Quaker Oats, which is owned by PepsiCo, announced on Wednesday that it will change the name and image of its Aunt Jemima pancake mix and syrup, recognizing that the brand was based off a racial caricature of Black women.
PepsiCo announces they are retiring the Aunt Jemima brand, which they acquired when they bought Quaker Oats 20 years ago. The character comes from minstrel shows with white people in blackface. pic.twitter.com/GSCTlvN8N3
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) June 17, 2020
The 130-year-old brand has come under fire in recent years for its use of the Mammy trope, a Jim-Crow era depiction that stereotyped Black women as happy servants. The plump, dark-skinned and smiling Mammy figure was used for household items such as ashtrays, toys and candles. During slavery, older Black women were often used as the right-hand women of female slave owners, helping with domestic chores such as cooking, cleaning and taking care of children.
A classic Mammy figurine
After slavery, middle-aged and older Black women continued to be hired for domestic chores and were portrayed in media as being docile and nurturing towards their white employers. Aunt Jemima, which is not based on a real person, played into many of those racist tropes.
The brand has yet to announce the name and image that will replace Aunt Jemima.
What’s crazy is Aunt Jemima was white people being NICE… pic.twitter.com/sqfUHSFbVp
— Thor: NIGnarok (@hosienation) June 17, 2020
