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Reparations for Aunt Jemima – Now!
By Lafe Tolliver, Esq
Guest Column
Well, it finally happened. The offspring of the famous
black woman in the headscarf who has populated pancake mix
boxes since… forever, have said enuff is enuff and they want
money.
If you go to the Net and type in Aunt Jemima lawsuit,
you will find a very interesting case that has been filed
against Quaker Oats.
The great grandsons of Aunt Jemima want money.
Big money. Billions of dollars if you want to be exact
and they want it now!
Call it a form of reparations or economic parity if you will
but someone needs to get paid and why not the heirs of that
famous, black, smiling face.
I can still think of the fond memories I had when
growing up and seeing Aunt “J” in the kitchen cooking me up
a batch of warm pancakes or waffles.
When I saw that box, I knew that everything was at
peace in the world and I was about to sit down in my pj’s
and have a lip-smacking meal accompanied by pieces of fried
bacon and a glass of cold milk! Can I get a witness up in
here!
But I digress. The family heirs are hopping mad about
how their ancestor’s image was purportedly ripped off by a
lot of shady shenanigans and how the young, future,
pancake-box icon was tricked, due to her age, to sign
documents that should be now be deemed unconscionable or
woefully one sided.
As you know, back in the day, when black inventors or
holders of recipes that were lip smacking good took their
products to market, they were ripe game for nefarious
operators and slicksters who preyed upon their innocence and
trust and literally took their goodies and inventions for
themselves.
A black inventor’s idea was property of the Massa and
he had no right to his creative talents being protected by
patents or copyrights.
Many are the sordid tales of black inventors being
robbed of their widgets and designs and recipes and unable
to go to a court of law against a white man and prevail.
They had no ability for a long period of time to reap the
benefits of their creativity.
If you go to the library and check book out on black
inventors you will be floored by all of the varieties of
inventions that were thought up by people of color
including the golf tee, ironing board, stop light,
lubrication for railroad couplings, elevator, dyes, inks,
fabrics, hair care products, gas masks, computer systems,
blood bank, refrigeration systems, shoe stitching machinery,
biscuit cutter, dentures, stair climbing wheelchair, gate
latch, folding chair and etc..etc.
Enough said. Of course the problem with coming forward
and claiming monetary rights to the image of Aunt “J” will
be a herculean task since it will depend upon credible
evidence consisting of written documents since practically
all of the witnesses to Aunt “J” signing any agreements have
gone on to their final resting place.
The heirs of Aunt “J” indicate that they have credible
evidence to bolster their claim that bucks, big bucks are
due and owing to them from the manufacturers of the pancake
mix and from any other product that used the image of the
shiny black-faced woman who gave comfort to millions of
Americans around the breakfast table.
You know what is next? I am waiting for the heirs of good
ol’ Uncle Ben to stake their claim and to make sure that
their forebear gets the ship righted and they can go to the
bank with some of the millions that white corporate America
made off of the images of black folks.
Time does not allow for the myriad of other black images
that populated toys and clothes and food items which were
utilized to sell, even in a derogatory manner, the products
that white America used.
Somehow the image of a black face on food products was
a seal of “good eatin’ “ for white America, even the vile
but paternalistic images of black kids smacking their
over-inflated lips on juicy, red watermelons in a watermelon
patch.
For white America, deriding and debasing black people
knew no bounds…even the children were not safe from being
pictured as docile and happy under the bonds of servitude.
White America did not dress their fabled Betty Crocker
with a head rag as they did Aunt “J” because their Betty
Crocker stood for all things that were wonderful and nice
and lovely about Americana. An Americana in which black
folks were of no regard but useful only for purposes of
exploitation.
I have a cookbook at home on which the cover is graced
by an oversized “mammy” with a head rag and a rolling pin.
Of course she is featured with gigantic lips and puffy black
cheeks. This is a period in American history in which such
pictures made white America feel superior to anything not
white and reinforced their stereotypical images that blacks
were strictly cartoons, clowns or buffoons.
I hope that the heirs of Aunt “J” get a humongous
financial windfall as a recompense for such economic
chicanery imposed upon people of color.
I hope Uncle Ben’s grandkids and great grandkids follow
suit and make sure that all was in order and proper if their
forebears likeness was not properly compensated for the
millions and millions of dollars of sales that his “old and
darkly but grand image” generated for the companies that
used his image.
As a side note, on October 18, my college, Kent State
University, is going to pay homage to my four years of
photographic images that I took of black kids on that campus
during the heyday of the black power movement and the tragic
May 4 shootings.
I have donated hundreds and hundreds of photographic
negatives to the university archives but I did so with the
written and explicit agreement that any monies generated
from that showing or from future usages of those images are
to go my bank account and to my estate.
I reserved the copyrights to those images for
posterity. Ain’t no Aunt Jemima or Uncle Ben’s up in here!
Contact Lafe Tolliver at
Tolliver@Juno.com
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