Racial Marketing: Beyond Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima

Its very difficult for (non-Black) people today to conceptualize just how ingrained racism is in our US culture. It is implanted into every single aspect of our culture, as racial capitalism necessitates. While we were talking as a class about the depiction of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, I wanted to present an organized arrangement of the impact of these stereotypes as degrading ad infantilizing. The companies of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben targeted Whites as “Nieces” and “Nephews”, playing off the racialized relationship slavery built surrounding anti-Blackness. These figures are supposed to be comforting to White people. Even though White America was experiencing a great deal of fear regarding the potential power gains Black communities were making and resented every stride they made, Black people had raised much of the White population. Just because slavery was over doesn’t mean that the relationship of subservience was in any way diminished, it just evolved. Childhoods of White adults were dependent upon Black caregivers who remained subservient. Images of Black caregivers were especially present surrounding meals like breakfast because they were the ones serving it. As such, Aunt Jemima was the perfect image of a Black caregiver happily serving Whites their flapjacks while remaining a non-threatening presence in daily American life. Uncle Ben is very similar: a jovially subservient Black man to serve your rice. This imagery worked to both remind White America of their power over Black people and the proper “place” for Black workers. This also goes beyond just food. Black servitude cultured an environment for marketing household appliances and cleaning products. In this way, Black people continued to be associated with chores, work-life, and subservience. Another key aspect of this was the infantilization of Black people. The marketing mechanisms never showed them in positions of power. Always in the same role, they became caricatured to sell just about everything. White America continues to profit from the infantilized, subjugated images of Blacks, from Disney’s Uncle Remus to soap commercials advocating for the cleansing of Black skin to turn Whiter. And this continues today.