Ben Stein is missing "large African American woman chef" Aunt Jemima

Ben Stein is missing Aunt Jemima. Yesterday (Feb. 21), a video of the actor, comedian and writer professing his love for the fictional syrup model began making its rounds on social media. Since then, his proclamation has been receiving mixed reviews online.

It is unclear what prompted Stein to record and share the clip, but the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off actor made it known that he misses the days when Aunt Jemima’s familiar face was on the front of the syrup bottle. While standing in a kitchen, he held the product up and began, “Sometimes you would just make breakfast for dinner. Aunt Jemima, yummy, pancake syrup.” He continued, “Now this used to show a large African American woman chef [but] because of the inherent racism of America’s corporate culture, they decided to make the white person or maybe no person at all, but I preferred it when it was a Black person showing their incredible skill at making pancakes. So God bless you all and have a good evening.”

According to the Smithsonian Institution, Aunt Jemima’s character was created in 1889. While the breakfast topping was beloved, the woman pictured on the front is associated with a negative connotation of Black people, and the product was recently rebranded to not show her at all. Early images depicted her with exaggerated minstrel features meant to mock Black women. Although Stein was seemingly expressing his admiration, some did not agree with his message. “For those too young to know the sick history of Aunt Jemima, read up. Make no mistake, Ben Stein and those his age know the racist history very well,” one tweet read. Another said, “Nancy Green, born a slave, and after being the original Aunt Jemima, worked as a housekeeper until she was unable [to] and then died a poor woman. That’s polite speak for suggesting Ben Stein should go [f**k] off. All the way off.”

However, some users defended his opinion. “​​Not mad. Everything is about representation, right? At this same point where she was placed on the syrup, artists couldn’t be pictured on their own music out of fear of not being accepted into mainstream. We know Black women can cook. We know Black women are essential. We know Black women are trailblazing. We also know where Aunt Jemima hailed from and for the sake of not having us erased from everything, she should still be on that syrup,” a person wrote on an Instagram repost of the clip. Another commenter agreed, adding that since the imaging changed, so has the flavor: “Lol he is innocent. I miss the Black woman, too. I swear it doesn’t taste the same as well.”

See what others are saying below.

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