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Unlike C. Vann Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow, there are no surprise conclusions in this history of the symbol of America's most popular pancake mix -- racism and sexism were and are rife in the land. It begins with an examination of the many historical and fictional treatments of the mythical slave Mammy, whose characteristics varied widely depending upon who was writing about her. In many of the white ones she symbolized the proper racial, gender, and labour order: that is, white and male supremacy, and white women not having to endure kitchen chores. It was this racist and sexist image, says the author, which originated in the antebellum white South, that the 20th century advertising industry chose to use.
Ironically, the first Aunt Jemima was actually a 19th-century white minstrel show performer, in blackface and drag. His act involved him dressing up like a cook, with bandanna, dress, and apron, and pretending to be "Old Aunt Jemima," a mythical figure in the minstrel songs that were popular among blacks and whites in the post-Civil War years. One night in 1889, a Missouri businessman who had just bought a mill that produced self-rising flour walked out of the show and knew he had found what he was looking for: a brand name and symbol that personified "southern hospitality." A few years later, the trade mark and process were sold to a more successful merchant, who added powdered milk to the recipe and, most cleverly, hired a real black woman (and real...