Good Bye Aunt Jemima

Ever since Quaker Oats announced their intention to re-brand Aunt Jemima pancake mix and syrups, I have seen multiple posts on social media mourning the passing of an era. Some of the comments are just stunning.

"You are erasing her legacy." If any of these people bothered to look up the history of the Aunt Jemima brand (and you know I did) they would realize that Aunt Jemima was a fictional character, named after a minstrel tune. When the company started in 1889, the packaging initially featured a caricature, something we would consider extremely racist if it were to turn up on a box today.

They didn't use a lifelike image of Aunt Jemima until 1893 when they decided to have her appear at an exposition in Chicago.They hired Nancy Green, a former slave who was a cook for a judge. Some posts claimed that she became a millionaire, others claimed that she was extremely well paid. Let's think about that for just a minute. Nancy Green died in 1923. So she had the role of Aunt Jemima from 1893 until 1923. Women in the United States didn't even have the right to vote until 1920. You think she was well paid? To this day there is wage disparity between women and men. There is still disparity between white and black. Do you really think they would have paid a black woman generously? If she was being paid generously there would have been no need for her to continue working as a housekeeper.

There were also other woman who portrayed Aunt Jemima. Several families have sued on their behalf. Some claim that their ancestor invented the pancake mix. (If that's true, the evidence is very well hidden.) Others claim that their ancestor "tweaked" the recipe. I can't determine whether the second Aunt Jemima's last name was Harrington or Robinson. Different articles site different last names although the first name of Anna is consistent. Then there were "ambassadors:  Lillian Richard was the ambassador for Texas. Her family is upset that the brand is being retired. Not quite sure why, she has a historical marker sign in her home town. Nobody is taking that down.

"I never looked at her as a slave, I just thought she was a strong woman." Really? Why would you think of a woman on a pancake mix box as a "strong" woman? How do you feel about Betty Crocker? Is she strong, too? Fortunately for Betty, she was always a composite and never the image of a real life woman, although people did portray her on the radio and television although they usually didn't look like the image shown on her cookbooks.

"I never looked at her as a slave, I just thought she was a really good cook." Well, at least that's what they wanted you to think, so the marketing wasn't a total failure. But the fact is that her image was that of the "mammy" stereotype. "Mammy" was happy and eager to please her white family. She put her white family's needs ahead of her own needs or the needs of her own children. This isn't something that just happened before the Civil War put an end to slavery. Try reading "The Help" or seeing the movie. These attitudes are not dying an easy death.

And with other people sharing their thoughts on Aunt Jemima, I had to examine my own thoughts.  Aunt Jemima pancakes have been around since before I was born. I remember seeing the box as a child because it was the brand my mother bought. (I'm not even sure there was a competing brand.) I don't think I really had any thoughts about it all when I was a child. It was a face on a box. I didn't know anybody who looked like that and I had no associations in my mind. However, by the time I was a teen, I'd seen enough TV and movies to identify Aunt Jemima with the Mammy stereotype. But it still didn't affect me. Until I went to university, I'd always gone to all white schools. I didn't know any black people. My family had never owned slaves.

The problems with race in the late 60s had nothing to do with me. I know that they updated Aunt Jemima's image in the 60s. But I didn't realize until all the fuss started that all they did then was lighten her skin a bit and make her a bit thinner. She didn't lose the bandanna and get pearl earrings until 1989, an attempt to get away from the Mammy image. But it was too little too late. Maybe if they'd made that change in the 60s instead of waiting until 1989, it might have transitioned better and they wouldn't be forced to change the name and face of the dominant brand in 2020.

But all of the fuss makes me wonder how the public will react when Progressive Insurance decides to replace Flo.

Too Relaxed?

We started isolating ourselves just after St. Patrick's Day in March. We'd been watching/listening to the BBC reporting about Europe. We thought the European recommendations made more sense than anything we were hearing here. So we isolated ourselves. We ordered all our food online and had it delivered. Anything that was needed from Home Depot or any place else was ordered online and delivered. When the bags and boxes arrived they were sprayed with Lysol and left on the doorstep or inside the garage for hours or even days, depending on what it was. We used disposable gloves, a mask, and a bottle of disinfectant to get the mail out of the mailbox. Then we brought it in and sprayed it and left it overnight before opening it. When talking to our neighbors outdoors, we kept a distance of about 12 to 15 feet. Were we extreme? Maybe. But I'd rather err on the side of caution. The old "I'd rather be safe than sorry" drill.

There have also been questions about whether the government is suppressing the data. There were originally reports that deaths that were not COVID related were being reported as being COVID related. I don't know. I have to rely on published data. And while they started out posting updates in a regular and timely fashion, they are getting a little bit relaxed about that. I don't know why. The data typically shows up, but not necessarily by 9 am the way it used to, and sometimes not until the following day. Our community is situated in two counties - Polk and Osceola. I've been tracking the number of new cases for both counties daily since they identified the first case in Polk County back on March 17th. What I see is that the number of cases is going up every day. The trend line for both counties is still headed up. Less than 5% of the people who get it die from it, so that's good news. And from what I can see from my data, only about 5% of the population has it. (Or has a severe enough case for it to be reported.) My guess is that if you have a mild case and you don't see a doctor or get a test, you are not included in the numbers. So far, I only know one person who actually has it. Unfortunately, I believe she'd attest to the wickedness of this disease since she's been in one hospital or another since March 30th (over 30 days on a ventilator) and still isn't completely recovered. Seriously not something I want to take a chance with.

Now, as businesses reopen and everybody gets back to "normal" life, I'm sitting here wondering what has changed. Why is everything reopening? Why are people allowed in stores without masks? There is no vaccine. There is not even a treatment protocol that works for everyone. The government has issued guidelines for reopening that almost no state is following - especially states with Republican governors, like Florida and Texas. I've seen pictures online of people I know sitting around in restaurants with strangers sitting a foot behind them and no one wearing a mask. It's a risk I'm not willing to take just yet.

There's been so much mixed messaging. Wear a mask. Don't wear a mask. Masks protect others, they don't protect you. Stay six feet apart. Stay 15 feet apart. Limit gatherings to 10 people or less. (All well and good until one of the 10 is infected. But it does make contact tracing easier.) Demands for everything to reopen. Demands for everything to remain closed. But here's my truth: Just because the government says it's okay to reopen beaches, churches and businesses does not mean I have to go. I need to make that decision for myself, and I will make it based on data and facts.

Meanwhile, everyone is relaxing. Including us. We started having gatherings in driveways or under trees to chat with friends. Then we started sharing snacks and now we've seen a few people socially in their homes but in very small groups. These are people we know who have taken this whole thing as seriously as we have. We've started going to the store to get some of our own groceries again instead of relying totally on home delivery, which we find very expensive and I'm not always happy with the fresh produce. We've also gone to Home Depot and Lowe's for things that we would have had delivered in April.

We also find that more and more people are not wearing masks in public. I don't think this is over. I do think masks help. I still prefer to err on the side of caution. And then last night when they finally got around to updating the data, it was the highest incidence of new cases reported in one day ever.

Clearly the POTUS has decided that he is no longer interested in doing daily, or even weekly updates and we no longer hear much from the medical people involved with this. And quite frankly, the non-stop 24/7 media coverage was tiresome. And as I mentioned, here locally, the data is not being updated as regularly as it was. But this is not over. Starting today, I'm going back to having my groceries and other purchases delivered.

Living in Fear

The words "fear not" appear in the Bible about 365 times. Once for every day of the year. I think it was FDR who said we have nothing to fear but fear itself. And that may very well be the case. But thinking back, I realize that most of my life I have been afraid of something.

When I was a little girl, I was afraid of displeasing or disobeying my mother. I was afraid because there were consequences and they were unpleasant. When I was a teenager I was afraid of getting caught doing something I knew I wasn't supposed to do. (But I wasn't afraid enough not to do it.)

I still do things out of fear. For example, I wear a seat belt when I'm in the car. I wrecked my car decades ago. Even though it was the law, I chose not to wear a seat belt. It wrinkled my clothes. It was uncomfortable. But then a car hit me and my car (a big Buick Roadmaster) was spinning out of control - because you know it happens in slow motion - and when it finally stopped, I was in the passenger seat. It wasn't a matter of sliding across a bench seat. I had to be thrown over the console to get there even though I don't remember that happening. It didn't take long to occur to me that if I'd had my seat belt on, I might have remained in the driver's seat and maintained control of the car instead of having it spin around like a thrill ride. I've worn a seat belt ever since because I'm afraid of losing control of the car, and while a seat belt doesn't guarantee that I'll retain control, it helps. The only way to guarantee it won't happen is to avoid getting in cars.

I use the handrails when I go up and down stairs because I'm afraid of falling, something I wasn't afraid of when I was younger. Handrails are required by building codes even though young people don't actually use or need them and there is no law requiring you to hold the rail. The spacing of banister rails is also dictated by building codes - to keep people (children mostly) from falling through them - although it doesn't seem to prevent them from getting their heads stuck between them.

I use a potholder when I take things out of the oven because I'm afraid of burning myself. I've accidentally done it, and it hurts.

Now there's coronavirus. So many people are upset about wearing a mask To hear them tell it, not only are you living in fear, but the government is controlling you. Or maybe it's the media controlling you. Whatever. You are accused of not being able to think if you have a mask on. You're seen as weak.

If you look back at pictures from 1918, people were wearing masks during the Spanish Flu pandemic. And if they weren't living in fear, perhaps they should have been. The Spanish Flu infected about 500 million people worldwide (about one third of the world's population) and killed about 50 million of them. They had some of the same issues then. Learn More

I don't understand people. I truly don't. If there's a simple, cost-effective way to reduce the risk of being infected or infecting someone else, why wouldn't people be all over it? I guess for the same reasons that people don't want to wear a seat belt.  People I know who wouldn't dream of taking a hot pan out of the oven without a potholder are more than happy to hang out in public places with people they don't know and take their chances with a virus that could kill them, especially if they have any underlying health issues.