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Racist Pancake Mix

select-fire
I have been eating it forever...

Aunt Jemima will change its name and its mascot, with PepsiCo saying its origins are based on a racial stereotype

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Business Insider•June 17, 2020
A box of Aunt Jemima pancake mix
A box of Aunt Jemima pancake mix.

Associated Press

  • Aunt Jemima is changing its name and losing its mascot of a Black woman that has been criticized for years for its roots in racism and minstrelsy. 

  • Parent company PepsiCo said new packaging will hit shelves late this year and that the brand's new name will follow soon after. 

  • "We recognize Aunt Jemima's origins are based on a racial stereotype," Kristin Kroepfl, Quaker Foods North America's chief marketing officer, said in a statement. 

  • Land O'Lakes removed the drawing of a Native American woman on its packaging earlier this year, while Uncle Ben's says it is planning on "evolving" the rice brand. 

  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Aunt Jemima is changing its name and losing its brand image of a Black woman, as parent company PepsiCo acknowledges the pancake brand's racist roots.

PepsiCo announced the change on Wednesday, saying that packaging without the Aunt Jemima mascot will hit shelves in the fourth quarter of this year. The brand's new name will be announced at a later date, quickly following the first phase of new packaging. 

"We recognize Aunt Jemima's origins are based on a racial stereotype," Kristin Kroepfl, Quaker Foods North America's chief marketing officer, said in a statement. "While work has been done over the years to update the brand in a manner intended to be appropriate and respectful, we realize those changes are not enough."

The Aunt Jemima brand has been criticized for years. The inspiration for the name was a minstrel song and the brand continued to be linked to racism in the eyes of many. 

"This Aunt Jemima logo was an outgrowth of Old South plantation nostalgia and romance grounded in an idea about the 'mammy,' a devoted and submissive servant who eagerly nurtured the children of her white master and mistress while neglecting her own," Riché Richardson wrote in The New York Times in 2015.

In 1989, Quaker Oats rolled out a more "contemporary" look for Aunt Jemima — the sixth makeover that attempted to distance the mascot from the brand's racist roots. At the time, Quaker Oats said it would not be renaming the brand, with a spokesperson saying that Aunt Jemima's "familiarity and recognition is an invaluable asset."

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Comments

51 comments

Date Votes
  • scrumpyjack
    We have an unopened bottle of Mrs. Butterworths that we’ll be keeping. I’m sure she’s next.
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  • Sam06
    They have changed it several times in the past and the new one as above is the newest and most "raycialy sensitive" one yet.

    Here are some of the older ones ;)

    Aunt Jemima Logopedia Fandom
    Original Aunt Jemima Pancake Mask Black Americana 540831989

    Antique Advertising Aunt Jemimas Flour Patterns Antique




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  • varian
    i was thinking about this the other day.  i have a very early version of a Aunt Jemima cookie jar that belonged to my mother, at one time this was a valuable piece of pottery but i guess now i will have to hide it.  wouldnt want to be labeled a R      t.
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  • BobJudy
    Well, it's about time they fixed this!! I don't know how many times I passed them by on the grocery shelf because of their mascot. I vote the new mascot be a unicorn jumping over a rainbow chasing butterflies. Bob

    Somebody please set up the green font option. 
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  • select-fire
    I reckon Uncle Ben's Rice is gone also
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  • Brookwood
    Seems they want to erase B.L.A.C.K history to me.   
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  • US Military Guy
    I am waiting with breathless anticipation for when they stop calling AR-15s "evil black rifles".

    ;)
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  • bustedknee
    Brookwood said:
    Seems they want to erase B.L.A.C.K history to me.   


    Apparently it is easy to erase history.  Just get rid of all reminders then deny, deny, deny.

    But, they better be careful....we can deny slavery.    Uh-oh!
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  • Mr. Perfect
    Imagine how racist you have to be to promote a product with an image of a black woman all while touting it as wonderful and great.

    And then
    Imagine how racist you have to be to remove the black woman you've celebrated all these years from your product.

    One of these seems racist anyway.
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  • select-fire
    Looking forward not having  a black history month
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  • cbxjeff
    I can put up with a lot, but getting rid of Aunt Jemima is just going too far.
    6
  • spasmcreeksrun
    absolute FNN stupidity.........and no more blackwall tires ...or was it whitewall that was evil ...can't remember ???
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  • select-fire
    Next thing I predict... NO Black or White vehicles...
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  • Grasshopper
    Looking forward not having  a black history month
    It will be 2 months now and then Spanish history month, then LGBTQ  month, then muslim month, we will need more months.
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  • mogley98
    Maybe put out some Obama Rice or perhaps repackage to someone who we can all look up to like Dennis Rodman Pancake batter?
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  • Grasshopper
    What about crackers? After 25 years in a hospital setting I have been called "cracker" hundreds of time. IDEMAND they change all and just call them "SALTINES."  Wait reverse discrimination doesn't work for the fuked up liberals.
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  • Butchdog2
    Cracker is a profession, cowboy with a bull whip.
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  • savage170
    The Political correct crowd is after Disney to  re theme splash mountain
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  • grdad45
    Rename it to "redneck pancakes". I'd buy it then! We have Dutch Boy paint, is that next? German Measles? Mexican Food? Egyptian Cotton?
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  • Smitty500mag
    The term cracker came from the slave foremen in the Antebellum South that were called "crackers" owing to their practice of "cracking the whip". 
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  • cbxjeff
    Now there is talk about banning the song & movie White Christmas  Bing must be rolling over in his grave.  When will this madness end?
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  • hillbille
    cbxjeff said:
    Now there is talk about banning the song & movie White Christmas  Bing must be rolling over in his grave.  When will this madness end?
    well your not allowed to say merry christmas now anyway..........
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  • Locust Fork
    I read that she was actually one of the first black millionaires.....famous for her cooking and made a fortune doing it.   So, now people have decided that this is wrong??? 
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  • gesshots
    Bisquick makes better pancakes !
      >NOT !
    Aunt Jemima is a brand of pancake mix, syrup, and other breakfast foods owned by the Quaker Oats Company of Chicago, a subsidiary of PepsiCo. The trademark dates back to 1893, although the Aunt Jemima pancake mix debuted in 1889. The Quaker Oats Company first registered the Aunt Jemima trademark in April 1937

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  • bullshot
    What happened to "it's what's on the inside that matters"?
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  • select-fire
    What about the bacon on the plate...is it racist?
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  • gesshots
    This thread may be moved to Politics at any time ! :D
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  • papernicker
    liturgically insensitive 
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  • redneckandy
    I reckon Uncle Ben's Rice is gone also

    Heard on the radio today it is being changed as well. Effin everything is racist don't you know. :(
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  • Aztngundoc22
    OK : 
    WTF ?????
    Thanks !!!!
    0

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