Quote:
Originally Posted by LynneH
We humans do not like change and at some point there will be a balance in the historical narrative. But right now, there is a lot of misinformation about history that should be addressed. Her is a tidbit relating to the Aunt Jemima controversy--
Among the more derogatory images that populated American culture in the century from after the Civil War through the Civil Rights Era were the Coon and the Mammy.
The Mammy caricature was used to justify the myth of happy slaves, devoted to their white families. The caricature served to also mask the sexual exploitation and abuse of black women, both antebellum and during Reconstruction and Jim Crow.
"Mammy was "black, fat, head covered with a kerchief to hide her non-straight hair, strong, kind, loyal, sexless, religious and superstitious" (Christian, 1980, pp. 11-12). She spoke bastardized English as a way to show subservience. She was politically safe. She was culturally safe. She was, of course, a figment of the white imagination, a nostalgic yearning for a reality that never had been."
A popular market version of Mammy is: Aunt Jemima.
Please have a read of this excellent, well researched article from Ferris State University's Jim Crow museum, posted in 2012. It mentions the various ways in which the Mammy caricature has been commercialized in American culture, including the Aunt Jemima brand.
The Mammy Caricature - Anti-black Imagery - Jim Crow Museum - Ferris State University |
As, I believe you mentioned in a previous post, all history is slanted, than it must be possible that this may also be a slanted view. I am not saying it is, just agreeing with your earlier point that history is slanted.
In the text you site, the "Mammy character", "She spoke bastardized English to show subservience". The reason I suspect the afore-mentioned "slant" is that several years ago when someone mentioned "the black way of speaking" it was Jesse Jackson who spoke up in defense of that way of speaking and even legitimized it by calling it Ebonics.
In my humble opinion, many cultures have used a form of "pigeon-English" or a dialect or accent to communicate without it necessarily to show subservience.
Certainly there was racism, and there certainly still is. But focusing on old stereotypes only serves to deflect us from work needed to make real and substantial progress in race relations.
Oh, and by the way, the description of the "Mammy" character in your sited article would have fit my German grandmother exactly when she cooked Sunday dinner for us when I was little. The only thing in that description that did not apply to my grandma was the color reference.