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The woman — whose name was Nancy Green — on the face of this pancake syrup could not make enough money to live off her royalties and was a housekeeper until a few years before her death. Green was used as a prop by white men who wanted to sell self rising pancake mix. https://twitter.com/brooklynmutt/status/1275582279289581571
Nancy Green, who this student says is the "picture of the American dream" is buried in a formerly unmarked grave in Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago. She was not given a headstone until 2015.
Why do I know so much about this woman? I really don't. I found all of this in a three minute google search. Which is, evidently, more research than the student who was chosen to give this speech did.
Holding up Nancy Green as a symbol of the American dream does her legacy and life no better than the men who hired her to play a character out of a minstrel show. It is demeaning, it is a false portrayal, and it smacks of privilege and racism.
Goodnight.
Goodnight.
