On June 17, 2020 This Controversial Pancake Mix (Finally) Changed 

The year was 2020, the country was feeling the aftershocks from the death of George Floyd, and the Black Lives Matter movement took strides across the nation. It was under these circumstances that The Quaker Oats Company decided to rename their racially controversial pancake mix and syrup products six years ago this week.  

Videos by Sporked

What Changed?

The brand selling pancake mixes and syrups formerly known as Aunt Jemima was renamed by The Quaker Oats Company, a subsidiary to Pepsi Co., to the Pearl Milling Company. The previous packaging of Aunt Jemima products featured a portrait depicting a smiling Black woman at the top, with the bolded name ‘Aunt Jemima’ underneath. The Pearl Milling Company was the original producer of Aunt Jemima products, so the company had a natural option to resort to. Now the packing features a drawing of the original mill where the woman’s face used to be and the name ‘Pearl Milling Company’ replaces hers.  

The announcement from Quaker to stray away from the character’s likeness accompanied the pledge of $5 million to the Black community. And the following summer saw a commitment of $1 million to empower Black women and girls from Pepsi Co. during its transition to the new packaging.  

What Caused This? 

On June 17, 2020, The Quaker Oats Company acknowledged through a press release that the character of Aunt Jemima and her likeness were based on racist stereotypes. The deeply criticized caricature of Aunt Jemima hearkens back to a time where similar images were used to justify the oppression, abuse, and enslavement of the Black community and the company said it was time for it to remove itself from that narrative.  

The name “Aunt Jemima” is even a reference to an old minstrel song that degraded Black communities. The term “aunt” in this instance even has the connotation of the character being an older enslaved woman, as English honorifics were denied to them.  

Criticism Of The Change

Much of criticism against the company’s name change came from the families of “Aunt Jemima.” After all, she’s based on a real person. Nancy Green, the woman who developed the original pancake recipe produced by the Pearl Milling Company, was a freed slave who had escaped to Chicago via the Underground Railroad. And, following her death, the Aunt Jemima company had hired women like Lillian Richard to model as Aunt Jemima and promote the product. Both women were hard working free women that lost cultural significance when the Aunt Jemima brand’s name changed. Changing the name from the racist term “Aunt Jemima” wasn’t the issue, but it was what the name became. They removed a family’s legacy from the brand’s name by associating it with the milling company rather than giving it the name it always should’ve had―Nancy Green.