Quaker Oats has announced the new name for its Aunt Jemima products in response to criticism that was levied at the brand for featuring a racist stereotype of a Black woman.
The name Aunt Jemima and the picture of a Black woman shown on the packaging, based on a former slave named Nancy Green, will be replaced with the name Pearl Milling Company and what appears to be a picture of a 19th century water mill, CNN reports.
The new brand is expected to launch in June, one year after Quaker Foods announced the rebranding of Aunt Jemima in the midst of Black Lives Matter protests calling for an end to racial inequality.
"We are starting a new day with Pearl Milling Company," a spokesperson for PepsiCo, Quaker Oats’ parent company, told CNN. "A new day rooted in the brand's historic beginnings and its mission to create moments that matter at the breakfast table."
As CNN reports, the Pearl Milling Company, the company that would later be known as Aunt Jemima, was started in the late 1800s and was responsible for creating the original ready-made pancake mix.
The founder of the company, Chris L. Rutt, took the name from a minstrel song titled "Old Aunt Jemima” in which performers wore aprons and bandana headbands, CNN reports.
"While the Aunt Jemima brand was updated over the years in a manner intended to remove racial stereotypes, it has not progressed enough to appropriately reflect the dignity, respect and warmth that we stand for today,” the PepsiCo spokesperson said.
As CNN notes, other brands like Uncle Ben's, Cream of Wheat and Mrs. Butterworth's also announced rebrands to shift away from history rooted in slavery and racist Black caricatures.