AP Photo/Donald King
The aftermath of 2020 has brought a lot of changes to America, from statues to the film industry and even pancakes.
The issue of the portrayal of pancake goddess Aunt Jemima as a “slave-era mammy”-ish type has been debated off and on for years. Some time ago, Aunt Jemima got a perm and a makeover, but that did not satisfy those who felt that a makeover could not erase the stigma of slavery associated with the product over the years.
In the wake of Black Lives Matter riots and protests, corporations began responding to criticisms of the portrayal of Black Americans in media. The Quaker Oats company, a subsidiary of Pepsi, finally took up the task of yet-again modifying Aunt Jemima. This time, they didn’t just give her a perm, they simply eliminated her completely.
Beginning in 1889, the stereotypical image of Aunt Jemimawas affixed to the packaging of pancake mix made by The Quaker Oats company. The image was a fat Black woman wearing a scarf around her head, which some folks called a âmammy rag.â It was the image that many white people held of Black  women, who during slavery cooked, cleaned, and tended to the children of slaveowners.
The first model for Aunt Jemima was from the likeness of Lillian Richard, followed by Anna Short Harrington. When The Quaker Oats company began getting pressured to change the stereotypical image of Aunt Jemima over the past few decades, the company finally announced last June that it would no longer used the photo image of Aunt Jemima on any of its packaging. Instead, Quaker Oats companyâs brand of pancake mixes and syrups will now be known as Pearl Milling Company.
Families of Aunt Jemima Models Want More Than Just a Brand Change Aunt Jemima Families of Models . Want More Than Just a Brand Change
Aunt Jemima s name and face are now scrubbed from the breakfast products she s fronted for more than a century a move in the right direction, but far from enough to do justice to the women who served as her model . so say their descendants.
Lillian Richard and
Anna Short Harrington both served as models for Aunt Jemima at different points in the early 20th century, well before the most recent version with the woman in pearls.