18. The name Aunt Jemima became a pejorative in the late 20th century
By the late 20th century, the names Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, Uncle Mose, Rastus, and others, including Uncle Tom, were widely regarded as insulting and racist. As previously noted, in the antebellum and Reconstruction South, the terms Uncle and Aunt were often applied to older black people, as a sign of respect by some, and disparagingly by others. They were used because the honorifics mister and mistress were not, at least not on pre-war plantations and in the cities and towns. For Black Americans, they were viewed as a link to the past and slavery, as well as the oppression of the Jim Crow laws in the post-war South. Aunt Jemima became an insult used against black people, as did other brand names.
For those objecting to the names, they were thinly disguised racial slurs. They also alluded to a non-existent South as a happy land in which Black Americans were content with their lot as slaves, as presented in films set in the antebellum period. By the late 1960s, during the Civil Rights Movement, more accurate presentations of slavery in the United States emerged, including in the schools of several of the Southern states. Quaker executives grasped the racially fraught images of their iconic logo, but despite continuous urgings of various groups, did not recognize the perceived hurtful nature of the name. The name implied a lighthearted view of the sufferings of previous generations. Several years were needed before those sentiments were recognized.
Also Read: Black Americans Used to Have to Navigate Jim Crow Laws.
