How do you like what they're doing with Aunt Jemima?

Its all unhealthy crap. I will buy the real maple syrup one day. To see the difference. I couldn’t care less about the name. In my childhood I was emotionally attached to people and things, but when Wayne Gretzky was traded to the states I stopped caring about the superficial stuff.

I was pissed off the West Edmonton malls Fantasyland was sued from Disney to change its name to Galaxy land. Now I don’t care. Even Edmonton’s CFL football team needed to drop a racial slur form its team name, and I’m ok with it.

It’s all for the best. Names can be changed back if needed.

Well, you’re certainly right about it being unhealthy.

I only get real maple syrup too, but can only occasionally afford it.

Who’s being divorced from her product?

And as far as the renaming – I really don’t care. Companies rebrand products all the time.

Imagine admitting that a) you consume this crap, and b) you have an attachment to marketing.

This SNL skit is old but it’s still pertinent. Product rebranding

@Yellowdog Are you upset about the Washington Redskins or Cleveland Indians dropping their mascots? Rushing to buy a Chief Yahoo cap before he is retired? Still pining for the Stanford Indian since he was retired in 1972?

Your complaint reeks of white privilege,

@yellowdog This is just me: I see nothing at all wrong with the Aunt
Jemima image. It does not say this is all black women. The same as the
“Breck” girl did not say this is all women. We microscopically examine so
many things now that the there are people who make it their job to find offense
when/where it does not exist.

@si3tech: “We microscopically examine so many things now”

Most of the bottles I have seen can be viewed without the help of a microscope.

@hello321 I refer inclusively to “many things” not specifically the bottle.

^ Specifically, which of these “many things” requires that we use a microscope?

There are millions upon millions of more important things to worry about, compared to the name of a maple syrup brand.

This is beyond meaningless.

It’s not even maple syrup. It’s pretty much straight HFCS. You’d be just as well off buying a bottle of Karo corn syrup and slathering that over your pancakes.

@RedDeerGuy1 – I missed that story about the Eskimos. I remember in Canada hearing that it was an offensive term, which I accepted then, despite the football team’s name, but its still a useful term for describing a group of cultures. I know the whole “raw meat eaters” thing was BS, but I guess I was never plugged in enough to know if the push to stop saying Eskimo was a legitmate canadian inuit grievance, or just a silly progressive pantomime, mimiking realer issues in the US, and ignoring much more brazen and systemic racism throughout the county.

These were once branded like this.

Political correctness run amok? Or just something that should have never been in the first place?

It was time. Nobody forced it, but times are chaging, and rather than constantly spend their energy defending a really cringy brand, they’re starting again, without the baggage. Brands dont take that long to build anyway. So don’t worry. If you love the syrup they make, you’ll be down with the new stuff.

@Smashley As for Inuit, which simply means ‘The People” I think it is best to call people what they call themselves, or want to be called. This goes for all native cultures.

@zenvelo Aunt Jemimahis not a culture or race. She was a real person, and she and others who have portrayed her, are being erased. Her recipes and reputation made Pearl Milling a lot of money, taking advantage of her—yet they’re renaming her product after them. And your ‘white privilege’ comment is a personal attack and reeks of BS.

^ @Yellowdog – What are you saying here? Are you making an anti-capitalist critique of exploitation? Or are you arguing that PepsiCo should fire their marketing staff because you’re offended? Or are you arguing that companies should stick with their first marketing campaign and never change it? Should coffee companies be required to market their coffee as a way for women to please their husbands and avoid being beaten or cheated on just because they used to market their product this way?

@Yellowdog – but eskimo is broader than Inuit. It would be incorrect to call all Eskimos Inuits. It seems like its more of a Canadian quirk than anything about the word itself.

@Yellowdog

Aunt Jemima was as real as the Jolly Green Giant. She’s a character made up by a marketing department to sell a product. “Her” recipe was developed by a white businessman who owned the Pearl Milling Company. So, if anything, they’re restoring someone’s legacy.

It’s not a “she,” it’s an “it.” A mill where they make flour.

@Darth_Algar She was a real as rain, Aunt Jemima is a real person, Nancy Green and she did make up the recipe for the pancakes.

@Tropical_Willie

Factually incorrect. And Nancy Green was an actress, one of many, who portrayed “Aunt Jemima” over the years. The “real” Aunt Jemima was a man from St. Joseph, MO by the name of Chris Rutt.

@si3tech – I took Aunt Jemima to a scientist so it could be viewed through a microscope.

“Yes’siree, masa sho’ do treat us house negros good!”

I lost my coin once and looked for it with a microscope. I found it in a drop. It was so hard to see even with that microscope!

Aunt Jemima marketing was based on a real person, Nancy Green a Kentucky slave who died in a pauper’s grave in 1923. I think she’s given enough already to the Pearl Milling company who wouldn’t even give her burial site a headstone.

If TW’s video is accurate and it seems pretty credible, then Nancy Green did invent the pancake recipe and perhaps her legacy shouldn’t be “white washed” away. “Aunt Jemima” like “Uncle Ben” is a racist caricature from the ol’ plantation so why not call it “Nancy Green’s Syrup” and/or Pancake Mix.

@Yellowdog: Times change. Advertising changes with the times. Marketing changes with the times. Product positioning changes with the times. You might be fond of the image but the company’s product evolves like everything else evolves.

@janbb “If TW’s video is accurate and it seems pretty credible, then Nancy Green did invent the pancake recipe”

It isn’t and she didn’t. Her descendants have inflated her legacy over the years. To the point where they once attempted to sue Quaker Oats Co. for $2 billion. The lawsuit was dismissed by the court.

@Darth_Algar In that case, I’m fine with Pearl Milling!

I’ll get used to whatever the new packaging is. I think it needed to be changed. Not that I buy the pancake syrup, but maybe my husband does. I don’t remember which brand he buys. Probably, whatever is cheapest on the day he is in the supermarket. I buy real maple syrup for me.

Pearl Milling is similar to Minnie Pearl, I can understand why you have that in your head when you hear or see it.

It’s a small step in the right direction I guess. Similar to women being associated with housewives and cooking only, we need to drop this whole imagery and stereotype.
You can’t stop progress so it’s about time we clean up America’s image. We got rid of of the confederate statues and big, red lipped caricatures so it makes sense.
I really hope we get Andrew Jackson and some others off our dollars one day as well.

Andrew Jackson? The battle of New Orleans and all that? What’s wrong with Andrew Jackson?

I’ve already heard discussion that Jackson Square in New Orleans should have the famous statue removed from the park, commemorating 1814 and driving the British out who were attempting to retake the country. And it was said that the park, as a compromise, should be re-dedicated to Jessie Jackson or Michael Jackson, both who have nothing to do with Jackson Square and the history of such an historic place.

Who do you propose should go on the currency? Just curious.

@Yellowdog
He was a divisive president for sure, but it was the whole trail of tears and being a slaveowner that tarnished his reputation as a man of the people.
Harriet Tubman has already been proposed, but it obviously didn’t come to fruition.
It’s not like it matters anyway.

@Blackberry – Tubman was announced as the new portrait on the 20, five years ago. It did not come to pass because a racist blocked it as long as he possibly could, because he’s a racist, but things are now moving ahead again.

Edit: I should acknowledge that sexism had a lot to do with it too, though.