League_Girl wrote:
Aunt Jemma's great grandson is upset she is being removed.
https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/06/g ... stice.htmlCompanies try to do the right thing only to upset a black person because they are still being racist. Perhaps they should ask black people how they feel about these people being used for their products than listening to white people. Ask for their opinion, is it racism to keep using these characters or would it be racism to remove them?
Black folks have been complaining about AJ for decades. And(as I understand it) it was a young Black woman Vlogger who asked "Isnt it about time we retire Aunt Jemima?" who pushed the company and the public to the tipping point.
So its not that they "didnt ask Black people".
But yes...on the other hand "ya cant win for loosing". Apparently (from what someone posted about it here on WP) the lady who posed as the model for AJ was an amazing person, and I can sympathize with her descendents being angry about it. You cant do anything with out stepping on someone's toes.
And I have to admit that I hadnt thought about AJ much in fifty years. Fifty years ago, when I was a kid ( and became aware of trademarks on products mom brought home from the grocery store), the Black Civil Rights Movement was erupting across the nation, and AJ seemed like an embarrassing anachronism. And it seemed that way largely because you didnt see Black people in the media in roles other than as servants and menials back then.
Today we have a former POTUS with a Black face, and commonly see Blacks in general in positions of authority in both the media and IRL the way you didnt fifty years ago. So I have to admit that maybe AJ actually seems less offensive today than she did in circa 1970 because of the more balanced way Blacks are depicted in the media landscape today.