BIPOC Racial Caricatures in Branding & Design

There is a long history of racism behind famous brands, characters, and design that often goes unnoticed. Blatantly racist caricatures began with minstrel shows and the use of blackface, where white actors would use black makeup and overdrawn lips to depict Black people. These drove stereotypes that would be used in film, television, and branding. White actors depicted other minorities in an ill manner. From Mickey Rooney playing a Japanese man, Mr. Yunioshi, to Claudia Cardinale playing Indian Princess Dala, actors continued to manipulate their physical features to display the American audience’s ideas of these different ethnicities. Cartoons like Disney’s Peter Pan used Indigenous stereotypes for its character Tiger Lily and her tribe of Piccaninny, along with the song “What Makes the Red Man Red?” Big production companies such as Disney and Warner Bros. are guilty of distributing offensive caricatures that poorly reflect Black, Asian, Indigenous, and other ethnic groups. Brand mascots like Aunt Jemima were created to uphold the mammy stereotype, a Black woman who is subservient to white people and their children. She was meant to contain white anxieties about increasing the mobility of Black people within spaces of mass production and consumption post-emancipation. At this time other brand mascots like Rastus for Cream of Wheat and Uncle Ben’s Rice similarly demeaned Black men. Ethnic mascots are also very popular in sports, primarily mascots of Indigenous American men who are shown as savages. It’s only been since 2020 that brands have started to shift away from these racist images but the damage of BIPOC caricatures lingers.TIMELINE1833 – One of the first examples of blackface, in Bowery Theatre, New York, Thomas Darmouth Rice played the caricature Jim Crow<br />1889 – Aunt Jemima brand was first introduced and featured mascot/character as a stereotype of a  mammy<br />1893 – Cream of Wheat launched using a mascot named Rastus,  a term used for Black men who were depicted as simple-minded<br />1904  – first US stage production of Peter Pan features white actress, Margaret Gordon as Tiger Lily <br />1927 – posters of advertising performances of Joesphine Baker by Paul Colin: ‘La Revue Negre, feature racist stereotypes: Black figures with large red lips and overly sexualized depictions of Baker<br />1928 – Land O’Lakes butter premieres with a sexualized mascot/character of a Indegnous women called Mia<br />1935-36 – Shirley Temple appears in blackface and clothing which depict the ‘mammy’ caricature in The Littlest Rebel’ and dances on a stage with two men in blackface in ‘Dimples’<br />1940 – Tom and Jerry cartoon introduces a character named Mammy Two Shoes, a heavyset Black woman who was responsible for taking care of the house<br />1947 – Florida State adopted the name Seminoles <br />1953 – Disney version of Peter Pan , the tribe of Piccaninny are designed to play the exotic and savage trope and performs the song, “What Makes the Red Man Red?”<br />1961 – white actor Mickey Rooney plays a Japanese man, Mr. Yunioshi, in Breakfast at Tiffany’s<br />1978 –  FSU Seminoles began a new tradition: At home football games a Seminole warrior would ride a horse onto the field, known as Chief Osceola and Renegade<br />2013– Daniel Synder, owner of the football team The Washington Redskins, vowed to never alter the name or imagery<br />2019 – the Cleveland Indians  and MLB made the decision to remove native caricature Chief Wahoo from their brand<br />2020 – Aunt Jemima is retires and the company rebrands to become Pearl Milling Company<br />2020 – B&G Foods announced they were removing the Rastus character from Cream of Wheat<br />2020 – during a rebrand Mia is removed from Land O’Lakes packaging<br />2020 – Washington Redskins announced name change and logo retirementREFERENCESWalters, K. (n.d.). Blackface and Minstrelsy Tradition. BIPOC Design History. Retrieved June 16, 20