QS - Don't tell me you didn't eat Cream of Wheat when you were a kid or even now as an adult.
I happened to stumble across my avatar jpg when Googling images of old cereal boxes (needed a picture of Bob Richards on a Wheaties box) when I came across Rastus, the chef on the Cream of Wheat box. It actually triggered old memories of a Black American studies class I took at UCLA back in the 70's. I was quite the militant back then. But they wouldn't take any Asians into the Black Panthers. So I became a yuppie instead.
Anyways... Rastus has been in my kitchen ever since I was a young boy - 50 years, because that's how long I've been eating Cream of Wheat (and Quaker Oats, and my favorite, Fruit Loops which showed up in the 60's).
"Eat while the iron is hot" is an old Cream of Wheat slogan.
Circa 1895
Circa 2006 - still alive and well and perpetuating the 1900's stereotype of Blacks.
Here's a bit of history regarding the Rastus, Uncle Ben, and Aunt Jemima, probably three of the oldest advertising characters still in existence and strangely enough, "living" reminders of a racially segregated turn of the century American society. Rastus is supposedly a make believe character, but there was a black gentleman, a chef from Chicago), who claimed he was photographed in the 1890's as the model for Rastus. So yes, the image is of probably of real man from a millenium ago.
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/question/dec04.htm
http://www.prmuseum.com/kendrix/trinity.html
The foodmakers claim that these characters are iconic to their brands and have transcended the racial symbolism thought by many as represented by this famous trio. For the first half of the 20th century, blacks were portrayed as servants and food-workers (along with every other minority) and these stereotypes came to life in these three characters. Even their names have negative connotations, Rastus was a name symbolic of African slaves; if a man had no name, he was simply referred to as Rastus by his owner. And as we know, to refer to a person an Aunt Jemima or Uncle Ben is construed as a racial slur.
Yet they still exist, economically justified by beancounters and socialogially justified by the marketeers. For some strange reason, it doesn't bother me because the obstacles and obstructions to equality that I've seen in my life experience been bulldozed and trampled down.
So why is it my avatar? Because it's a bit of history that I find interesting. I'm sure most of you are aware that I change my avatars every two or three weeks so it will be replaced when I find something new of interest. I certainly hope that no one considers it to be offensive. To me, it's simply a reminder of what was, what is, and what could be. It's also a reminder to me of how old I am.
But then again, so long as the trailer trash is sending the black kids to the back of the bus, there is still work to do.
Rant off.
Regards, asawadude