Do you buy Uncle Ben or Aunt Jemima products?

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Aunt Jemima's is the best. Only trumped by real maple syrup.

I tend to be lazy with cooking, but I don't Uncle Ben's now thanks to a rice cooker. I'd probably buy it if I didn't have one, though. Rice takes so long to cook...

You know that is a very good question. If some tobacco product vendor came out with "Sheeny-Kike" cigarettes, I would have been offended. Obviously I would not have bought the product and I would have bad mouthed it at ever opportunity. But still, the purpose of the brand name was to sell the tobacco products to anti-semites, not to insult me.

ruveyn

If it came out in this day and age it would have been designed to offend, likely enough. I don't know if "k*e" was ever acceptable, but "n****r" and "Negro" were at some point, so when looking at advertising (or literature, for that matter) it is important to take the time period into account. Were the items at this time designed to offend, or to take advantage of literary (include film and television in this besides written work for sake of convenience) stereotypes considered familiar, amusing or trendy to those at the time, in order to boost sales? Remember that black-face comedy was pretty accepted for a long time. I wonder what people will think when looking at our time's advertising and cultural slang 60 years from now?

They will probably accuse us of hypocrisy with all our "green" products, for one thing.

Why should most of us care? We will be dead by then.

ruveyn

It is a purely academic interest

They would see that we are a silly people, with a sad and shallow culture.

It is possible that things will be worse. Possibly, by then, the average 15-year-old will have a 50-inch waist measurement, and few people will even know how to read.

IIRC, the photograph of "Uncle Ben" was actually the maitre'd at the restaurant where the brand name and logo were conceived.

This is true.

I always wished someone would come out with a "Honky Brand Enriched Flour", or a "New Jersey Hairy Back Shaver". Each with their own happy mascot.

Every time I see this logo, I think it's mostly bought by baby-boomer white women that didn't entirely grow up and still secretly idolize Shirley Temple.

What about the black guy on the Cream of Wheat box?

Also, did ya'll forget about Mrs Butterworth syrup? I haven't bought any lately but the bottle used to be shaped like Mammy from Gone With The Wind.

No one says anything about the Maytag Man, but what if he was black? Would there be an uproar about having a black man look lazy?

Are there any products being sold that depict minority races that aren't considered racist by someone?

I see them as cultural and they don't bother me any more than the Pilsbury Dough boy or Lil Debbie. Would you call Lil Debbie racist just because she's a red headed kid with a hat on a box of junk food? Be more offended that it's junk food. I don't have a problem with such images. Some companies like to have a picture of a person on their box. Others do not.

However, I do have a problem with the enriched product both brand names represent and I don't eat it because it's too high in carbs while too low in fiber. That's my real issue with them both. The brown rice is alright, though, but still too carby for me at this point.