There are so many racist and sexist logos, icons and words on many products in America. Many of these are stereotypical and as a result of their demeaning callousness, disregard the integrity and honor of the group so denigrated.
In addition to my petition to rid the world of Aunt Jemima, I have written four more petitions that I think whose time has long gone by for them to be retired and done away with:
UNCLE BEN’S:
AUNT JEMIMA:
“Jemima’s Wedding Day: Cake Walk. Martin Saxx (words by Jere O’Halloran). Boston, MA: Saxx Music Co., 1899 sheet music cover.
RASTUS, CREAM OF WHEAT MAN:
Old Cream of Wheat advertisement
WASHINGTON REDSKINS:
Redskins logo 1965-1969
Redskins logo 1982
CLEVELAND INDIANS:
Cleveland Indians logo
For the petitions to each of these icons/logos, click on the links to the right in my blogroll.
The more I did my research on these racist icons, the more I realized that the majority of the insulting stereotypical images are overwhelmingly directed against BLACK AMERICANS AND NATIVE AMERICANS.
There is much work to be done.
Much work.
Ann
BEAUTIFUL, ALSO, ARE THE SOULS OF MY BLACK SISTERS 
Ran across this post and it’s an amazing find. Thanks and will be coming back to look at all your other posts as time allows.
Cheers!
What is really difficult is convincing people that the images/logos are racist. It’s tough and extremely exhausting. But we must press on.
AUNT JEMIMA
AUNT JEMIMA AIN’T DEAD.
SHE WAS JUST LYING IN A
BIG, OLD, IRON-FRAMED BED
WID HER EYES CLOSED, AND
THEY SAID SHE WAS DEAD.
THERE SHE IS OVER THERE:
BIG, VOLUPTUOUS AFRO
RECOGNIZED WHEREVER SHE GOES.
THERE SHE IS OVER THERE:
LONG, ROPEY CORNROW BRAIDS
BLACK AND BEAUTIFUL LIKE THE ACE OF
SPADE.
THERE SHE IS OVER THERE:
LIMP, LANK, STRAIGHT HAIR
(COMPLIMENTS OF MADAME C.J. WALKER).
AND SHE AIN’T AS THEY PORTRAY HER:
THE NANNY, THE MAMMY, THE WANTON
WOMAN (THE MULE OF THE WORLD).
SHE’S MORE REGAL THAN ISIS,
MORE VIRGINAL THAN MARY,
SAINTLIER THAN MOTHER TERESA, AND
MORE MATERNAL THAN THE EARTH ITSELF.
SHE’S THE FLAME OF OUR HERITAGE,
THE HEART IN OUR CULTURAL CHEST,
OUR ETHNIC BEST.
SHE’S HARRIET, SOJOURNER, AND MARY
BETHUNE.
SHE’S THE SUN, THE STARS , AND THE
MOON.
SO HOW DARE THEY PUT– AN EBONY
MADONNA ON A JIVE PANCAKE BOX!
I feel sorry for all the suffering of course, but from my perspective, it must have been Paradise on Earth to be a white man in the 1850s. If I, as a 40-year-0ld white man in 2007, could go back to any time in history, it would be so great to go back to the 1850s or 1860s and be a plantation owner.
To be able to slip over to the slave quarters every night and have sex with any pretty woman I wanted – I mean, what could be better? I would love to be able to do that every night. Who wouldn’t?
It’s nothing personal, but given the opportunity, you’d have to be crazy to think a man wouldn’t fight to keep a system like that in place.
MODERATOR:
I am allowing this comment through for people to see that there are white men in America like crys palmantier who still harbor hatred and cruel thoughts against black women.
You are banned from my site.
Take your sexualized, gendered race-hatred with you.
Hello, Wallace. Thank you for your poem.
When I read the beginning of your poem, I thought that it was going to be another disparagement of black women after all we have suffered at the hands of all men in America and the rest of American society, but, as I read your poem through to its end, a thought came to me.
Sometime ago, another commentor (on another blog site) on my AJ essay took notice of a statement I wrote:
“Aunt Jemima has survived out of all the racist stereotypes against black Americans. She has survived when many other icons of racist hatred are gone.”
My statement can be looked at in two ways:
-AJ survives because white and non-black woman America still persists in only wanting to see black women as slaves/servants/mammies to everyone who is not a black woman;
or
-AJ survives because black women had no choice but to resist and survive. If we had not resisted for so long, and still continue to resist, the black race as a whole would have been utterly destroyed. This icon of sexist/racist hatred persists because many in America refuse to see black women as more than just a wet nurse/sexual outhouse to their weak prejudicial perceptions of us. Because black women continue to resist, this country continues to fight and attack us with every hateful stereotype it has in its arsenal. That we have not lain down and given up vexes America to no end. Which is why black women continue to face the SAME stereotypes today that they faced for the last 400 years.
That’s America’s sick, sordid hateful view of her black female citizens.
Some of the stereotypes that bedeviled black men have been eradicated; but, black women STILL face the hated Mammy/Sapphire/Jezebel lies created by white men against us, and that are now used and promoted by men and women of all races against us.
With all the sick cruelties done to us by so many who hated, yet desired our strength and resilience, we black women have truly survived some horrific hells I would not wish on my worst enemy. Black women were the true women, the true human beings, the true Southerners during the barbarisms of slavery, Reconstruction and segregation. That we and the black race have survived is a God-given miracle that non-blacks stand in awe of.
America wants, no, needs, for black women to remain “Mammies/Aunt Jemimas” in the minds of U.S. citizens, and the world. That makes it all the more comforting for them not to see us as unique, capable, accomplishing individuals who have contributed so much to this country.
Anyway, just my thoughts.
Once again, thanks for the poem.
I was looking for references on Aunt Jemima and found your blog post. I enjoyed reading it and have linked to it on my blog, I also quoted a few sentences (and provided the link).
thanks.