ABOUT AUNT JEMIMA

Sometimes, a grinning mammy on a bottle of pancake syrup isn’t just a grinning mammy on a bottle of pancake syrup.

… Quaker Oats, the owner of the 131-year-old Aunt Jemima brand, called it a “racist stereotype” and announced that it would drop the name altogether, and update its packaging. Uncle Ben’s and Mrs. Butterworth’s — two other beloved brands — announced that they, too, may soon follow.

In the midst of a national debate on life-and-death matters around racism and public safety, fussing about the logo on instant rice may seem trivial. It’s not. The images our society chooses to elevate are reflective of who we are, and more importantly, whose voices — and yes, even lives — matter.

A quick personal story. Though I didn’t realize it, I started thinking about this when I was 5 or 6 years old, the first time I came across a light pink “flesh”-colored Crayola crayon when coloring in a picture of myself. I put it back in the bin, pulled out “burnt sienna” or “raw umber” and continued whatever (probably “Star Wars”-themed) self-portrait I was working on.

… I say this not to come down on Crayola … They first phased out “flesh” crayons in 1962, replacing them with “peach,” and went even further this year by introducing a set of “Colors of the World” crayons that are reflective of some 40 skin tones.

But one of two things likely happened in 1949, when the company originally named the color. Either there were no black people in the room (probable, given the time); or worse — there were, yet nobody bothered to consider their existence. Simply put, Crayola made a choice to make widely available for decades a product that enforced the notion — however innocuously — that black people are invisible.