http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=1353&si=126

She’s even wearing pearls.

You said:

there is no pearl necklace.

Look at her ears. Pearl earings, very deliberately put there.

May I bring the discussion back to your post, which focused on the racial slur associated with certain brands?

First of all, I was so embarrassed to have opened my marketing mouth before even reading the Wikipedia link provided by you that I decided to immediately make amends for my intellectual lethargy. So I spent a part of my lunch today walking the aisles of a supermarket looking for other non-compliant brands that deserve some serious whistle blowing.

Guess what I found as an accompaniment to our favorite Aunt? Uncle Ben’s! This elderly gentleman of African American persuasion is shown wearing a light blue jacket and a bow tie, an attire I tend to associate with African American butlers and other sundry staff in fine country clubs or expense-account type steak houses. Still giving the manufacturers the benefit of doubt, I checked Uncle Ben’s on Wikipedia and I was informed that the makers claim Uncle Ben was a rice farmer in Texas. A rice farmer dressed in a blue blazer and a bow tie?

Still smarting from this racial slur, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Mahatma Rice. Now, being a first generation Indian, I am deeply reverential towards Mahatmas of all kinds and certainly will not condone the use of this word to sell rice. What is particularly offensive is the fact that the rice people are using this word as a synonym for Indian because Indians are rice eaters. This stereotyping of Indians must stop.

Walking down the supermarket aisle, my gaze fell on another racial infraction in the marketing world. Sun-Maid raisins! The picture shows a woman presumably working on the raisin farm. So far so good, but then I looked closer at the woman. What we browns must take exception to is that this lady is obviously a Latina and since these are California raisins, obviously from Mexico, and since she is a Mexican, obviously being made to toil in the fields for far less than the minimum wage. It is a good thing I don’t eat raisins or else I will be boycotting them.

My last stop was Aunt Jemima’s, and I must say I am not satisfied with the brand update they have done to become politically correct. First of all, no middle-class African American woman is called Aunt Jemima or would like to be called Aunt Jemima. It would be similar to calling one of us Gunga Din just because that idiot poet, Kipling, put this moniker on us. Secondly, there is no pearl necklace. No way! It is a frilly, lace like collar that a good African American servant might wear serving dinner to the massuhs. The hair-do is just as sneaky. If you look closely, it is indeed hair, but if you just glance at it, it vaguely resembles the twisted cloth that is snaked around one’s head to make a turban. Very suggestive of plantation days.

My supermarket duty today did enlighten me about how these companies can do branding without ruffling anybody’s feathers. Go with animals, elves and giants. Who cares about them? They are not humans! In fact, Charlie the Tuna, Jolly Green Giant, the Keebler elf have all sold a lot of stuff.

I hope my report “from the field” has helped shed some light on the subject.

why are people attacking pg on such a personal level when you have no idea about her upbringing & background?

if you want to discuss issues or make counterpoints to her arguments, do so…

but stop with the patronizing and straight-up insulting

Statements like that are what make it hard to read old accounts or narratives pertaining to the Raj…of course you tell yourself that it was a long time ago, things have changed, it’s just how people expressed themselves in those days, etc….but still…you end up wanting to go kick the shit out of the guy who made the comment…

Seen.

That’s right biotch, when I was growin up we only had the 3000 BTU Jacuzzi, not livin it up like those 5000 BTU mozafuggaz. I wait nearly 10 minutes for my starbizucks, not like those pampered mofos that get it delivered. Keepin it REAL.

Regarding my mentioning of class, that has to do with the way I present myself and the fact that some find it offensive. I’m not trying to pass the buck, but in my hood, this is how we are. We don’t pull any punches. So I think alot of the participants on this site are perhaps more vocally refined than myself. That’s what I’m getting at. Not neccessarily the poor/rich aspect, although that is a factor to presentation too, I guess.