Aunt Jemima’s great-grandchildren angry that their legacy was destroyed
After Quaker Foods announced its rebranding, the real Aunt Jemima’s great-grandchildren expressed outrage that abandonment culture was wiping out their legacy.
Yesterday, it was reported that Quaker Foods had bowed to Aunt Jemima’s demands to “cancel” and her brand name would be changed. Now Aunt Jemima’s great-granddaughter, Anna Short Harrington, has expressed her anger and disappointment at seeing her legacy erased.
‘Aunt Jemima’ Anna Short Harrington’s great-granddaughter gives her opinion
“This is unfair to me and my family. It’s part of my story,” Larnell Evans Sr. told Patch. “The racism they talk about with images of slavery comes from the other side, white people. This company profits from images of slavery. And her answer is to erase the story of my great-grandmother. It was. A black woman. … It hurts.”
Former slave woman Nancy Green introduced her first “Aunt Jemima” at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Green was a chef working in the south of the city. She was hired to wear a scarf and apron while serving pancakes to fair-goers.
She continued to play her “Aunt Jemima” role until her death in 1923. Afterwards, according to Evans, her grandmother, Anna Short Harrington, took her place.
Quaker Foods uses the likeness of Anna Short Harrington
Ms. Harrington worked as a cook for the fraternity at Syracuse University, and its members loved her pancakes. She was spotted serving pancakes at the New York State Fair in 1935 by representatives of the Quaker Foods Company.
Quaker Foods soon hired her and used Harrington’s likeness in her products and advertising. At the same time, she disguised herself as her “Aunt Jemima” and sent it across the country to serve pancakes, which made her a national celebrity.
“She worked for Quaker Oats for 20 years. She traveled the United States and Canada as Aunt Jemima and baked pancakes for them,” Evans said. “This woman served all these people, but it was after slavery. She worked as Aunt Jemima. That was her job. … How do you think I feel as a black man sitting here talking about my family history that you are trying to erase? ”
Evans, a 66-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran living with a disability, said Quaker Foods also used Harrington’s pancake recipe. Her descendants tried to sue the company for $3 billion in 2014 for not paying royalties, but lost.
Evans doubles
Evans said Quaker Foods should acknowledge that it has benefited from slavery imagery and images of Mr. Greene and Mr. Harrington rather than removing them from its shelves entirely. “How many white people grew up seeing someone like Aunt Jemima at breakfast every morning?” he said. “How many white companies are there making all their profits and not giving us a dime? I suggest you check them out. Easy to wipe it off while we are still suffering.” I can not do it.”
“Having made all that money, and the time has come for blacks to demand the redemption of slavery, are they going to erase history as if it never happened?” Evans added. . “Are you not giving us anything? What gives them rights? ”
However, Quaker Foods has announced that it will remove the Aunt Jemima image and branding from all of its products by the end of the year.
