For a serious answer, Juan Valdez.
Geisha Brand, which is probably OK since it was founded by Japanese brothers.
Eskimo Pie, although maybe it will need to re-branded as Inuit Pie.
Thank you. Not something I ever heard personally, but I get it now.
BTW, apropos of nothing, as a girl / teen, I was nicknamed Tropicana Girl. It was kind of offensive because, let’s face, she’s no looker.
Anyone remember this TV ad:
. G B
Aunt Jemima pancakes without her syrup
A7 D7
Is like the spring without the fall
C D7 G E7
There’s only one thing worse, in this universe
A7 D7 G
That’s no Aunt Jemima at all
Followed by a group of hearty, friendly farm people saying.
“Not in Iowa!”
Uncle Ben never really bothered me, because he was portrayed as a chef — a managerial position in a restaurant kitchen context. But if he goes, it’s no skin off my ass (could go to flavor a pot of red beans and rice, anyway).
Incidentally, converted rice often gets a bad rap, because it’s processed. But what happens is that they zap the nutrients from the brown husk into the center of the grain before polishing it, so it’s really white rice with the goodness of brown rice. And Paul Prudhomme and most other Creole/Cajun cooks specify converted rice for their recipes.
I keep Uncle Ben’s in my pantry, and use it nearly as often as regular long-grain or basmati. If they change it to Chauncey V. Rittenhouse’s Converted Rice I’ll still buy the stuff.
So, who’s up for a plate of red beans and rice, simmered to a turn with My Ass?
Wally “Famous” Amos is a real person who actually dresses like that, so I don’t see that going anywhere any time soon.
That Tropicana Girl is too young to be a judged a looker! :eek: According to the Winkelried site, youve grown up to prove the haters wrong. 
Not so fast! I saw this article earlier.
Not surprising. Business interest almost always wins out over public interest.
I’m gonna miss you Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima, we had some good times didn’t we?
Converted rice with syrup was one of my favorites!
Aw, shucks; thanks :o
White [del]Pow-[/del]Flour!
The psychology and politics of racism is a twisted thing. My understanding is that they used the addresses “Uncle” and “Aunt” of black house servants because you didn’t want to use the forms of address “Mr.” or “Mrs.” on black folk. So black house servants became “aunt” and "uncle’, even though that implies actual relationship. (According to James Loewen, another acceptable form of address was “Professor,” which seems absurd in speaking about someone the speaker considers an inferior). But I don’t think that “Uncle” or “Aunt” were used for people outside the home.
I read somewhere about a white Southern woman who wouldn’t patronize a black butcher, because she didn’t want a black person handling the meat she was going t eat. even though her domestic staff, who cooked and served the food, was black.
There’s no logical or rational sense to this. It’s some sort of gut prejudice.
I fully understand that the origin of AJ and UB are racist, although I’m not sure how much of it still exists when people see them and use them today. I can also see how the imagery can be not quite suitable any more.
This will make companies want to be unnecessarily careful when using non-white characters. Someone mentioned Juan Valdez, the generic Colombian coffee farmer. It gets a pass because it’s foreign, but if it was an American brand of (insert item ususally planted by hispanics in the US) it will be called racist.
Definitely, take racist images away, but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
One of my acquaintances on Facebook has been getting faux-offended by Chef Boyardee, saying stuff like “As an Italian-American, I demand the removal of this offensive stereotyped character. Haven’t we Italians suffered from discrimination and hatred? Don’t we deserve to have a bunch of SJWs offended on our behalf as well?”
I’ve been trying to decide whether it’s worth it to tell him that Ettore Boiardi was a real person, who founded that company, and whose actual (and not at all stereotyped) picture appears on the labels, or if it would just be a waste of time.
For another example of how convoluted terms of address towards black people could be, Mark Twain writes in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that, while a dog could be given a first and last name like “Jim Smith”, a slave never would be, but would instead be referred to as “The Smiths’ Jim”. In other words, dogs could be considered part of the family, but the fact that a slave was property had to be emphasized.
I’m Trinidadian.
He’s leaning into caricature very slightly with a slightly exaggerated Caribbean Man accent. Trinidadians don’t roll their R’s like that. But he’s being like 94% natural/6% Happy Islander stereotype. IMO, generally inoffensive.
There are Eskimos who are not Inuits. Equating the two is like saying “European” in insulting and “German” is more correct.
I’m aware of that. It was a joke. There is really no simple generic term to refer to the native Arctic peoples of North America/Greenland other than “Eskimo.” Those in the western part of the North American Arctic are not Inuit and don’t want to be referred to as such.