Land O Lakes removes "Racist" native girl from packaging

If anyone thinks Ben or Jemima resemble the Happy Merchant meme then they’re likely a bigot with low expectations

 

When the company changed the image of Uncle Ben to look like the chairman of the board, they did it as an inside joke, and to appease
the long standing public outcry to change the image.

 

Because the images have evolved over the years it somehow makes it right?

Sorry but it’s time to stamp out these old stereotypes permanently

 

He looks servile.

 

I don't think it's fair to call it history revision. No one is erasing history. It's just that people no longer want to memorialize the "bad guys" from history. And if history is being revised it's in the over simplistic sanitized versions taught in schools. We are taught the Revolutionary War was about freedom, liberty, democracy, and other buzz words when in actuality it was about keeping black people in chains and expanding westward over lands already inhabited by Indians.

Whatever it all is, it's not in statues and syrup bottles. That's not history; it's imagery. And I'll never condemn the removal of racist imagery, and I'll damn sure never confuse it with revising history.

 

Hey, I can't see anything wrong with it either, and I'm Native American. I actually think it put Native Americans in a favorable light, since the girl is kinda cute and not doing anything offensive--unlike the Happy Merchant. There's a theory that any depiction of recognizably ethnic or racial characteristics is bad, since it encourages reducing members of that category to stereotypes. That may be, but I think it can be carried to dogmatic extremes.I seriously doubt that my life or the lives of other Native Americans will be even slightly improved by removing the Indian maiden from the butter container. There are stereotypes that are more offensive. Looney Tunes cartoons are full of them: the ones whose vocabulary seems to be limited to "How!" and "Ugh". Then there was Tonto, the Lone ranger's loyal (and subordinate) companion., who was always calling his masked friend Kemosabe--which seemed to be something good, but left audiences wondering and led to jokes about a falling out when the Lone Ranger found out what it really meant. Actually the word is probably derived from the Ottawa/Ojibway/Pottowatomie word giimoozaabi,meaning something like "trusty scout". Since Tonto was a good guy, it's hard to find fault with him.

So the question is: Do we take these things one-by-one and make judgment calls on each of them, or just decide all of them have to go, because the judgments are too subjective? If we opt for the latter, there go the Lucky Charms commercials with the leprechaun (or has that gone already?), the young African-American playing basketball in a Kelloggs commercical (stereotyping physical prowess) or EA Sport's ads, or the southern white stereotyping in Col. Saunders commercials. Is color blindness the objective?

 

I basicaly agree, but I think it was really about both. To overlook the greatness of Washington and Jefferson and portray them as fundamentally bad men is to distort reality as badly as those history books and to project on them a twenty-first century value system that they could not have known in their day. Washington and Lincoln are always ranked in the top three by professional historians, even though the former owned slaves and the latter was responsible for Native American deaths. Jefferson authored the Declaration of Independence, even though as a major slave owner he didn't live up to its high ideals himself. I personally am offended when I see the statues of these great men desecrated, and wonder what our future will be like if the iconoclasts have their way.

 

Here's a neat article about the same sort of things we're talking about in this thread. It attempts to explain why there's controversy to begin with.

EDIT: The article is entitled "
Does it really matter if Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben get retired?"
on the webpage. I don't know why the link is called something else...

Aunt Jemima, other racist brands held power beyond the breakfast table

 

It DOES matter if they get retired.

Banning these mascots will empower the fascist cancel culture mob to go on to more serious battles that could really harm innocent people.

 

never give these mother fuckers an inch

 

does he really though? or is that just what you're being told he looks like? i honestly never paid attention to uncle ben before, but i just googled some pictures of him and it's literally a well dressed black man. he looks like a politician to me.

i'm all for not having racial stereotypes for brand mascots. but that doesn't mean we need to get rid of every depiction of a person who isn't white. at this rate, that's exactly what is going to happen. followed by a huge outcry because people of color aren't represented in brand mascots.

 

I don't care who or what is on the package. If it's good I'll eat it.

 

I think that given the context of African Americans throughout history though it's not hard to see. He may just be a well dressed Black man, but he's also a well dressed Black man on a box of porridge. For me to see it in a different light, I think I would need more contextual information; maybe on their with his other well dressed coworkers who are not Black, or at least a bowl of the stuff from which he is eating. No, I feel like I'm pretty sure he looks like part of the serving class, unfortunately. But I don't mind one bit that you see a politician.

 

When are Italians going to tell Major Hollywood production studios to stop always portraying them as criminals ?

 

Either of two things would have to happen;

Either the Italians decide to start a national campaign to boycott the movies, or the Hollywood studios start losing money on movies such as
Goodfellas, Casino, or even comedies such as Midnight Run.

 

Or even Jersey Shore... That show is full of stereotypical Italian themes. I think they call each other "guidos", which seems derogatory, but I don't know.

 

Or for that matter the Sopranos which was one of the most popular series of all-time

 

I'll summarize my take on this with the best comment I've heard yet.
We decided to prove we weren't racist by kicking the native girl out and keeping her land.

 

A significant new development................

Master P introduces a new Black-owned food brand to replace Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben's


https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/08/30/business/master-p-uncle-p-black-products-aunt-jemima-trnd/index.html