The legendary brand’s rebranding has infuriated the great-grandson of the original Aunt Jemima, who feels that cancel culture is erasing his family’s history. This occurs subsequent to Quaker Foods declaring that it would discontinue the Aunt Jemima brand due to criticism regarding its racial stereotypes.
In an interview with Patch, Larnell Evans Sr., the great-grandson of Anna Short Harrington, who played Aunt Jemima after Nancy Green, expressed his annoyance. It is unjust to me and my family. This is connected to my past,” Evans remarked. He said that the firm made money off of these representations while denying the legacy of his great-grandmother and that the accusations of racism originated from white people who utilized iconography from slavery.
At the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, Nancy Green, a former slave, made her debut as Aunt Jemima by serving pancakes while wearing a headscarf and an apron. Evans’ grandmother, Anna Short Harrington, succeeded her after her death in 1923.
A Quaker Foods salesman spotted Syracuse University chef Harrington cooking her renowned pancakes at the 1935 New York State Fair. Quaker Foods employed her, and her picture appeared on packaging and in ads. Serving pancakes and contributing to the character’s rise to fame, Harrington spent twenty years traveling throughout the United States and Canada in the role of Aunt Jemima.
Evans, a 66-year-old handicapped veteran of the United States Marines, noted that Quaker Foods also employed Harrington’s pancake recipe. Harrington’s heirs attempted in vain to sue the business in 2014, demanding $3 billion in unpaid royalties.
Evans thinks that rather than ignoring their past, Quaker Foods ought to recognize the contributions that Green and Harrington made to the development of the brand. “What percentage of white folks had breakfast with Aunt Jemima growing up? How many white businesses gave us nothing in exchange for millions of dollars? “They cannot simply remove this while we continue to suffer,” he uttered.
He went on to criticize the choice to rebrand without providing his family’s contributions with any sort of payment or acknowledgment. “They want to erase history after making all that money, and people are want reparations for slavery? They refuse to offer us anything. Why do they have the right?
Quaker Foods has stated that all Aunt Jemima branding and images will be eliminated from its products by the end of the year, in spite of these objections.
H/T : supergrate.net
