upset that local tesco has started selling Aunt Jemima

[pettywitchinlondon]

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.

I'm with those who do find the "black cook" image insensitive and would understand those who find it insensitive.

However, I'm utterly confused as to what is wrong with the name jemima. All the Jems or Jemimas ive know have been white and British. Is it a slave name?

Sorry. What I meant was I understand those who find it offensive.

Aer owned by Pepsi.

My googling has suggested that it's a stereotypical name for a black female slave.

American's must be amused that most British Jemima's are white and upper class.

It makes me think of Beatrix Potter more than Harriet Beecher Stowe.

However, I'm utterly confused as to what is wrong with the name jemima. All the Jems or Jemimas ive know have been white and British. Is it a slave name?

It has totally different connotations in America than the UK. Originally its biblical, Jemima was one of the three daughters of Job. In the US though, its very much seen as an archetypal slave name, and there is a lot bound up in that. You have to remember that slaves were renamed by their owners with "white" names and then with the brand, this name became practically slang for the stereotypical "Black Mammy" slave/domestic servant charicature. It's got strong connotations that have not gone away just because the image on the box has been sanitised.

This has been an eye-opening thread for me. I hadn't heard of the brand but I wouldn't have had any idea of the history from the modern packaging or the name. It makes complete sense now I've read more about it and I have no intention of buying any brands that use this kind of stereotype.

The company could easily rebrand as a completely different name and packaging with a new logo/figurehead. They are certainly a big enough company to cope with the marketing costs of a rebrand.