my local highschool WOULD be the "Redskins"

Almost every Saturday morning my family and I have pancakes for breakfast (whole wheat with dark chocolate chips is my personal favorite, yum!). And yes - we use Aunt Jemima pancake mix. [I just checked the fridge to see if we use her syrup as well, only to find "Mrs. Butterworth's." Woops!] Anyway, it never really fazed me that Aunt Jemima was, well, black. I mean, if you asked me what race she was I would know, but I never really had a second thought about what that meant. When I googled "Aunt Jemima images," I was shocked to see what she used to be portrayed as.

The stereotypical image of the black mammy - especially combined with the type of language used in the blurb - is definitely racist. Just because her image has become more politically correct over the years (she's prettier and lost weight) that doesn't take away from what Aunt Jemima originally stood for. However, the use of race (or gender, lifestyle, etc.) seems to be kind of unavoidable if we're going to use images of people on products or advertisements. I'm not saying that that justifies the racist image of Aunt Jemima. But, for example, wouldn't it also be considered sexist to have an image of a housewife in an apron making the pancakes? Although Aunt Jemima is an obvious example of stereotypical representation in advertisements, others might not be so clear. As a society compiled of many different races, ethnicities, and lifestyles, advertisers are going to constantly try to relate to niche markets. So if representations of people continue to be used, this sort of stereotyping seems almost unavoidable.

With that being said, it's obviously not an excuse for racist representations to be used. So - moving on to Native American sport team names. I personally don't even see why there is an argument here. I mean, if the majority of Native Americans (81% according to the optional-reading article) are offended by these team names/mascots why is it even a question? Whether these sports teams' names are honorable and courageous or racist and disrespectful is not for the white majority to decide. UGH!! I'm actually doing my race essay on Native Americans' representation in the media, and the main theme that I've found is that their story is and has continually been written by the White mainstream society. And this subject of mascots just reinforces that.

I actually live right down the street from my district's high school, and they are the "Neshaminy Redskins." I've heard talk for a few years now that they are going to change that, but I'm not sure if that has happened yet. I'm going to look into that, actually. Speaking of which - redskins is definitely the name that irks me the most. I mean, how can you NOT see the racism in that? Ugh!