Jan 3, 2021
Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima are being rebranded because those terms come out of a racist paradigm. There are many cultures where calling someone Uncle or Auntie is a show of respect, but not in the US, not really. It's a paternalistic way of deferring without having to truly treat someone as an equal.
"Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben and “Rastus,” the Cream of Wheat man, were actually meant to be stand-ins for what white people viewed as a generation of formerly enslaved Black cooks now lost to them. As mascots, they were designed to be perceived by those white people as nothing more — and to have wanted to be nothing more — than loyal servants, in a frightening time of growing Black equality and empowerment."
