This included the great-grandson of ‘Aunt Jemima’ who was not very happy with the decision to change the name. He said that the family was also unhappy, stating that it would only serve to erase the suffering associated with black history.
Larnell Evans Sr, a veteran of the US Marine Corps said: “This is an injustice for me and my family. This is part of my history.” According to Evans, the company was charged with trying to abolish slavery after they had benefited from it for years.
He went on to say: “The racism they talk about, using images from slavery, that comes from the other side — white people. This company profits off images of our slavery. And their answer is to erase my great-grandmother’s history. A black female. … It hurts.”
The black lady on the Aunt Jemima brand emblem is a woman by the name of Nancy Greene. She was at one time an enslaved woman, but Quaker Oats is now ready to permanently pull her picture from the packaging.
Quaker referred to Green as being a “storyteller, cook, and missionary worker” as a woman who was born into slavery.
She was contracted to serve pancakes at the Chicago’s World Fair in 1893. That is the first time that the brand name for it Jemima was used.
A representative for Quaker Oats, Anna Short Harrington decided to name her Aunt Jemima after she passed away in 1923. Harrington was serving the pancakes at the state fair. According to Larnell Evans, she was his great-grandmother.
He said: “She worked for that Quaker Oats for 20 years. She traveled all the way around the United States and Canada making pancakes as Aunt Jemima for them.
“This woman served all those people, and it was after slavery. She worked as Aunt Jemima. That was her job. … How do you think I feel as a black man sitting here telling you about my family history they’re trying to erase?”
Evans does not like that they were able to capitalize on the racial stereotype and then remove it so quickly when it was not convenient to maintain it.
“How many white people were raised looking at characters like Aunt Jemima at breakfast every morning? How many white corporations made all the profits, and didn’t give us a dime?”
“They’re just going to erase history like it didn’t happen? … They’re not going to give us nothing? What gives them the right?”
I guess it’s true, there are two sides to every story.
