I used to drive through Hearne, TX frequently and always was greeted by a sign noting that it was the home of the model for the image of Aunt Jemima. She was a professional woman, Rosie Lee Moore Hall, who worked in the advertising department at Quaker Oats. She died in 1967. Hearne still proudly commemorates her on the city’s website, with a brief bio sketch and this: “During the late 1960’s, the human image of Aunt Jemima was changed to an artist’s conception of a more modern black woman who cooked succulent pancakes. The image may have changed over the years, but the message of a warm, caring, motherly woman serving up delicious breakfasts has remained the same.” I think reasonable people can look at the image and see racism, or pride, or white shareholders making money off of an anachronistic ideal, or a professional woman who worked hard all her life and is still remembered by a small town in Texas. For some the issues are clear cut, for others they are more complicated. It’s why we should listen to opposing points of view, even if we don’t agree.
The modern image is what I am familiar with and growing up it was “just a black lady on a box who I assumed liked and was good at cooking”. When I was older, I saw the original images. I don’t have much of an opinion on it. I didn’t grow up with any Aunt Jemima or Uncle Ben products.
“it would be really NICE if you would stop referring to “Southerners” as if they’re some great monolith.” Yep.
^^Just down that same road in rural Texas a sign in another small town proudly proclaimed it was the birthplace of Alvin Ailey. Even the rural south is more nuanced than many in the north might realize.
Not to get this thread back on topic - but is anyone else watching the funeral of Rev. Clementa Pinckney? It’s streaming on PBS.
Or Quakers feel about the “Quaker Man” logo on Quaker Oats cereals.
ETA: Thanks for the heads-up on that @scout59. Here’s the link: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/watch-funeral-charleston-shooting-victim-clementa-pinckney/
Yep, what we find offensive is all about our own experiences and perceptions. When I was in grad school in the Midwest, far away from where I grew up, the school was trying to do their diversity thing, and as part of that they had a “soul food” night in the university cafeteria. They served pork, biscuits, turnip greens and collard greens. In other words, the stuff I grew up eating in the South.
I was in line behind a black student from the north (I could tell from the accent) who looked at the food on her plate and said “Yuck - what is this s**t?” I thought that was so hilarious. But the school had their heart in the right place.
That makes me laugh! One time at an event, an old white man came up to me and introduced himself to me with a fist bump. He remarked after looking at my plate, “See you found yourself some beans. Betcha wish you had some okra, too?” I just half smile. Little did he know I had never even seen okra :))
OH NO - never seen okra? Fried okra is amazing. Really.
I wish I had some okra right now.
Mmmm…would love me some fried okra, turnip greens, and cheesy grits about now.
And I wish I had some callaloo and some plantains…maybe a bit of mangos with chili powder. 
“You know that the rest of the country kind of looks down on you for being uneducated and ignorant. So then you persist on doing something that the rest of the country perceives as uneducated and ignorant. How does that work? Normally, when you want to improve your reputation, you don’t do things that others perceive as uneducated and ignorant.”
It’s human nature. Express disapproval of your teen kids and it’ll just push them further away. Look down on a group of outcasts (goths, for example) and they’ll just band together even tighter. The South got thrashed and then was treated pretty poorly post-war, so that engendered an us vs them mentality (my armchair reasoning). I suspect if Southern states were treated better post-war we’d have a much different environment today.
It’s interesting though that the rest of the country doesn’t fly a Union flag and go on about “Northern heritage”. And that could be because there wasn’t the same poor treatment as a group which causes people to pull together culturally/socially. I’m a 1st gen immigrant so I found these aspects of American culture fascinating.
I remember thinking nothing about Uncle Ben’s Rice but sometime when I was in high school they added his face to the box. My friend and I saw it and it was quite startling and seemed racist to us. The big happy smile, so long co-opted by others.
It’s on CSPAN too.
Cheese grits! Man, I just ate lunch and yet I’m hungry again.
If you haven’t had fried ham, red eye gravy and hominy grits for breakfast, you haven’t lived! And yet, in saying that, I may have offended people whose religion forbids ham. We all live such different lives with different perspectives. The only way to deal with such variances is to recognize variation is not just okay, but wonderful!
It is a racist trademark.
@hayden Bleh! I prefer my ham accompanied with green eggs. 
"It’s interesting though that the rest of the country doesn’t fly a Union flag and go on about “Northern heritage”. And that could be because there wasn’t the same poor treatment as a group which causes people to pull together culturally/socially. "
I find it fascinating that the same people who think that blacks should “get over” their poor treatment as slaves can’t get over their poor treatment in the Reconstruction era.
“If you haven’t had fried ham, red eye gravy and hominy grits for breakfast, you haven’t lived! And yet, in saying that, I may have offended people whose religion forbids ham.”
Nah. People whose religion forbids ham don’t care if YOU eat it!
I don’t know why anyone is required to get over anything they don’t want to get over. It is easy for the “winner” to say just get over it. Here in CA, we hear a lot about how our territory used to belong to Mexico, or the Native Americans were here first, so we don’t have superior rights to it and should give it back, or some sort of that logic. I admit it gets tiring to hear, and I do want to just say, get over it we own it now. But I also acknowledge that our laws and boundaries are man-made and defined, not decreed from some other source. And everything that happened in history is subject to interpretation.