Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

upset that local tesco has started selling Aunt Jemima

158 replies

pettywitchinlondon · 28/05/2015 18:34

Yes I know I don't have to buy and nore does anyone else but its a brand with such a racist past about bringing the taste from the plantation home with you and now that slavery is outlawed you can't have a black slave cook so buy this instead. I do think such toxic brands should be killed off.

OP posts:
ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 29/05/2015 13:03

I think a lot of people in the UK won't get the significance of the symbol especially as it has been updated from the more blatent stereotyping in the early advertisments. So I can see why, there might be a very different perspective between the UK and the US.

Taking the Adolph pancakes analogy - I'm not sure DH's family in North Africa would fully appreciate the significance because its not part of their collective history in the same way as it is in Europe. (Despite DH's father fighting with the French Army in WWII).

RingforJeeves · 29/05/2015 13:33

It's fine not to see the problem, if you haven't grown up with it or studied that particular period of history you'll most likely miss things like this. It took me a long time to connect the idea of 'Uncle Tom' and all that signifies to Uncle Ben's for example. I'd never heard it talked about, I think I actually thought 'Ben' was Mexican, I guess since I most often bought the Mexican flavours. I just didn't see it until I stumbled upon some of the older advertising.

But once it's pointed out to you, it's not on to just keep saying 'well I don't see the problem' or 'it's not like it's my history'.

This comes up a lot in regards to costume parties and blackface, (and yellowface, taping your eyes etc.) I can easily see how many people outside the US or even a younger person in the US might not be aware of the history there. That's fine, and understandable. Until you're made aware of it you can't know. But once you are made aware that it's offensive, be a decent person a don't do it. It amazes me how many people will fight for their right to smear shoe polish on their faces by claiming they didn't know, and if they didn't know then it can't possibly be offensive.

ChazsBrilliantAttitude · 29/05/2015 13:41

RingforJeeves
I agree entirely. Now I am aware of the background to this brand I won't be buying it but before this thread I might have done.

IKnowIAmButWhatAreYou · 29/05/2015 13:58

But once you are made aware that it's offensive, be a decent person a don't do it.

If it's any consolation, I have no intention of buying any...

FrankSpencer · 29/05/2015 14:04

That link, Momb, mentions Paula Deen in rather praiseworthy fashion. The very same Paula Deen who was dropped by certain brands that she fronted because of her racial slurs coming to light against black people and jews, using 'nigger' repeatedly and wanting male wedding staff to dress as 'slaves'? A quick Google Search should give you your info.

lljkk · 29/05/2015 14:07

I don't see why the brand can't be rehabilitated, it's not branded in a racist way now and not in the recent past either. Let something good come from the uncomfortable past. I wouldn't hesitate to buy the syrup (if I bought syrup at all).

In 80s-90s there was an American comic (in many of the daily US newspapers) that tried hard to reclaim the Confederate flag as a symbol of racial unity. The flag was often in there being waved as a symbol by (comic character) children of all ethnicities.

It's only a racist symbol if you insist on letting people interpret it that way.

FrankSpencer · 29/05/2015 14:20

But I don't see folks from all different backgrounds displaying the confederate flag nowadays, other than White people from the very South. So despite the comic attempting positivity, it just didn't seem to work. Some things are too ingrained.

WinterOfOurDiscountTents15 · 29/05/2015 14:22

It's only a racist symbol if you insist on letting people interpret it that way

Thats an awful cop out. And you don't let people interpret it that way, they interpret it however they see fit. And in this instance, they are interpreting it quite correctly.

And recent past is a matter of opinion.

Awadebumbo · 29/05/2015 14:30

Yes lljk why wouldn't the black ancestors of slavery want a reminder of 400 years of brutalization that was suffered on a handy syrup bottle. Depicting a happy carefree time when a black person had no rights or protections a white person had to respect.
If products were depicting a caricature of a Nazi Concentration camp inmate would that be ok?

mummytime · 29/05/2015 14:31

Has anyone mentioned the dreadful ingredients?
Whatever if people don't buy it Tescos will stop stocking it.

Stitchintime1 · 29/05/2015 14:37

People who say they don't see it are merely declaring their ignorance of something. That's how I see it. They don't know or can't see and think because they don't know and can't see that something isn't there. But it is. I hadn't thought of it, but 5 minutes googling was all it took to realise this isn't something some one woke up and thought about. It's an ongoing debate around media images of black people in the US.

Stitchintime1 · 29/05/2015 14:45

A particular example of that is the people who think it's just a funny picture or just a twee image. It's the very tweeness that is a problem. It rests on a portrayal of slavery as being a cheerful time in the America past. Happy black slaves. It's really pretty dreadful when you think about it.

Stitchintime1 · 29/05/2015 14:49

Some things can be rehabilitated but it usually has to be done by the people affected. Reclaiming the word, "queer" for example. But a big multinational can't do it even though they might want to.

ElkTheory · 29/05/2015 15:23

I would say that some images have very little chance of ever being freed from associations with their origins. The Confederate flag is one. It is still an image that evokes particular (frankly racist) views and a specific historical context. Similarly, despite Aunt Jemima's makeover, it is impossible to erase the connotations of the image.

let's face it there are those on MN who consider anything to do with the USA as something to be sneered at and looked down on.

That is, sadly, very true of MN. It is one of the most unpleasant aspects of this site.

Dawndonnaagain · 29/05/2015 17:52

It's only a racist symbol if you insist on letting people interpret it that way. That's a lazy copout if ever I saw one.

TheXxed · 29/05/2015 18:05

Aunt Jemima isn't rehabilitating and old image its sanitising it. I have included a few more accurate depiction of life in the antebellum to illustrate my point.

NickiFury · 29/05/2015 20:06

Sorry if it's already been mentioned but someone actually wrote a book about this. Have just ordered it.

Slave in a Box

Stitchintime1 · 29/05/2015 20:49

I saw that when I was googling. Looks interesting.

Aermingers · 29/05/2015 21:00

Yeah. Owned by Quakers. Those infamous proponents of slavery and racism. Hmm

Perhaps more reading up on the abolitionist movement is required?

ElkTheory · 29/05/2015 21:13

The Quaker Oats Company has no connection to the Society of Friends (the Quakers). Calling the company "Quaker" was just a marketing ploy.

Stitchintime1 · 29/05/2015 21:14

Was it? That is interesting. I was about to do some googling on them too.

Stitchintime1 · 29/05/2015 21:14

Presumably they adopted that name in order to sound wholesome and decent.

WinterOfOurDiscountTents15 · 29/05/2015 21:21

Perhaps more reading up on the abolitionist movement is required?

Um yeah. For you. Hmm

mummytime · 29/05/2015 21:43

Just read about Quacker Oats, I'm shocked about the experiments,in the 50s, feeding "mentally challenged" children radioactive oats? To trace uptake of minerals?