Aunt Jemima

[K.P.]

Re: Aunt Jemima

So, Bruce, I think you and I are saying here (and so politically uncorrect we are!)
that people from Colombia walk around with donkeys and deal in drugs, legal and illegal....()


("psssst..hey lady..interest you in a double shot latte?")

[CaptainKen]

Re: Aunt Jemima

Aunt Jemima, Uncle Remus, Amos and Andy, Little Moron jokes, Indians ... all were icons of a bygone age with no discrimination intended, given nor taken. "Political correctness" killed that innocence.

Today we are just as segregated, racially offending, and even more intolerant of differing religious and political beliefs as we were then, just in different ways.

[Proboxfan]

Re: Aunt Jemima

I'm 1/8 Indian (it's hard to tell by looking at me), but I'm not offended as some people are by say, sports teams calling themselves The Indians, The Braves, The Redskins, and such.

Most times those symbols are revered, and not minimized or caricaturized. Why take offense when someone or some institution is seeking to elevate your status as opposed to demeaning it?

I agree, I think many people are too sensitive, and misconstrue the intent or meanings of such portrayals.

[wanda]

Re: Aunt Jemima

I HATE Aunt Jemima!
Can’t white people understand why?
For almost 100 years, a company USED "Aunt Jemima" the "Mammy" stereotype of black women.
The Mammy stereotype has a long and complex history and is born largely out of a romanticized view of slavery and U.S. apartheid.
When Abolitionists (those who opposed slavery) began to focus their attention on the sexual exploitation of black women by white men, supporters of slavery responded by creating the myth of the "Mammy."
At a time when white culture looked down upon dark skin, thick lips, obesity and kinky hair, Southern slave holders capitalized on these characteristics and the black woman as Mammy became part of American iconography.
Mammy was purposefully imagined as asexual - and not sexually desirable - and was confined to a maternal and care-giving role. She fed and catered to the needs of the white family - and was "happy" serving in that role.
But "house slaves" were not a staple of the antebellum South. Most slave holders could not afford to have enslaved people working both in the home and in the fields. Only after the end of slavery and the disintegration of Reconstruction did black women come to work in the homes of whites in significant numbers. Racism (and sexism) in the Jim Crow South left black women with few employment opportunities. For many, serving as housekeeper, domestic servant or nanny in white homes was the only option.
The brand name "Aunt Jemima" derives from a 19th-century minstrel song. To build name recognition, the pancake company sponsored a promotional campaign featuring performances by "live Aunt Jemimas" who flipped pancakes and told stories about the "old days." For nearly a century, the Aunt Jemima image fed into long-held misconceptions of slavery and Jim Crow.
In 1989, the company replaced the historical Aunt Jemima - the most famous American Mammy - with a pearl-adorned "black housewife" figure.
Quaker Oats' decision demonstrates that we often do have control over the images selected to represent people. Are there contemporary brands of food, clothing and housewares that use demeaning logos? What can you do to encourage companies to stop using them?
Do you KNOW what it's like to have to live with that EVERY day?

Does anybody know what ever happened to Aunt Jemima on the pancake box?
Rumor has it that she just up and disappeared.
WELL I KNOW THE REAL STORY!

You see I ran into Aunt Jemima one day.
She told me she got tired of wearing that doo rag wrapped around her head.
And she got tired of making pancakes and waffles for white people to eat while she couldn't sit down at the table. She told me that Lincoln emancipated the slaves but she freed her own damn self. You know the last time I saw Aunt Jemima, she was driving a Mercedes-Benz with a bumper sticker on the back that said,
"FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST, THANK GOD ALL MIGHTY, I'M FREE AT LAST"

[Proboxfan]

Re: Aunt Jemima

I've heard of a Fish Named Wanda, and this Wanda is indeed, very fishy!

[theherd]

Re: Aunt Jemima

Very fishy!

[K.P.]

Re: Aunt Jemima

Say what you will about Aunt Jemima, she sure could whip up some pancakes....






....Kevin..is that YOU? This is not the place to be grinding axes....

[Sam]

Re: Aunt Jemima

There was a 1934 movie, "Imitation Of Life" with Claudette Colbert, and Louise Beavers, that was loosley based on Aunt Jemima.
Except the character Louise Beavers played was "Aunt Delilah", and both the single mothers started a pancake shop on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, then started boxing, and selling, "Aunt Delilah's Pancake Mix".
They were like sisters, and lived with their daughters, in a beautiful Brownstone Mansion in East Manhattan, but the white woman lived upstairs, and the black woman lived downstairs. Ane there's a scene where they say goodnight, and Claudette Colbert walks up the huge sweeping staircase, while Louise Beavers is walking down the same staircase,(Separate but equal).
It made them rich, but even with all that money, there was still unhappiness.
It's one of my favorite movies!
Lana Turner did a re make of it in 1957, MUCH more glamorous, and a WHOLE lot sadder! But I still like the 1934 version best.
Seems it caused quite a stir in the 30's, regarding all the racial issues.

[Sam]

Re: Aunt Jemima

All right KarylP!!!! You got me!

I decided I'd "fess up" to the first person who caught on!
With all the fuss, and the "I really hate Jane Fonda" thread.
I decided to lighten things up a bit, and show how people might get stirred up over something totally ridiculous.
It's obvious that many blacks are offended by it, even though we think it's harmless, and look at in a "good light".
Ken's right! In todays "politically correct" world many simple, innocent, things can be turned around.
I was going to get a black lady I know to sign on as Wanda, (my mom's screen name). Lavern would TORN us a new one! and laughed the entire time, but I couldn't get ahold of her.
I just wanted to show how people can turn ANYTHING into a big deal, and get mad about it if they want to, no matter what!
I think that's why Bruce started it in the first place, to get things going, (not in a bad way).
You can only talk about dead batteries, and horsepower just so much.

---------------- M E R G E D ---------------

From doing my online research, I found out that some people actually collect this stuff.

[CaptainKen]

Re: Aunt Jemima

The black "mammy" is no myth!. Up until I started school in the late 40's my family employed a black lady to care for me. We called her "Mammy" with NO DISRESPECT! My family employed her not because she was white or black but because she was the best person for the job. My father picked her up and took her home each and every day. We kept up with each other for years after she left her job due to declining health.

She was a wonderful lady who loved us and we loved her. Some years later when she passed away, my parents and I attended her funeral service in an all black church in an all black section of town (back then). We cried with and were hugged by many in her large family.

We were the only whites in the church that day, but we were made to feel more welcome than many of the white churches we attended before and after. So, don't tell me that the black "mammy" is a myth; one of them helped raise me (AND she was a dead ringer for Aunt Jemima).

[Sam]

Re: Aunt Jemima

When I was little, my Aunt Ruby employed a woman named Jessie Mae, and often got up early in the morning and drove to the "black" section of Monahans to pick her up, AND took her home.

She always made a HUGE fuss over me, and would run over and pick me up, and hug, and kiss me. I loved her!
When they could no longer afford her, my aunt would drive me over to her house for a visit, and when I visited one time, I found out she'd moved to San Antonio, and I cried, and cried.
Maybe that's why I've always liked that movie so much.

[K.P.]

Re: Aunt Jemima

OK, who's the dissident that truly hates Aunt Jemima?


(or is it just this thread?!)

[JAB02LHS]

Re: Aunt Jemima

Say what you will about Aunt Jemima, she sure could whip up some pancakes.... ....

These are much better pancakes

[K.P.]

Re: Aunt Jemima

Oh, heck! Let's all just head to IHOP for the next big event and let Aunt Jemima take care of herself!



...the best pancakes are the ones somebody else makes and cleans up after!

[Sam]

Re: Aunt Jemima

Now, KarylP, Aunt Jemima will be GLAD to make you some of her wonderful pancakes!
It was "BAD", "OLE", Wanda, who voted against me, and Aunt Jemima forgives her!
In fact, if you and JerryP have a microwave, (and I know you do!), Jerry can bring one of Aunt Jemima's breakfast to you in the morning! In just 3 minutes! Child! You can have breakfast in bed!
Now that everyone has Aunt Jemima products in their homes, there's no reason for people to fuss, and fight!
Just let her bring you wonderful things for people to eat, and forget having to make it yourself!
No need to go to that nasty old IHOP, full of screamin children!
You can have your breakfast in the peace, and quiet, of your own home!
(Oh PLEEEESE KarylP, tell me that you get the silliness of all this!
I KNOW you DO! )