02/06/2025
“Nancy Green was Aunt Jemima.Aunt Jemima existed long before Nancy Green became Aunt Jemima. Aunt Jemima was based on the Mammy Slave.
The Mammy is a common racist archetype of the older kitchen slave tasked to attend to the white family’s needs. The archetype is characterized as having ‘an implicit wisdom of her own inferiority, obedience, and submissiveness to her masters, and a hostility to black men.’ She was the female equivalent of the House Negro, who would forego having children of her own so that she could find value as a cu***ld raising the children of her masters.
This archetype was adapted for comedy of the Black-faced minstrel show in 1864. The role was played by a fat white man in black face who would bumble around the stage, leaning in to her ignorance and short temper, eagerly bonking another servant with a kitchen implement. When her character would make an appearance on stage, the show would open with her theme song with the opening lyrics of "The monkey dressed in soldier clothes, Old Aunt Jemima! Oh! Oh! Oh!”
The entire concept of Aunt Jemima was a mockery of Black women. However, the only thing she could do was cook and cook well. Early Pepsi Co. would cash in on this association and created the Aunt Jemima brand, using racists caricature portraits on adds and packaging.
Nancy Green was a former enslaved African living in poverty who was discovered by a talent scout whom she cooked for, who found her to be the perfect living image of the caricature, and who could do live appearances to sell their product.
With no other financial options, Nancy Green accepted the role that mocked her very person. She surrendered who she was to assume the identity of a racist caricature and became known as Aunt Jemima in real life because it helped her become financially stable. She would then use the money she made to advocate for inequality, but knew better than to bite the hand that fed her.”
