The Strange History of Racist Mascots

What with Uncle Ben's surprising promotion after 60 years of service from mere lowly cook to CEO of his eponymous rice company, Slate decided it was time to take a look at the history of racist mascots, from Aunt Jemima to Gollywog, from Little Sambo to the bizarre rat-eating Chinese man to the right...

Nasty stereotypes have helped move the merchandise for more than a century, and the history of their use and abuse offers a weird and telling glimpse of race relations in this country. Not surprisingly, the earliest instances were the most egregious. This circa-1900 ad for a rodent-control product called Rough on Rats doesn't just exploit the then-popular urban legend that Chinese people eat rats. It also underscores the intensity of American xenophobia of the day. There were anti-Chinese riots at the time, as well as legislation like the Chinese Exclusion Act, a federal ban on immigration passed in 1882. (It was on the books until 1943.) In the ad, "They must go" refers both to the rodents and the Chinese.

I'm never quite sure if the reaction I have to things like this — a sort of flabbergasted bemusement at just how casually, horrifically racist people were as recently as thirty or forty years ago — is really the emotion I should be experiencing. It just seems too ignorant and cartoonish to take seriously enough to be outraged about. But then again, so does Kenneth Eng.

Uncle Ben, CEO? The Strange History of Racist Spokescharacters [Slate] (Thanks, Randy!)