RACE OUR ROOTS – Product Icons and the Past

The man on packets of Uncle Ben’s Rice was known as Frank Brown, a rice crop farmer. He was paid $50.00 dollars for the use of his image on the packets.

Many who want the images to be changed on the products would have eaten Uncle Ben’s rice at home, at family get-together, at events, at food stalls or in restaurants through the years and would have used Aunt Jemima syrup on pancakes. I have.

It has taken George Floyd and the taken down of statues to realize the past.

When the images on the products are eventually changed, I will miss the smiling and inviting faces that made people of all races buy them.

From an artist’s point of view, the images have been selling the products. I will not miss though, the racial stereotype on which they were based on and produced.

TAYO Fatunla

TAYO Fatunla is an award-winning Nigerian Comic Artist, Editorial Cartoonist, Writer and Illustrator. He is a graduate of the prestigious Kubert School, in New Jersey, US. and recipient of the 2018 ECBACC Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award for his illustrated OUR ROOTS creation and series – Famous people in Black History – He participated in the UNESCO’s Cartooning In Africa forum held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and the Cartooning Global Forum in Paris, France – www.tayofatunla.com/tfatunla@hotmail.com