Aunt Jemima and Jim Crow
I haven’t written anything for this blog for a while. I am making progress on the book, which is a good thing. However, I saw a post just now on Facebook that beautifully illustrates Jim Crow is alive and well in America. In the post, Tecia McKenna Hedden mourns the loss of Aunt Jemima branding in pancakes. I won’t post it, because it needs to go away. However, it is useful to study this post and consider what its’ publishing signifies.
A summary: Tecia mourns the loss of Aunt Jemima, saying that it “erases” her legacy. It states that the real human being, Nancy Green was chosen as model by the company because of her cooking and presentation skills and that she made millions from her work. It said she became a role model, continuing in "her job” till she died in 1923. The final statement of the page states: “This was a remarkable woman... and she has just been ERASED by politically correct liberals.”
I believe this is a fair summary of the post. Now, the truth.
Portrait of Nancy Green, as Aunt Jemima
Photographer unknown
A few facts, from the AP:
The company that started the brand took the name from an old Minstrel song, Ole Aunt Jemima. After its failing to become popular, R.T. Davis Milling Co purchased the brand in 1893.
For its aggressive marketing strategy, the company searched for an example of the ‘mammy’ character, a racial stereotype of a slave happy to please her white masters. They hired Nancy Green, a former slave who was working as cook for a judge. She began to make public presentations and demonstrations, and was she very good at this.
It is unknown what she was paid for her work. but she continued in her job as the cook and housekeeper.
The brand, assisted by the nostalgic sentiment of the day of the “good negro.” Her charm helped the brand became wildly successful.
Nancy Green was hit by a car in 1923. She was still a housekeeper. There is no evidence of her becoming rich as a result of her work. One clue; she was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave.
A number of other models were hired to take the role as Aunt Jemima.
For a little context, here is a scan from a 1923 (the year of Nancy’s death) Sears Roebuck Catalog for cultivating equipment.
1923 Sears Roebuck advertisement for a “Little Jap” Cultivator. Price for the most expensive entire unit was 39.98
I hesitated using this page. It hurt to even read the “J” word. Particularly as the anti-asian persecution gets worse. But perhaps it makes the context even more profound. At least, I hope so.
More context? 1923 was also the publishing date of “Little Black Sambo.”
The “erasing “ of Nancy Green was a decision made by Quaker Oats recently, after the protests about the death of George Floyd. In 2014, a lawsuit was filed by Nancy Green’s descendants to receive fair compensation for Nancy’s image. I don’t know the outcome of the lawsuit, but I hope they received a fair settlement. The key fact is that this was a business decision, made by a private company. Recently, Quaker Oats “acknowledged that Aunt Jemima’s origins were based on a racial stereotype”
Now consider the advertisement from Sears in 1923. Is it possible that Sears, if they were still around, might want to change anything about this ad? Would that be a smart business decision?
Times change. For a business to want to change its branding is normal. It’s called “Free Enterprise”.
What about Jim Crow?
The most important thing to think about here is the motivation to put out a post such as this. First, a question:
Do you think that the poster was concerned about Nancy Green’s Legacy?
If it was, great! Perhaps a more fitting tribute would be a scholarship on her behalf, administered by the Green family and funded by Quaker Oats. Another idea is to donate to an active campaign to provide her grave a headstone. A team of Chicago Eighth Graders is working on that.
Or maybe honor her changing the name of Aunt Jemima’s Pancakes to Nancy Green’s Pancakes? Even though my sweet wife Lynne makes the best homemade pancakes, I would buy Nancy Green’s. That’s capitalism.
On the other hand, if you think that maybe this post’s publishing was not an effort to honor a to honor “a remarkable woman”, but something else, consider the motivation of Tecia McKenna Hedden in sending out misinformation about a business decision. Confusing people about the important issue of personal rights? Who might want to do that?
Jim Crow was a policy of ‘separate but equal’ laws and unwritten rules that had the purpose of:
Keeping races from mixing.
Providing for the continuing subjugation of an entire race of people. This was done for many reasons, but a primary reason was economic, to continue the exploitation of the weaker by the stronger.
I think this desire to “hang on” to a large powerful entity exploiting a perceived inferior is illustrated well by the Nancy Green case. Perhaps a residual effect of Jim Crow? What do you think? Or do you just want to fan flames of divisiveness by saying it is all the liberal’s fault? Just think about it.
To post something such as this without checking fact is a perfect example that the Jim Crow effect is alive and quite well.
Don’t post if you don’t know if something is true.
Note, if anything I have written is inaccurate, please let me know. I will review.