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They will still argue about the negative connections of the past despite the company doing the update in 1989 to remove the stereotypical image. It's like what happened with Darkie/Darlie toothpaste which ALSO had a racist caricature. https://twitter.com/RRobovski/status/1273355055488327680
Instead of stopping the line, the line moved on with the times and rebranded itself as Darlie and made the mascot look like an actual human being. That's the same thing that happened with Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben.
It also should be of note that the people depicted on these-
It also should be of note that the people depicted on these-
-packages are REAL people. And I don't mean the caricature drawings of Aunt Jemima. I mean, the ones where she was drawn like a human WAS a real person and so is 'Uncle Ben' and the guy on the cream of wheat box. Those are REAL people.
Both Uncle Ben and 'Rastus' (Cream of Wheat) were both chefs who, ironically, worked in Chicago and named FRANK. Uncle Ben is Frank Brown and Rastus is Frank White. They just weren't 'random imaginary dudes'. Rastus was however a derogatory term which is why they stopped-
-using his name as much over the years and people just knew him by his FACE unless you were curious enough to look into the history BEHIND him and who he was and yes. He was a professional and so was 'Uncle Ben'.
Aunt Jemima is the only one who can be said 'isn't real' but that's still if you don't consider her original model when they moved away from the caricature and designed her to look like an, you know, ACTUAL person. There was a lot of drama from Aunt Jemima and that was before-
-people rushed in acting 'surprised' that the ORIGINAL was based on the mammy stereotype. Quaker Oats was SUED by one of the surviving family members of one of the models if I am correct because of royalty problems I think.
