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Book

Burgers in blackface : anti-Black restaurants then and now

Call Number

  • 305.896 K984 (CEN)

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Publication Information

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 2019.

Physical Description

87 pages : illustrations ; 18 cm.

Summary

"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"--

Contents

  • Introduction
  • Coon Chicken Inn
  • Mammy's Cupboard
  • Richard's Restaurant and Slave Market
  • Sambo's
  • Conclusion: The spice of racism.

Subjects