Throwing in the towel under wild political correctness, PepsiCo Inc. announced renaming its 130-year-old Aunt Jemima Pancake mix and syrup brands out of respect for black Americans in the wake of the May 25 murder of George Floyd by former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin. With Americans’ skin getting thinner, PepsiCo gave up trying to justify 130-year-old imagery depicting an African American grandmother-type, known for marketing Aunt Jemima products. Using images of black people, once used as domestic help before –and-after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation Jan. 1, 1863 freeing the slaves is now considered obscene. ConAgra Foods Inc. also announced it’s weighing changing Mrs. Butterworth’s brand, now symbolizing to African Americans the symbol of the white grandmother, something also offensive in today’s atmosphere to black people.
Floyd’s death opened a can of worms of what sociologists call “white privilege,” an unwritten rule making it easier for white people to succeed in American society. Ending iconic brands won’t change anything in America’s inner-cities, only drive a bigger wedge between whites and blacks. Rioting, looting, arson and anarchy are the images white Americans are left with about the death of George Floyd, not whether corporations see fit to change marketing images on pancake boxes. Mars, which owns the brand Uncle Ben’s Converted Rice, also said it’s looking to end using the grey-haired African male image to market instant rice. Corporation aren’t concerned about perpetuating racial stereotypes, they’re concerned about selling products and avoiding lawsuits. Street protests, whether peaceful or violent, have little to do with corporations deciding to re-brand products with racial imagery.
If Wolfgang Puck or Chef Gordon Ramsey was replaced on the Pancake Mix or Syrup, does that really help inequality or white privilege perceived by blacks or other minorities in American society. “We recognize Aunt Jemima’s origins are based on a racial stereotype,” Kristin Kroepfli vice president and chief marketing officer of PepiCo-owned Quaker Foods of North America,” said in a statement. But what about Quaker Foods that used the image of a white Pilgrim on its iconic oatmeal cereal container? Where’s the objections by PepsiCo about stereotyping the image of a white Pilgrim? If Quakers objected to using its image, it’s possible that Kroephli would ask to have it removed. Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Dr. Ben Carson, 68, said June 14 that American need to “grow up” about historical injustice and get back to the business of discipline and hard work.
African American 74-year-old Black Entertainment Television [BET] found Bob Johnson said June 1 that $15 trillion in reparations would go a long way in compensating the African American community for their long history of mistreatment in the United States. African Americans incorrectly blame the United States for slavery when the original 13 British colonies started the practice. When the Declaration of Independence was signed Aug. 2, 1776, declaring all men were created equal, and the U.S. Constitution signed Sept. 17, 1787, slaves had been in the colonies since the early 1600s under British Common Law. Slave ownership, while not accepted fully by the U.S. government, was incorporated into U.S. laws, eventually concluding in the Supreme Court March 6, 1857 with the Dred Scott v. Sanford decision, ruling that slaves were not entitled to citizenship under the U.S. Constitution.
Eventually the Dred Scott decision was overturned when the Supreme Court adopted the 14th Amendment July 9, 1868, making any person of any color born in the United States a citizen. Battles fought today on American streets still reflect the long U.S. history of race, again originating with English Common Law and incorporated into the U.S. Constitution. Adopting the 14th Amendment didn’t end racism or discrimination in America but at least African Americans were U.S. citizens, with all Constitutional protections afforded to whites citizens. Today’s violent street demonstrations over Floyd’s death, largely sponsored by Black Lives Matter, demand that police departments around the country get de-funded, re-allocating funding to African American community like education, housing, health care and jobs. Changing images on Pancake mix does nothing to improved equal opportunity.
When Starbucks Inc. said it would send Black Lives Matter tee shirts to baristas around the country, political correctness had gone mad. Starbucks doesn’t want to lose business but, more importantly, they don’t want their stores looted and torched if street violence breaks out again. Black Lives Matter’s 39-year-old co-founder Alicia Garza said June 7 that street protests would end only if they get their demands to de-fund the police and re-allocate funds to the black community. Seizing six-square-blocks in Seattle shows that Garza means business. But can the nation built off the U.S. Constitution and rule of law allow radical groups to hold the country hostage? Changing labels on iconic brands won’t get Garza what she wants. Whether admitted to or not, Garza 100% backs $15 trillion in reparations for Africans Americans, a token repayment for life under U.S. “systemic racism.”
