Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Quaker’s Aunt Jemima on way out
New sensitivity also to end Uncle Ben, Mrs. Butterworth
Quaker Oats is retiring the 131-year-old Aunt Jemima brand, saying Wednesday that the company recognizes the character’s origins are “based on a racial stereotype.”
Just hours later, the owners of the Uncle Ben’s brand of rice and Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup announced that they will rebrand in response to concerns about racial stereotyping.
Quaker, which is owned by PepsiCo, said its overhauled
Aunt Jemima pancake mix and syrup will hit shelves by the fourth quarter this year. The company will announce the new name at a later date.
“We recognize Aunt Jemima’s origins are based on a racial stereotype,” said Kristin Kroepfl of Quaker Foods North America. “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 Aunt Jemima brand has its roots in a 19th-century minstrel song, “Old Aunt Jemima,” that expressed nostalgia for the South in the time of slavery. The brand was once described by Riche Richardson, an associate professor of black American literature at Cornell University, as “an outgrowth of Old South plantation nostalgia and romance grounded in an idea about the ‘mammy,’ a devoted and submissive servant who eagerly nurtured the children of her white master and mistress while neglecting her own.”
Nancy Green, the first
woman to play the role of Aunt Jemima for the brand, was born a slave in Kentucky in 1834.
The Aunt Jemima image has evolved over the years to meet socially acceptable standards of the times, but the brand could not shake its history of racial stereotypes and connections to slavery. By 1989, Aunt Jemima had lost weight, abandoned her kerchief and looked more like a typical modern housewife. But the image and brand tweaks over the years were apparently not enough.
“The reputation of that brand, now more than 130 years old, was built on a racial and cultural stereotype that is widely regarded as offensive,” said James O’Rourke, professor of management at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. “Brand managers have been aware of that for years and have tried,
largely through incremental updates to the character’s image on the packaging, to modernize how she is seen. The headscarf is gone, they’ve added a lace collar, pearl earrings. But the effect, because of the name, is the same.”
PepsiCo also announced a five-year, $400 million initiative “to lift up black communities and increase black representation at PepsiCo.”
In the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, activists and consumers have demanded that companies take a stand against racial injustice or lose their business. The singer Kirby posted a TikTok video called “How to Make a Non Racist Breakfast” explaining some of the backstory of the Aunt Jemima brand. That video was widely viewed.
Caroline Sherman, a spokeswoman for Mars, which owns Uncle Ben’s, says the company is listening to the voices of consumers, especially in the black community, and recognizes that now is the
right time to change the brand, including its visual identity.
A spokeswoman for Uncle Ben’s rice, whose products feature a smiling black man whose name and image evoke Jim Crow-era stereotypes, vowed that the brand was planning changes. “We recognize that now is the right time to evolve the Uncle Ben’s brand, including its visual brand identity, which we will do,” read an emailed statement from the company.
“As a global brand, we know we have a responsibility to take a stand in helping to put an end to racial bias and injustices,” it read.
Conagra Brands Inc., similarly, announced a “complete brand and packaging review” for its Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup, which comes in a bottle shaped like a woman. The original design was based on Thelma “Butterfly” McQueen, the black actress who portrayed Prissy, a maid in Gone
With the Wind. That film was temporarily removed from HBO Max’s lineup recently
because of its racially insensitive themes.
“We stand in solidarity with our Black and Brown communities and we can see that our packaging may be interpreted in a way that is wholly inconsistent with our values,” Conagra said in a statement.
Land O’Lakes announced earlier this year that it would no longer use the American Indian woman who had graced its packages of butter, cheese and other products since the late 1920s.
The Washington Redskins football team, whose name and mascot have been subject to fierce debate for years, sparked accusations of hypocrisy earlier this month when it participated in a broader effort to support Black Lives Matter by posting a black box on social media.