The image of Jemima isn’t bad because it depicts a racial stereotype. Or not just that. The image of the Black domestic is a symbol of wealth and power. It’s meant to inspire a sense of nostalgia for the times when children were raised and food was served with black hands.
The image of the black domestic was as wide-spread, public domain, and as common as images of Uncle Sam or George Washington. It’s a cultural touchstone, and just like the Rebel Flag, that it might make people uncomfortable is half the point.
Aunt Jemima gets at the heart of race relations in the United States. She’s a caricature of blackness, created by white people, for other white people, that somehow every black American has to confront, even if only to rebel against it. Because once something has become a powerful cultural image of what you are, to most people, and maybe to yourself, you’re defined by the stereotype, even if it’s only in how far you deviate from it.
Fellow German here. As a child I always thought that the black man must be Death himself, wearing a black robe, his face on eternal shadow, bringing darkness to all who meet him. And of you get hit by the ball, death will come and “reap” you from the game. THAT’S someone to be afraid of.
It was only much later I learned that it could also be interpreted as a hurtful stereotype that should be avoided.
Oh man, I totally forgot. In the 90s we had a schoolyard ballgame called Nger. One person in every square. 4 Total. You bounced the ball in another square and if you couldn’t catch it, you were the Ngger. It was 3rd to 6th grade.
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