The History of Aunt Jemima's Pancake Mix
The history of Aunt Jemima's pancake mix dates back to 1889 when Chris Rutt and Charles Underwood bought a bankrupt flower mill and created the recipe in order to increase demand for flour. Originally, the pancake mix was named "Self Rising Pancake Flower", but after Rutt saw a minstrel show featuring Peter Baker, a black face actor who performed as Aunt Jemima, he decided to name the mix Aunt Jemima.
Later, Rutt and Underwood would sell their company to R.G. Davis who would expand Aunt Jemima nationwide. Davis would develop Aunt Jemima’s image around the country by hiring former slave, Nancy Green and advertiser, James Webb Young. Nancy Green would portray Aunt Jemima, and during an 1893 World Fair in Chicago, Green would cook pancakes and tell stories about living on old plantations in the South. By 1910, they had become pretty popular and peaked in popularity during the 1920s and 1930s. The enticing ads that Young created would “appeal to a certain type of nostalgia--maybe for a world that never existed--but for a world that is depicted as very gracious, luxurious, slow, and gentle, as a place where there were people ready to do things for you at a moment’s notice.”
Aunt Jemima pancake mix was originally targeted at white housewives as “a slave in a box” because “it drew heavily on the themes of plantation slavery and on the servant who had the time and the ability to do things you don’t feel competent to do yourself.” Eventually, African Americans started critiquing the image of Aunt Jemima, a woman who was depicted with big lips and a broad smile, during the Civil Rights movement. Their critiques were heard after Davis sold Aunt Jemima to Quaker Oats. In 1960, Quaker Oats decided to change Aunt Jemima's appearance to be slimmer and lighter skinned. Then, in 1989, Quaker Oats decided to change Aunt Jemima’s appearance again by taking off her accessories and making her look like a working grandma. This is also the appearance that is on the pancake box today.
Overall, the seemingly harmless image of Aunt Jemima has a much deeper history than many people think. The appearance of Aunt Jemima pancake mix embodies the racist stereotypes that have prevailed throughout American history.
Sources:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/food-matters/not-gone-with-the-wind-the-perpetuation-of-the-mammy-stereotype/
Later, Rutt and Underwood would sell their company to R.G. Davis who would expand Aunt Jemima nationwide. Davis would develop Aunt Jemima’s image around the country by hiring former slave, Nancy Green and advertiser, James Webb Young. Nancy Green would portray Aunt Jemima, and during an 1893 World Fair in Chicago, Green would cook pancakes and tell stories about living on old plantations in the South. By 1910, they had become pretty popular and peaked in popularity during the 1920s and 1930s. The enticing ads that Young created would “appeal to a certain type of nostalgia--maybe for a world that never existed--but for a world that is depicted as very gracious, luxurious, slow, and gentle, as a place where there were people ready to do things for you at a moment’s notice.”
Aunt Jemima pancake mix was originally targeted at white housewives as “a slave in a box” because “it drew heavily on the themes of plantation slavery and on the servant who had the time and the ability to do things you don’t feel competent to do yourself.” Eventually, African Americans started critiquing the image of Aunt Jemima, a woman who was depicted with big lips and a broad smile, during the Civil Rights movement. Their critiques were heard after Davis sold Aunt Jemima to Quaker Oats. In 1960, Quaker Oats decided to change Aunt Jemima's appearance to be slimmer and lighter skinned. Then, in 1989, Quaker Oats decided to change Aunt Jemima’s appearance again by taking off her accessories and making her look like a working grandma. This is also the appearance that is on the pancake box today.
Overall, the seemingly harmless image of Aunt Jemima has a much deeper history than many people think. The appearance of Aunt Jemima pancake mix embodies the racist stereotypes that have prevailed throughout American history.
Sources:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/food-matters/not-gone-with-the-wind-the-perpetuation-of-the-mammy-stereotype/
I really liked reading this blog, I had no idea that this pancake mix had its roots in the civil rights movement. It turns out that the original image of Aunt Jemima was to be undesirable to show that white men did not prefer black women over white women and that black women were content as slaves and servants. It also seems that the it wasn't really about the pancakes, but about what Aunt Jemima meant to the people. Because she was a slave, the advertising were like slave cooking from a box and actually promoted the want for slaves.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://blackexcellence.com/aunt-jemima-never-pancakes/
I found this blog post really interesting and I'm glad you brought up how the branding of this pancake mix company reflected racial issues of the time. In my opinion, I feel like the whole idea in the first place of basing the brand off of a black face character for commercial purposes was rather dehumanizing. It's as if Rutt saw the concept of a black woman as a way for him to capitalize off of racial stereotypes. Upon further research, I also found that the term "Aunt Jemima" became a female version of the derogatory label "Uncle Tom" to embody a "Mammy" or the stereotype that black women were subservient to whites and docile.
ReplyDeleteSource
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima
This post was really interesting to me because I did not realize that Aunt Jemima dated that far back. What is more extraordinary to me is that she became a part of the Civil Rights Movement as "a slave in a box," exactly what black women in the segregated south were, and white women bought it. I was surprised that white women would buy a pancake mix with a black woman on it, but when I read about the "slave" aspect of it, I realized why it was attractive. Overall, a very interesting post that I enjoyed reading.
ReplyDeleteThis blog was super interesting to me (as a fan of Aunt Jemima's Pancake mix) because I had no idea that the character had existed for this long and had such a complex history. Rosie Hall's, one of the "Aunt Jemima's", grave was declared as a historical landmark, which helps show how influential the brand and the character was. I thought it was interesting how the character's appearance was changed to be paler after civil rights activists got annoyed with the portrayal.
ReplyDeletehttps://blackamericaweb.com/2013/03/28/little-known-black-history-fact-the-history-of-aunt-jemima/
I found it really interesting that part of the choice for having Aunt Jemima displayed was the concept of having a "slave in a box". During this time, there were also other kitchen and dining products that were similar. One key product was known as the Mammy Salt and Pepper shaker. These objects depicted black grandwomen in extremely racist ways while also signifying their servitude towards white people. This product, as well as many others, contributed to the lingering idea throughout America that White and Black people were separate, and that one was clearly superior to the other. Such objects are used to create mindsets of hierarchy, and the idea that, no matter how many rights African American people have been given, they will always be inferior.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/us/confronting-my-racist-object.html