"Aunt Jamima" Logo Deemed Racist, Intolerant

[chequita guevara]

Sambo is a corruption of the Spanish word zambo, which is a person of mixed Indian and Black ancestry. In the U.S. Sambo came to be one of the five classic black charicatures: others being Mammy, Jezibel, the pickinnny, and a fifth whose name escapes me. Sambo was the character with googly eyes and was a buffoon.

[Q Classic]

i like log cabin's syrup better than aunt jamima's.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
i like log cabin's syrup better than aunt jamima's.

So you're sexist because you don't like Aunt Jamima's syrup?

PIG

[chequita guevara]

All of these logos go through changes. Betty Crocker doesn't look the same as fifty years ago. Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima have both changed several times. This is nothing new, except for the name change.

[Q Classic]

log cabin isn't as sweet.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
All of these logos go through changes. Betty Crocker doesn't look the same as fifty years ago. Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima have both changed several times. This is nothing new, except for the name change.

I guess my question is, was Sambo a construction from the Little Black Sambo stories, or was he an older archetype that spawned the character in the book?

Was the cream of wheat dude controversial as well? I don't remember whether or not he was. I always liked him, and cream of wheat as well.

[Q Classic]

sooner or later, a quaker will be offended by that picture of a ruddy and chubby old white man on the cover.

[chequita guevara]

Some people think the Cream of Wheat dude is controversial, but I can't see how. Historically it probably has its roots in Black servitude, but the name isn't splayed all over. Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben are part of the racist residue of the earlier part of our century, as elderly Black were often patronizingly refered to as Aunt and Uncle by whites. Cream of Wheat guys, as far as I know, doesn't have a name. It's probably a question for the Straight Dope boards.

The Sambo character, IIRC, derives from the minstral shows. IIRC, Sambo is the character if a Black man trying to imitate a high society white person. So he will often have a broken stove pipe hat, an oversized tux, clown shoes, etc. He's a buffoon and easily scared by silly things. Sambo doesn't have to be all these things. The Black chauffer in the Charlie Chan movies was a sambo, as was Jack Bennie's butler, Rochester (though he had very few traights of the classic Sambo).

Little Black Sambo was just a name for a pickeninny character.

[Zylka]

WOW

It's like a piece of Americana...

[monolith94]

Zylka - you live in Canada. What you know about racism couldn't fill a thimble.

[Zylka]

Oh no, we have brown natives here

[faded glory]

Mrs. Butterworth is black too right?

[Ted Striker]

Next on the list will be Uncle Tom -- I MEAN -- Uncle Ben's Brown rice.

Seriously, people need to chill out I mean come on this is a classic brand.

[MrFun]

For some ungodly reason, conservatives get offended that people find some things legitimately offensive.

[TCO]

Are we going to lose Ben also?