Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and Rastus

Rating:
Summary: Badly needed commentary
Review: After the civil war, (segregation notwithstanding) African Americans were technically free people, yet were featured in service products essentially recreating slavery. African Americans were only allowed a public acceptance if they conformed to stereotypical images produced by the larger (predominantely white) society.

Kern-Foxworth's tome provides an eloquent examination of this double bind through brand origins to their modern day counterparts. Early depictions of Aunt Jemima reveal a gross caricturization of Black women's physical features and alleged mannerisms that can never be mistaken for flattery, yet this image was welcomed into many facilities where a living African American irrespective of title would never had been welcome.

Critics of this meticulously researched, spell-binding work could argue the presence of African Americans featured on foodstuffs could be a paean to black visibility via capitalism (where purchasing popularity becomes linked to empowerment/) but the argument would conveniently neglect the undeniably problematic implications of linking African American service and purchase.

Not even a transformation from turbaned servant to the vague "modern woman" has completely resolved very serious cultural contradictions and dilemmas surrounding Aunt Jemima. Is she a tool of the dominant society, a covert agent for revolutionary change or somewhere in between? Through art deconstructing and explore cultural politics, she is positioned as an uneasy reminder of America's less than admirable history of discrimination and bigotry.

Reading this book is tough, but critical for everybody interested in political change and pop culture. Advertising imagery is not inanimate, instead both reflecting and shaping the nation. Encouraging critically thought about the political undertones of pop culture, the author by extension makes profound contributions to civil rights public policy.

Rating:
Summary: Made me hungry...
Review: I felt bad...because after reading this book about what a horrible, racist image Aunt Jemima is...I was inspired to go get a box of her mix and eat pancakes three meals a day. Very informative book, it goes a bit far in blaming everything in the world on racism...as is the style of the day