Burgers in Blackface
Anti-Black Restaurants Then and Now
Naa Oyo A. Kwate
MANIFOLD EDITION
A powerful account, and rebuke, of historical and contemporary racism in restaurant branding
Aunt Jemima is the face of pancake mix. Uncle Ben sells rice. Chef Rastus shills for Cream of Wheat. Stereotyped Black faces and bodies have long promoted retail food products that are household names. Much less visible to the public are the numerous restaurants that deploy unapologetically racist logos, themes, and architecture. These marketing concepts, which center nostalgia for a racist past and commemoration of our racist present, reveal the deeply entrenched American investment in anti-blackness. Drawing on wide-ranging sources from the late 1800s to the present, Burgers in Blackface gives a powerful account, and rebuke, of historical and contemporary racism in restaurant branding.
Tags
American Studies, 2020 Humanities and Arts catalog, 2020 Spring, 2019 American Studies catalog, 2020 Geography catalog, bluesale, 2020 Sociology catalog, ASA race and ethnicity, 2020 Social Sciences catalog, AAA 2020, AAA race and ethnicity, MLA 2021, MLA Forerunners Series, MLA Race, CAA 2021, Black History Month, BHM American Studies, WPSA 2021, WPSA race, AAG 2021, AAG race, AERA 2021
Aunt Jemima is the face of pancake mix. Uncle Ben sells rice. Chef Rastus shills for Cream of Wheat. Stereotyped Black faces and bodies have long promoted retail food products that are household names. Much less visible to the public are the numerous restaurants that deploy unapologetically racist logos, themes, and architecture. These marketing concepts, which center nostalgia for a racist past and commemoration of our racist present, reveal the deeply entrenched American investment in anti-blackness. Drawing on wide-ranging sources from the late 1800s to the present, Burgers in Blackface gives a powerful account, and rebuke, of historical and contemporary racism in restaurant branding.
$10.00 paper ISBN 978-1-5179-0802-7
$4.95 ISBN 978-1-4529-6178-1
96 pages, 13 b&w photos, 5 x 7
Naa Oyo A. Kwate is associate professor of Africana studies and human ecology at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.