2 Horatio

Patricia Spears Jones
The face of
a Black woman, no matter the popular myth, is at a loss.
Back in the Minstrel Show era, Mammy was easy.
Sang lullabies, rolled my eyes, rolled my hips, made
Some money. At least I was cleaning no white folks
Houses. Then some diner had a cook who made flap
jacks, dressed her up as mammy and the white folks
Loved it. Loved it. Next thing, mammy mass produced
Round face, big teeth, apron and bandana––and
jokes about me and Uncle Ben—you know we
Did not know each other. But there was I the only
Black woman on the supermarket shelves, smiling
for a few dollars. Then the people who hated
Amos and Andy and other benign stereotypes
Decided to hate me. Aunt Jemima. What did I
Do but smile, wear that bandana and sell maternal
Love for any who bought it. Why mammy figures
are in homes across America—white homes, mostly
And those Avant Garde Black people
Who collect Black Memorabilia—the stuff tossed
In the trash by so many, but these Avant Garde
People wanted to see how many ways dark skinned people
Could be made for commercial use. They. Learned. Outrage.
All those watermelons, wood piles, and aprons.
The Gold Dust Twins, so named because there was no gold or
dust.
The Black Black Memorabilia people helped
make Aunt Jemima a research project & mammy history.
Thus, Betye Saar put a rifle in Mammy’s hands.
Mammy as revolutionary, dug that so much, but
was just too much for the business angle. Mammy
got a makeover. Image change at Company decreed.
Gone bandana, apron and at least 50 pounds,
Even the box shrank back to when
Black imagery could be made for a nickel and
sold for a dime many times, many times.
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