marginalizing people. And when, 130+ years into a products’ life cycle, they are ready to admit they are promoting a product that offends and marginalizes, it is our imperative as brand managers to evolve. Rule of thumb: when in doubt, use a duck. Everyone likes ducks.
I don’t want to be unfair here. The Aunt Jemima brand worked for a lot of people for a long time. In a world run by white men, this branding made total sense to them as they wistfully remembered a time before the “War of Northern Aggression” swept through and stole their way of life. But now the women are here, and the people of color are here, and we are tired of being reduced to a stereotype. When you marginalize a group and promote a horrendous piece of history, it’s time — as a brand — to evolve. Aunt Jemima has overstayed her welcome.
Riché Richardson, a professor of literature at Cornell University, said Aunt Jemima epitomizes a comfort that some Americans take from imagery of Black servitude. One so normalized that it’s on their box of pancake mix.
“The question becomes, ‘do we want to hold onto images that hearken back to a past when Blacks were servants?’” Richardson said. “People who are holding onto these symbols are almost suggesting that those are times they are nostalgic about.”
Do it better
If my mother taught me anything, it was to always wear more blush. But she also told me to move forward. Be creative. Do it better than the generation before me.
Other companies have made similar decisions in recent days, including Land O’Lakes and Uncle Ben’s. This isn’t the first time brands have revised names or packaging or product lines because people demanded change. The beauty industry, in particular, has fought this battle hard.
Jon Stewart (of former The Daily Show fame) made a statement after the 2016 Presidential election that has stayed with me since.
“America is not natural. Natural is tribal. We're fighting against thousands of years of human behavior and history," Stewart said. "That's what's exceptional about America... this ain't easy. It's an incredible thing.”
I can appreciate the “last straw”-ness of it all that some of you may be feeling. A brand you’ve known and loved and trusted for years is changing, and nothing is worse than change you didn’t ask for and don’t want. It’s change on top of more change right now; the world is moving far too quickly for those who don’t want change. On the other hand, it’s changing at an agonizingly slow pace for those of us who need change.
No one’s happy right now. But aren’t you tired? Aren’t you completely exhausted being outraged all the time? Isn’t it easier to just let a company do what it feels it needs to do? Hank Green (of the famed VlogBrothers) created the best video articulating perfectly my thoughts on America’s addiction to outrage. Everyone should have to watch this before they post something on Facebook.
Let’s move toward a more hopeful place and bring everyone we can with us. Our ability to embrace others and grow and evolve and progress — it’s the one thing that truly makes America great.
