Everything’s more delicious when it’s seasoned with Privilege
Published by Kyso Kisaen January 12th, 2008 in Culture, RacismMy salt shaker has corroded shut, and should I break it tomorrow in a last attempt to open it with some help from a vise, I may need a new salt and pepper shaker set. Maybe this time I’d like a cute one, so off to ebay I go.
And, oh, my god.
First off, there was apparently a time, post-WWII, when the whole of occupied Japan was forced to make ceramic novelty condiment sets to satiate America’s apparent post-war frenzy for kitchy salt and pepper sets. This must be a big deal for current salt and pepper set collectors, with JAPAN being in many auction titles and occasionally, more helpfully, OCCUPIED JAPAN.
Secondly, WTF?
No, really. What. The. Fuck.
“Black Mammy” (or “Black Americana”) is still a shockingly popular motif - there are several salt shakers and I also ran into it while looking for vegetable bins. Which, OK, maybe they have some collector’s value even if you’d have to be insane to actually put them on your table, but that doesn’t explain the times people describe them as “cute.”
As for the salty ta-tas… Well, I wish I could say I was surprised, but after Melissa’s Boobie Product Parade, I’m not.
I live in central PA, where there are a lot of flea & antique markets and I see that ceramic “black mammy” kitsch all the time. As well as the male versions: the goggle-eyed pickaninny (little boy) and the “Uncle Ben” type manservant. Salt shakers, cookie jars…it’s all over. It really weirds me out. As you say, who would BUY, much less display, that kind of stuff? But apparently there’s a demand for it, or else the shops & market stalls wouldn’t have it out there.
I’ve always wondered how it must feel for African-Americans to see that kind of stuff for sale.
I mean, I’m white and it turns MY stomach.
Spike Lee was brilliant about this stuff in *Bamboozled.*
Thanks for posting that link. Melissa does a good job of explaining why “…but it’s just a joke!” isn’t an excuse.
You will all be happy to know that the salt shaker was successfully opened. Problem resolved. My personal salt shaker problem that is, not the racism or sexism in condiment containers problem.
My mother-in-law actually has a shelf full of those little figurines (the “black mammies,” not the boobies). She noticed me looking askance at them once, and said, essentially, “Some people say those are racist, but I don’t see it that way. I think they’re cute! And [my black friend] has seen them, and they don’t bother her.”
I really didn’t know what to say, so I just sort of shrugged. I wish I had said something, though.
Have you seen the Jim Crow Museum? It’s a pretty mind-blowing collection.
what’s a body supposed to do with these unhappy items once they’ve got them?
my family is a positively ancient one (my surviving grandparents were each the youngest of about 8, and they’re 90) and so there are all kinds of slightly unsavory knick-nacks around. i just found my mom’s childhood copy of “Little Black Sambo” in the basement when i was home for christmas, case in point.
throw them out, or see what they fetch on ebay?
I used to know a black woman who collected this stuff. I was always too shy (she’s was my mother’s friend) to ask her why she did it.
Ask her if she’s interested in checking out Steve’s collection.
I’ve always felt that Lynn Peril’s Pink Think could easily be done with race as well as gender; Lynn herself barely glances at race in that book, she does a bit better in College Girls. A collection of racist kistch would be pretty helpful to someone who wanted to do that project. There’s probably already a bunch of scholarly work on the subject, but someone should do a more fun version for a popular audience.