Rutt and Underwood had created the recipe for self-rising pancake mix themselves through trial and error. With little knowledge of how to market their product, they sold it to the Pearl Milling Company. For this reason, Quaker decided to rebrand the product line to this name as a hark back to the company that made Aunt Jemima a huge success.
Removing Racist Stereotypes From Circulation
The controversy and politics surrounding the name change reflect broader conversations about racial representation, cultural appropriation, and corporate responsibility in the United States. Many see the renaming of Aunt Jemima as a step towards recognizing and rectifying the harmful legacies of racial stereotypes in popular culture. Changing the name of Aunt Jemima has been controversial. Some say that the time to retire the old stereotype rooted in racism was decades ago. Others say that removing Aunt Jemima from packaging is removing Nancy Green’s “legacy” – though what that legacy is, as we now know, is often not correct. Regardless, the product is now Pearl Milling Company and features a photo of an old milling factory. The classic red label, however, has stayed the same.
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