"aunt jemima" news and stories

After writing about Aunt Jemima for a previous Slashfood post, I became curious about the dark side – racial images used in food advertising – and it seems I'm not the only one. Texas A&M journalism professor Marilyn Kern-Foxworth wrote a whole book about blacks in advertising, entitled "Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben and Rastus" (the guy on the Cream of Wheat box). But what's more amazing is that all three of these icons are still found on packaging today.

Okay, there is nothing inherently racist about putting black people on breakfast boxes, or else Wheaties would be in a lot of trouble. And I'm sure that the popularity of those icons, not to mention their products, had something to do with the diaspora of Southerners throughout the country, who associated freed slaves and faithful retainers with the comfort food of their ancestral home. The derogatory nature of some of these ads (a 1915 Cream of Wheat ad showed Uncle Sam looking at Rastus, bearing a bowl of cereal, and saying, "Well, you're helping some!") changed with the times.

Before I even went to this list of American food icons that never really existed, the first name that immediately popped into my head was Betty Crocker. And yup, she's on the list. Along with Ronald McDonald, Uncle Ben, and Aunt Jemima.

I can understand why the clown is on there, though he doesn't really seem to fit in with the other three. Betty Crocker, Uncle Ben, and Aunt Jemima aren't just icons like Ronald McDonald, they also have seemed like people who actually do the cooking and not just represent a company. In fact, Uncle Ben was recently promoted to be Chairman of the Board of his company, and Betty Crocker has become sexier over the years.

But what fake icons are missing from this short list?

[via Jade]