Several food brands have come under pressure from leftist demagogues recently over alleged racism in their product mascots. Uncle Ben is being canceled, as is Mr. Clean. Now, Aunt Jemima, the mascot for Aunt Jemima Syrup, is also getting the boot.
In the 2000s, Aunt Jemima came under the cross hairs of identity politicians for being overweight. The brand responded by delivering an awkwardly altered version of the character, making her face look thinner. We can’t understand why someone who pushes pancake syrup would have to be thin, but fine…
But today, Aunt Jemima is under attack because it is being claimed that the branding icon is racist. The Quaker Oats company, which owns Aunt Jemima Syrup, has announced that it will be doing away with the character as it is “based on racial stereotypes.”
The brand has been around for over 130 years and has been changed several times for similar reasons.
NBC News reported that the character was originally portrayed as a minstrel character. The original drawings of the character appearing on syrup bottles were rendered using the limited printing technology they had available to them at the time. The drawings simply depict a smiling, overweight, black woman with sun shining on part of her face and the rest of her face in shadow. Even modern depictions of the character show her as lit up more from one side than the other.
It’s important to understand the historical context progressives are citing when attacking brands like Aunt Jemima. Now, it is true that minstrel performances influenced the original character — which bears little resemblance to the woman seen on the syrup bottles today. At the time, mainstream society had become rather predictable, and many found the allegedly “care-free” attitudes in black communities refreshing. For that reason, many playwrights featured black characters in their stories who had to be played by white actors. That is how we got “blackface.” Often times the depictions were unkind — especially to modern eyes. But most of the time they were created out of admiration — albeit in rather dated ways.
Even the Leftist darling Joy Behar once dressed as a black actress for Halloween. She did this because she admired the character. And because she is a staunch leftist, she was not canceled as a result.
But Aunt Jemima is not so lucky. Quaker Foods released a meaningless statement just like those released by every other brand that is capitulating with the mob.
Now, Mrs. Butterworth is taking heat for the same reason. The branding character Mrs. Butterworth is not black and never has been. She only looks black because the bottle shaped in her image is clear and because syrup is brown. Is syrup racist? It may be soon. But original depictions of the Mrs. Butterworth character are white. Nevertheless, leftist lunatics are pushing to have this brand icon removed as well.
Sadly, we can expect companies like these to get no love and no forgiveness from Black Lives Matter activists and the likes of them. They are, in their own words, “trained Marxists.” This is about destroying the richest and freest country in the world and nothing else.
Featured Image by Mike Mozart
