On Wednesday, hell froze over.
After 131 years, Quaker Oats announced that they are discontinuing their popular Aunt Jemima brand of pancakes and syrup. Even though millions of people have enjoyed having her over for breakfast for generations, many in the African American community have been irked over the fact that her name refers to a minstrel character from the mid-19th century. An Aunt Jemima usually refers to a heavy-set black woman who is pretty much a servant to wealthy whites.
Throughout the years, Pepsi-owned Quaker has tried to make Jemima less of a mammy and more of a realistic black woman. But during these times of black inequality with names like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and too many others to mention, it just was not enough.
Not long after Aunt Jemima's death announcement, Mars announced that Uncle Ben's future is in doubt. Unlike Aunt Jemima, it was introduced much later in 1943. ConAgra announced that they may be looking into changing another dark-skinned syrup maven, Mrs. Butterworth. Same goes with another breakfast staple: Cream of Wheat. Its owners, B&G Foods announced that they're also reviewing the brand's iconic mascot, Rastus, an illiterate chef
as shown in this advertisement from the early 1900s.
Throughout the post-slavery days to around World War II, African Americans were not looked at as intelligent. Segregation banned them from eating at certain restaurants and sleeping in comfortable motels. The entertainment industry was no different; the first successful black actor in Hollywood, Stepin Fetchit, portrayed people of color as slow, lazy servants. They weren't doctors, lawyers, businessmen or even perfect role models. Since those days, times have changed. But even though blacks are shown in a much-better light these days, some say that it's not enough.
As I've mentioned in the past, my mother's boyfriend is African American. He's intelligent, funny and treats my mother with utmost respect. Not only that, his son is an extremely-talented jazz pianist. Yes, I've met a few blacks who are total assholes. But, surprise! Same goes with whites and people of other races.
You see, I know how it feels to have to clean up after others. It's not fun. The slave owners of the past were users. Same with the slave owners of today. Like many others, I highly recommend the Netflix docupic "13th". It explains that the biggest corporations are using prisoners - many of whom were poor and black when they were incarcerated and in some cases, wrongly - to do slave labor to offset costs.
Too many times in my life, I've been used myself. When I was young, I lived ten miles from school. My daily bus rides were an hour long, and many of the roads I was forced to ride on were dirty and bumpy. When I turned 16, I finally got a car and a driver's license. However, many of the kids on my route all the sudden ran straight to my car after school and begged me for a ride home. Did they help pay for gas? Nope! And sadly, they weren't the last.
I've dealt with a drunk neighbor who have no job who had me go to the shitty liquor store down the street to buy beer and cigarettes. My payment? He threw change at me. I had a "girlfriend" who was a heroin addict who used me and my money to go to Muskegon to get more drugs. She almost cost me my job. Hell, last weekend, I made the mistake of meeting a girl online who was renovating her second floor. I offered to help tear out an old support for her now-disposed hot tub and all I got was a massive scrape on my right arm and a small bottle of water. She even told me that her "cousins" offered to help. Let's see: she's 38, never been married, never had kids, she's from Muskegon, never had a father figure and teaches at a fucking Catholic school. Yep, she's done.
Yes, I've been told that church is the best place to meet people. However, at the last church I went to, there was a person who lived in a Section 8 apartment who constantly used me and wasted my time in the process. He had a car, but it wasn't in good working order. Too many times, he begged me for rides, especially to places I avoided like the plague. One day, I was at home, exhausted after working 10 hours when he called and begged me to take him to Walmart, even though there was a Family Dollar just feet from his home. Plus, there was a Meijer up the road. But, oh, no! We can't go to Meijer because when he was a teen, he got busted for shoplifting there. Since then, it's been Wally World all the way for him. He also pressured me to go to his ex-girlfriend's sister's house with him to harass her. He did it once before and she called the cops on him. He also wanted me to produce a short film on the problems at his apartment complex and he wanted me to put my name on it. I declined because I didn't want my name to be planted on another man's problems.
What ended our friendship was that one day, he called me to go to Amazon to order some book from a TV judge. I declined because I told him that I didn't have a whole lot of money, plus I don't like having to rearrange my finances for anyone. Well, it happened again. Last year, I was at Meijer in the dairy department when he told me to call him. I did, and he begged me for $500 to help fix his POS Saturn. I declined once again and told him that I wasn't made out of money. Well, I blocked him from calling me and my socials as well. What a fucking asshole. He hardly did shit for me. He was just somebody who simply didn't pull his weight in society.
You see, I know I'm not the only one. Being an asshole is a part of human nature simply because some people need to have their own way all the time. This month, I celebrated my 18th anniversary at my job. However, it reminds me of Conan O'Brien's 10th anniversary hosting Late Night many years ago. Mr. T awarded him with a chain that read "7" Conan asked why it read "7" and Mr. T responded with "you've only been funny for SEVEN!" For the first ten years, my boss treated me like a slave. I, and too many others were severely underpaid while he went on lavish vacations around the world. Well, the last eight years have been better. I'm getting paid twice of what I was getting paid with the old boss and I just recently bought a "gently used" Jeep. True, there's other things in life I've always wanted, like a house, a wife and the continuation of my family name. God only knows when that will happen, if at all.
But I know that there's people worse off than I am. I read my Facebook posts daily and I have a few friends who have had it bad. One is somebody who graduated from high school with me. He's worked as a cook at several restaurants. He's a loner and often bitches about his sad life on Facebook (and honestly, he's not the sexiest man on the planet). Oddly enough in one of his recent rants, somebody commented that he should look at life more positively since he himself "lost it all three times". And that somebody was a punk ass kid who constantly picked on me at school. An asshole whose father would beat up women and ran a longstanding restaurant in northern Michigan out of business.
One reason I brought up this post is because the other day, another one of my Facebook friends also talked about being used. It gave him PTSD and forced him to be on many drugs for mental issues. Not only that, he's attempted suicide several times. His ex-wife left him for a drunk. His best friend of 20 years fell into alcoholism and so on. Reading his rant made me realize that I've had my own problems, too. But last Fall, a barn kitten came to his house. Even though he didn't want another cat since his last one died, the two quickly bonded. Later in the day, he posted that his cat knew that he was depressed, so he jumped into bed with him. You see, cats and other animals seem to have a better heart than many humans do. Animals will never judge you because of your past or the shit you've been in. They give their humans the love other humans cannot give them.
You see, I think I know what my problem is: I'm too nice in person. Therefore, I'm an easy target for assholes to use me. Here's an idea that I think will teach others a lesson: cash, gas, ass or grass, nobody rides for free. That's right! If people want you to wipe their ass for them, tell 'em your rates. Get paid up front. But, if they don't want to pay up, tell 'em to fuck off, plain and simple. The world should be your oyster, not theirs. But if they can get away with murder, you'll get burned.
If the slaves had that expression centuries ago, slavery would have ended right there.
--
Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome!
Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com
Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
