Going through one of my kitchen cupboards about a year or so ago I found a plastic container of Aunt Jemima Pancake Syrup. I never really noticed that the Best if Used By Date had passed. Did not matter it was still sweet and delicious. As I emptied the last bit onto my pancakes, I vaguely remembered hearing that the brand would be discontinued. So, I began doing some research even though I knew it must have something to do with race, and found the following statements; released by the company the now owns the Aunt Jemima Brand.

“We recognize Aunt Jemima’s origins are based on a racial stereotype,”

“While work has been done over the years to update the brand in a manner intended to be appropriate and respectful, we realize those changes are not enough.”

The rebranding move is to “[evolve] over time with the goal of representing loving moms from diverse backgrounds who want the best for their families.”

“We acknowledge the brand has not progressed enough to appropriately reflect the confidence, warmth and dignity that we would like it to stand for today.”

After reading the company statements, I began thinking back to my childhood up to my adult years. This product was used religiously. It was not because of what was in the package but because of who was on it. I never once heard from anyone, anywhere, use the words Mammy Stereotype until they discontinued the brand.

How would discontinuing this trusted brand help racial equality I thought. I must be missing something, but having this iconic woman on the product label did not conjure up thoughts of racism for me or anyone else in my small world of family and friends. It was just the opposite. Aunt Jemima was someone we trusted. I never had a racist thought toward the woman on the packaging. Nor did I have any thoughts toward Uncle Ben’s, or when I listened to the Jackson Five, Diana Ross, or Smokey Robinson. In fact, I believe, having these iconic and talented people helped erase racial inequality. We admired these talented people. I don’t remember seeing just Black Americans at a Diana Ross Concert and I am sure my family were not the only White Americans watching the Jackson Five when they performed on television.

I decided to do a little digging on the web and found a couple of interesting articles. The first one titled, “Family of Woman Who Portrayed Aunt Jemima Speaks Out About Quaker Oats’s Rebranding Decision.”

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/06/29/aunt-jemima-quaker-oats-rebrand

I found it interesting that in one paragraph one of the family members stated “she supports the decision” but in the following paragraph she is quoted as saying, “Erasing my Aunt Lillian Richard would erase a part of history. All of the people in my family are happy and proud of Aunt Lillian and what she accomplished.”

Why can’t we look at the good that came out of what these women (Nancy Green and Lillian Richard) accomplished. Here is a quote from another article, “The untold story of the real ‘Aunt Jemima’ and the fight to preserve her legacy.” “Her face on the box, that image on the box, was probably the one way that households were integrated.”

https://abcnews.go.com/US/untold-story-real-aunt-jemima-fight-preserve-legacy/story?id=72293603

No matter what changes or what part of our history gets erased or how many statues get taken down we just keep dragging our past into our future. In fact, it is worse currently then when there were worse racial issues and inequality in the earlier years of my life. So why do the politicians and the media remain so focused on race or any other issue that divides us? Who benefits from these divisive issues? I think many of us know the answer to that question. Just look at who has all the money, power and an agenda for the rest of us. Control becomes much easier when we are divided into smaller groups. The following is a paragraph from an article written in 2018 In Psychology Today. It’s a short read: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/moderating/201807/the-psychology-political-division

“The building blocks of society rely on morality (a belief in what is RIGHT and what is WRONG). A shared morality helps humans to bind together into cohesive social groups, and that allows us to live more productively and effectively. Inherent in this socialization process, however, is the division of individuals into groups to which we either belong or do not belong. Those who belong become our comrades; those who do not, our adversaries.”

“Our gut feelings about ideas inherent to our own group practices tend to be positive. Moreover, our feelings are powerful, primary, and difficult to change. Because of the primary and leading nature of gut intuitions of “RIGHT” and “WRONG,” our reasoning and thinking mind takes on the post hoc job of rationalizing our intuitions. In other words, the feelings come first, and the reasoning comes second.”

And that is why, in my opinion, we have the pissing contest we see everyday in the media, from the politicians, and in society. I believe the people who benefit from our division are afraid that more and more Black Americans are beginning to see things differently when it comes to some dividing issues. I believe if Black and White America ever united, the beneficiaries of division would have a more difficult time controlling us. And they know it. Why else would they try to erase the history of Aunt Jemima as a negative, instead of the positive impact these women had on race relations.

I think George Carlin described it best in a comedic way in the video “About why they keep us fighting with each other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edSLQJq3-dU