Goodbye Auntie Jemima, your memory has been cancelled

E. Ablorh-Odjidja

June 17, 2020

Sometimes, the good goes out with the bad.  We have no choice but to accept this verdict on Auntie Jemima.

Auntie Jemima, known in real life as Nancy Green, was a celebrity of her time. 

“Green was born into slavery on March 4, 1834, near Mount Sterling in Montgomery County, Kentucky.  She was hired in 1890 by the R.T. Davis Milling Company in St. Joseph, Missouri, to represent "Aunt Jemima", an advertising character named after a song from a minstrel show, “ according to Wikipedia.

In 1893, she became the face of a major brand and was to maintain a life contract with the manufacturer of Quaker Oats products until her death in 1923.

Before then, she was a cook for the Walkers, a prominent white family of the Chicago area.

In the circumstances of that period, becoming a corporate brand, as she was until recently, was an achievement that ought not to be forgotten.

In another culture, her story will be one of success; that of overcoming adversity and not as a target for racial anger or derision. 

But our modern “cancel culture” can no longer entertain images of her type. 

We have lost the ability to flip the Auntie Jemima's history, slavery and all, into something positively assertive for us.

 
Instead, we have chosen to obliterate the Auntie Jemima image; same like we did for noble Uncle Tom, without pausing to ask, “who might be using us” and could this be another form of attack on our race?

In place of the old Auntie Jemima’s (Nancy Green) image, a new one is being prepared for us.

The byline in The Onion, known for its satire, reads:

“Quaker Oats Replaces Historically Racist Aunt Jemima Mascot with Black Female Lawyer Who Enjoys Pancakes Sometimes.”

It goes on to describe why:

“In response to nationwide protests regarding police brutality and racial discrimination, food conglomerate Quaker Oats announced Friday that after 130 years, it would replace its historically racist Aunt Jemima mascot with a black female lawyer who enjoys pancakes from time to time.”

And more to the satirical point, they say:

“While Sheila does enjoy our extended line of breakfast foods, that is only one small facet of her rich and complex identity as a human being: Sheila also speaks fluent Italian, likes U2, is bisexual, and enjoys cross-country skiing. “

Got it.  Our new conjured up mascot.  She is “bi-sexual and enjoys cross-country skiing.”

She “enjoys pancake sometimes.”  And with her “cross-country skiing” added, presumably she has acquired a remarkable ability to escape from the vestiges of slavery.

Or should we celebrate her “bisexuality” as a projection of our new blackness, instead of old Auntie Jemima, who suffered the blunt trauma of slavery?

Sheila speaks Italian.  Any African language for her, please?

Sheila may be apocryphal, but those who want to harm the black image have done a fantastic job to date; the job of messing up our reality. 

Many problems are lodged in the whole idea of the change, but isn't it troubling to accept the concept that we cannot celebrate the original Auntie Jemima, Nancy Green, and have to substitute her for something white liberals would readily accept?

Why is her freedom from slavery and personal climb to the status of being a brand for a major corporate product story a victim to the charge of racism?

And why must this knee-jerk corporate response, as a result of the brutal killing of George Floyd, not be seen as a galling tokenism, offensive and particularly insulting to Blacks?

Mind you, old Auntie Jemima was successful.  And the successful become attractive for product promotion, as we have come to know. 

As George Foreman was for the grill, so were Michael Jordan and Lebron James for Nike products. 

Aren’t these celebrated Black athletes’ progenies from slave ancestry?

May Heaven forbid, but going by this trend a case can be made in the future that the NBA is a plantation.

But there is another side of the old Auntie Jemima (Nancy Green) story that is left unspoken in the current screed about her.

Unlike some of our celebrities today, she used her money to promote and pursue black causes.

 
“Green was one of the organizers of the Olivet Baptist Church.  Her career allowed Green the financial freedom to become an activist and engage in antipoverty programs. She was one of the first African-American missionary workers. She used her stature as a spokesperson to become a leading advocate against poverty and in favor of equal rights for individuals in Chicago,” as described by Wikipedia.

Should she be celebrated? 

If for anything at all, her activism should be reason for her to be celebrated, to be kept as the flag on a major product that also fed whites. 

Her drive, the talent that made her a great chef and her self-promotion to the status of the brand image must be glorified.

But her memory will be “cancelled” by the new “woke” Black culture.   

There will be nothing left of her in the memory bank of Black culture.

In place, will be a new architype for the Auntie Jemima brand.  A transmogrified Black woman who would be left at post as racist statues get toppled, along with images of our Uncle Toms. 

And soon, there will be nothing left to tell our true story.

So, what if the original Auntie Jemima was a freed slave and wore a headkerchief; many of the Grandmas of her age did. 

Or is it because she lacked something modern, like bisexuallity and the ability to speak Italian?

Currently, the landscape is being wiped clean by those who purposely seek to "protect" the Black image, the ANTIFAs included. 

But soon, there would be nothing physical left standing, that went against us, to mark as culpable.

And the real racist will then say, “what racism, there was no slavery in America”!

E. AblorhOdjidja,Publsiher, Ghanddot.com.

June 17, 2020.
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