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Kamryn Johnson

Covarrubias-Powell

Composition II

7 April 2021

Annotated Bibliography

Manring, M. M. (1995). Aunt Jemima Explained: The Old South, the Absent Mistress,

and the Slave in a Box. Southern Cultures, 2(1), 19–44.

https://doi.org/10.1353/scu.1995.0059

This well-written journal explains the origins and stereotypes that came with Aunt

Jemima and her famous pancake mix. It goes into depth about the creation,

auctioning, and manipulation of the brand that has been around for 132 years.

Using this source helps me elaborate on the stereotypes of black women during

times of slavery, and in today’s times. The text describes the racial controversy of

the black mammy who is often mocked and used for marketing and entertainment

purposes. Not to mention the use of black women to further exploit as the simple-

minded, overweight, mammy figure.

I plan to use the journal discussion of Aunt Jemima’s Pancake mix as a link to the

old southern times of leisure (slavery) as evidence in my paper. The source argues

that aunt Jemima was nothing but a slave in a box, who brought nearly 300

million dollars in sales each year.

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This source is by far one of my strongest, seeing as it touches all of my main

points and ideas.

Diaz, J. (2021, February 10). Aunt Jemima No More; Pancake Brand Renamed Pearl

Milling Company. National Public Radio.

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/966166648/aunt-jemima-no-more-pancake-

brand-renamed-pearl-milling-company

This article written by author Jaclyn Diaz, explains how Aunt Jemima is being

“rebranded.” to Pearl Milling Company due to the racial background. The source

states that the company will undergo a name change and logo removal. However,

it will keep the original red and yellow colors to insure the association of Aunt

Jemima’s pancake mix and Pearl Milling Company. I will use this source to

explain how the company has kept the racial logo for 13 decades. The company

decides the logo is racially inappropriate due to backlash from a time of police

brutality and systemic racism. I will also use the commitment, to uplift black girls,

women, and businesses proclaimed by the Pearl Milling Company as evidence.

Said evidence provides an example of a racial blanket. The company is using

investment as a blanket to hide the fact that they have made millions of dollars off

of black women for years. This is their “let’s prove we’re not racist or benefitting

off of POC.” technique

Fuller, L. (2001). Are we seeing things? The Pinesol lady and the ghost of Aunt Jemima.

Journal of Black Studies, 32(1), 120-131.

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I will be using this source to explain the role African American women have

played in marketing and advertising. The source goes into detail about how

African American women are often shown as happy-go-lucky, women who enjoy

serving people. Not to mention black women are often useful when it comes to

being motherly. Yet, are never useful or attractive enough to marry (which ties

back into the mammy symbol).

I plan to include the sources connecting between the famous Pinesol actress and a

stereotypical mammy. The argument being that African American women aren’t

intelligent enough to acquire higher-level careers/jobs.

I especially enjoyed this article because it opened up my eyes to the many

stereotypical ads that flew way over my head as a child.

Since the journal was not only informative but was also a case study, I intend on

using the data results collected from the study. The study included 33 participants,

19 females and 14 males.

Thomas, K. D., Boulton, C., Chambers, J. P., Davis, J. F., Rosa-Salas, M., & Tsai, W. H.

S. (2020). Roundtable on Race and Brand Mascots. Advertising & Society

Quarterly, 21(3).

The final source I plan on using is a roundtable that discusses race and brand

mascots. Kevin Thomas, along with the other panelists discuss the origins of the

racial brands, and their main focus is on the brands changing/ removing name and

logos in such a short amount of time.

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Many of the panelists describe the stereotypes and propaganda made by white

creators. Sunny describes how many people downplay these ads and brands

because it is supposed to be designed as “humor.” though nothing is funny about

mocking groups of people.

The panelists also discuss how the groups of people portrayed in these ads were

not seen as people. Instead, African Americans were seen as happy servants,

Mexican people are seen as thieves (which was basically foreshadowed the U.S.-

Mexico border controversy) due to the character Frito Bandito.

The discussion is divided into an hour, and I haven’t gotten all the way through.

However, I plan to use evidence and examples from the panelist to give more

insight on the racial stereotypes of POC in the media.

Reflection

● How did you handle finding resources?

I used google scholar, for the most part, the UNM library wasn’t very informative. I also

used Google advanced search settings so it only brought up websites that ended in

“.org, .edu, .gov.”

Some of the sources I found included sources that were more helpful.

● How did the SLOs benefit you?

SLO G helped me because I typically always make my writing as personal as possible.

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SLOs I, J helped me compose a research question that relates to what I am studying

currently in my AFST course. While m question may sound silly, it ties directly into

African American history and media

● Do you feel a little more prepared to write your final research paper?

Yes, I was discussing with my parents how I never did things such as an annotated bib,

an abstract, a sentence outline, etc. Those things helped me feel better prepared for

writing my final MWA. Not to mention they forced you to be better prepared and

organized.

● How difficult was it to find sources?

Finding these sources was not very easy. I always tend to pick very specific and sensitive

topics that no one loves to discuss. So, find articles, books, journals, videos, etc were

pretty challenging. I do think I found really great evidence though.

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