Is it true that Aunt Jemima's grandson wants her photo to stay on the syrup?

Well, I googled it and a whole list of magazines popped up that suggested it was true. I picked Newsweek as the most reputable one.

From what I read it’s not about the money. The great grandson doesn’t want his great grandmother’s history and legacy destroyed. (His great grandmother is the second Aunt Jemima.) ”How do you think I feel as a Black man sitting here telling you about my family history they’re trying to erase?” I think it would be insulting to just throw money at them to shut them up.

Aunt Jemima doesn’t have a grandson. There was no Aunt Jemima, she never existed. She was a character created by some company’s ad department and they latter hired a model to pose as this character.

The original Aunt Jemima was a woman named Nancy Green.
Lillian Richard was the second Aunt Jemima.
Next was a woman named Anna Robinson.
The woman with the descendants in question was the Anna Short Harrington, who portrayed Aunt Jemima from 1935 until she died in 1955. ”On August 5, 2014, descendants of Anna Short Harrington filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against defendants Quaker Oats and PepsiCo for $2 billion.”
It is the great grandson of Anna Short Harrigton who is upset over what he sees as attempts to destroy the legacy of which his great grandmother was a part of.
I don’t blame him, either.

BTW, there were a bunch more Aunt Jemima’s other than the 4 I listed.

Oh, and I wouldn’t use that website as a source any more. It was misleading right out of the gate. It claimed ”…the great-grandson of the real Aunt Jemima expressed his fury that cancel culture is erasing her legacy.” As Darth said, there IS no “real” Aunt Jemima. There are several women in history who portrayed her, and Anna Short Herrington was not even the first one.

The “real” Aunt Jemima was a white guy who owed a flour mill.

My granddaughter made her “world famous home made maple syrup” on Saturday. I needed a container to put it in. Then I spied a vintage glass Aunt Jemima syrup bottle in my display case…..

I just posted this on Facebook.

“Aunt Jemima” was a made up character, but real women were used to portray her in order to promote the brand.

The first one was Nancy Green.

Lillian Richard was hired to portray Aunt Jemima in 1925, and remained in the role for 23 years

Anna Robinson was hired to play Aunt Jemima at the 1933 Century of Progress Chicago World’s Fair.

Anna Short Harrington began her career as Aunt Jemima in 1935. (I think it’s Harrington’s descendants who are fighting the name change.)

Edith Wilson became the face of Aunt Jemima on radio, television, and in personal appearances, from 1948 to 1966.

Rosie Lee Moore Hall portrayed the role of Aunt Jemima from 1950 to 1967.

Aylene Lewis portrayed Aunt Jemima in 1955 at a restaurant of the same name at Disneyland, posing for pictures with visitors.

Ethel Ernestine Harper worked as a traveling Aunt Jemima, giving presentations at schools, churches, and other organizations during the 1950s in person, in print, and in media. She was the final “living person” basis for the Aunt Jemima image until it was changed to a composite in the late 1960s.

Also, the picture portrayed on the box isn’t of any one woman. It’s a composite.

Thank you for all the research jellies! Very interesting. I wonder what they are going to call the syrup and pancake mix now?

@JLeslie Perhaps Betty Crocker. HA!

It’s owned by Quaker Oats, why not just call it Quaker syrup and pancakes, or are people going to be upset by that also? I only have positive feelings about the Quakers. Probably better not to use anything referring to any group.

Maybe they should remove all human portrayals on all packaging…

They can have a contest. People send in suggestions and they pick a winner.

Mrs, Butterworth will have get a whole new bottle, not just a label. Isn’t the bottle the shape of a woman?

My husband buys Aunt Jemima syrup. I only use the real stuff.

Picture this: They take all black people off of packaging, and only white people remain. Then some black person complains as to “why are there only white people on packaging but no black people?? That’s discrimination!”

Oh, the IRONY!

Exactly @kritiper.

I think the real problem is Aunt Jemima became a slur. I wasn’t even really aware of the extent of it. I googled and it said it can be used similar to calling someone an Uncle Tom. I just thought of it as stereotyping black women as heavy set, I hadn’t realized she had evolved.

If I had spent time thinking about it I guess I would have thought it’s a reminder of days when black women were servants or even slaves in the South.

I read they are going to change Eskimo pie also. I saw an interview with an Eskimo/Inuit woman about 15 years ago and she said she still uses Eskimo. I remember a Native American jelly who is ok with the terms Indian and Native American, both are fine with her. I know a ton of Africa Americans who prefer black. But, it seems to me there is a large consensus that Aunt Jemima is offensive.

Considering all the “mammie” connotations behind it they should have pulled it years ago IMO. The more I look at it the more offensive it appears. If you had asked me a month ago I would not have said so but I had not given it any thought. They can rename it artificially maple flavored corn syrup, or “diabetes in a bottle.” I have always preferred the real stuff anyway.

@ARE_you_kidding_me They did update the woman on the bottle, so I guess that means they knew the old depiction was negative, but also means they wanted to be cognizant of it and change her look. I guess they hesitated to change the name altogether because of branding.

They could call it Southern pancake syrup. Almost every Southerner I know doesn’t even realize there is such a thing as real maple syrup. Or, maybe we can’t regionalize things either? It’s all getting tricky.

I think maybe that syrup can’t even be sold in some countries. Haven’t some parts of Europe outlawed high fructose corn syrup? Does that mean they can’t have pecan pie?

That’s surprising, I’m in east TN and we have a short maple syrup season here most years. I make a couple gallons each season. Most of my friends and family use the real stuff.

I remember a Q about it here on fluther. At least a few jellies didn’t know there was real maple syrup or had never tried it. I don’t think they were all southern though.

In the northeast it’s a big thing, some restaurants offer real maple syrup for an extra $1.00, I never saw that offered when I lived in the South. I might be overgeneralizing to the part of the South I lived in. New England states and NYS state produce a lot of syrup though, so it’s supporting local businesses when you use it.

In my grocery stores in TN they only carried dark amber (I like medium) just a couple of brands, it was barely on the shelf.

It’s expensive too like a dollar an ounce.

Real syrup is expensive like @ARE_you_kidding_me points out, so for the average person, it’s cost prohibitive. For a big family and not a lot of money, a 2 dollar bottle of Aunt Jemima or Mrs. Butterworth is more do-able than an 8 dollar bottle of real maple syrup.

Agreed. It is very expensive. I don’t use it often so I spend the money. I don’t eat pancakes, I use it on French toast only half the time. I put it in oatmeal, but I eat oatmeal less than ten times a year.

I make my own syrup One of my granddaughters makes it now. She’s 8. She couldn’t wait to wake up the other day so she could make her “world famous homemade maple syrup!” The recipe came down through my mom’s side of the family.
@adirondackwannabe got wind of that, that I made my own syrup out of sugar, and sent me a jug of real maple syrup! I still have the jug. I will always have the jug.

The real stuff is pretty labor intensive but the process is very easy. It’s rewarding though when you can pour it on your oatmeal or pancakes and know it came from trees in your yard.

It’s an acquired taste, for sure. It’s really mild compared to what I make.
BTW, we have maple trees….but they wouldn’t work would they? Not like the ones up north?

They will, all maples do. The yields are different though. If the temps are right in the weeks before they bud out the sap will flow.

@Dutchess_III What is your syrup recipe?

Ratio is 2 to 1. 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, packed, ½ cap of vanilla and 1 cap of maple flavoring. Put in sauce pan add 1 cup of water. Heat and stir until all sugar is melted. The longer you cook it the thicker it gets.
One time my cousin, Lance, was visiting from the Pacific Northwest (where all my Mom’s family is from.) One morning we had pancakes.
Lance said, “Good homemade syrup, Val!” I was shocked…..how did he know it was homemade??! Then it hit me. His mom and my mom were sisters…..But mine was better than my mom’s. She used straight white sugar and no vanilla.

^^ Did you mean 1 to 1? Or, is the sugar measurement the typo?

Sugar and water. 2 c sugar to 1 cup water.

Oh, I see. Thanks! I’m going to try it.

Pecan pie can be made without high fructose corn syrup @JLeslie

@snowberry You know I never really thought about it, but I guess it could. You could even use real maple and just add something to thicken it. That’s interesting. That would be a very expensive pie. I’m sure you can use other sweeteners too. I’m going to google. I only make it once a year if that.

I got some great nectarines yesterday and this gives me an idea to make some pancakes with cut up nectarines, and syrup. I have both real syrup and “fake” syrup. I have to use up the real so I’ll put that on.

You can continue to boil down maple syrup until it’s pure maple sugar. It’s tasty in recipes too.

I just made pancakes and put the nectarines in them. I used real maple syrup and what’s ironic is that real maple syrup is more watery than fake pancake syrup. The selling point for the fake is that it’s so thick, and it’s really phony to have it thick and goopy like that.

I just searched for “pecan pie without high fructose corn syrup”. I found many recipients to choose from.

What on earth is wrong with high fructose corn syrup?

@jca2 you can make real maple syrup thick by cooking it longer.

Depending on who you talk to, it really screws with your blood sugar, worse than just sugar anyway. https://news.usc.edu/44415/high-fructose-corn-syrup-linked-to-diabetes/ The HFCS people want you to believe it’s “the same” as sugar. Maybe not.

A few years ago I checked, and the National Diabetes Association was totally against it. Now there’s nothing on their website about it.

It seems “the truth” changes with the wind. In general I read up on both sides of the issue and make up my own mind. Regardless, I have a kid who’s allergic to corn. HFCS free foods are a must for her.

Refined sugar in any form is pretty bad. Maple sugar not only is lower on the glycemic index it also contains trace minerals. While too much of any sugar is bad the unrefined stuff is much, much better.

I’m not against HFCS. I don’t believe it’s much worse than other refined sugars. I think it’s good not to OD on any sugars.