You know, I've never once understood, in a culture that states that it dislikes public drunkenness as much as this one does, why it's not only tolerated but encouraged at sporting events. You put alcohol and sports together and very ugly things are bound to happen.
I've never once felt the least urge to go to a Cubs game. Both because I don't particularly like baseball and because I've been warned repeatedly that Wrigleyville in general and Wrigley Field in particular are not places that a person of the nonwhite persuasion would particularly want to be. Strange thing is, I'm in Lakeview, directly south of Wrigleyville, all the time, and I've never had any real difficulties. Somehow, Addison Street seems to mark the border between civil behavior and yahoos.
As far as Aunt Jemima goes ... I do know some people who work for the Quaker public relations department -- Quaker owns the Aunt Jemima brand. And frankly, they don't know what to do with her. Some in the company would like to retire her, but the board is reluctant to do so because, to put it bluntly, she still sells pretty well. As one of the PR people put it, "Nobody thinks about her image and how some people think it's offensive unless it's specifically mentioned, and even then, they dismiss it because she still sells." The PR department does all it can to hide her away; she's not even mentioned on their consumer web site, and on their "Links to other Quaker web sites" section, they provide no link to the Aunt Jemima web site.
All that said .... I have no idea what the National Council for Negro Women is or does -- I've never heard of it before, although I've heard of its founder, Mary McLeod Bethune -- but I was, frankly, aghast that they've affiliated themselves with the Aunt Jemima brand for their Women of Wonder Awards. I do wonder what on earth they could have been thinking.
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
Search entries:
12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!