I am so glad that Quaker Oats finally came to its senses and removed the offensive Aunt Jemima brand. I have been concerned about this problem for 15 years.
I worked for a black-owned company 15 years ago and that helped me learn about racism and white privilege. I don’t know much from my limited experience, but I realized back then that Aunt Jemima wasn’t a good thing. So I wrote to Quakers and demanded them to stop using this name and image and to respect black culture. They responded with a form letter with a non-answer.
I shared it with some of my coworkers who were black and they weren’t surprised. I thought that they might consider what I said and stop using it, but of course, I am no one and they were making millions of dollars in profit so why should they?
I stopped using Quaker products when I realized they were racist and don’t support Pepsi or any of its other companies. Companies only understand the language of money and boycotting products Yes Quaker you are on this list of brands to avoid. I don’t believe in is one way to make social change.
It isn’t easy to boycott companies. It takes some work and you have to be open to trying new things. Part of caring about Black lives is not to help those companies that profit from harmful stereotypes. Yes, I know that my boycott of Quaker didn’t cause it to go out of business, but eventually enough people will boycott a company and change will happen.
You can’t be afraid to do the right thing because you feel your voice may be ignored or not heard. We all have a responsibility to affect change in all the ways that we can. We have to commit to not allowing any racist things to happen in front of our eyes. It doesn’t matter the cost of fighting racism, we all have to point out when people are hurting others and we have the power to stop it.
Aunt Jemima is a small step, but an encouraging one we are going in the right direction.