Aunt Jemima, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Aunt Jemima n.

[generic use of proper name; ‘Aunt Jemima [...] was a stock figure of the black songster tradition [...] and she entered popular iconography and pancake mythology through a song, “Old Aunt Jemima,” written and first performed in 1875 by the black minstrel Billy Kersands, who, it has been suggested, adapted it from an actual slave song of the antebellum work-fields [...]. In the fall of 1889 [...] it was heard by Chris Rutt, a man in search of a name for his new self-rising pancake mix. [...] Ruff sold out his Aunt Jemima pancake mix to the R.T. Davis Milling Company; [...] [who] brought Aunt Jemima to life in the person of one Nancy Green [...]. As Aunt Jemima, Green toured the country promoting the pancake flour of that name’, Tosches, Where Dead Voices Gather (2001)]

1. (US black) a subservient, obsequious black woman, the female version of Uncle Tom n. (1); an early fast-food chain, Aunt Jemima’s Kitchen, featuring pictures of a stereotyped ‘black mammy’, existed in the 1960s.

1897		Dly Northwestern (Oshkosh, WI) 30 Oct. 6/2: [Y]ellow kid niggers, Uncle Toms, Aunt Jemimas, Darktown Swells and many other curious and comical characters will be in evidence.
[1909		N.Y. Tribune 7 Nov. 44/1: [advert] I’s in Town, Honey! Aunt Jemima’s Pancake Flour].
1921		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 367: Aunt Jemima an’ her little daughter, / They done things they hadn’t orter.
1939		H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 78: Did you ever take a good look at her ass ... how it’s spreading, I mean? In five years she’ll look like Aunt Jemima.
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 188: Mama came forth with forehead shining, bandanna and broom, all sweat and Aunt Jemima, in the peppermint apron that hung like candy.
1962		T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 37: Ensared in some Aunt Jemima’s circus-tent bloomers.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 135: Hey, Gowens, who you got there, Aunt Jemima?
1983		I.L. Allen Lang. of Ethnic Conflict 47: Given Personal Names: aunt-jemima [fem. Popularized by a minstrel song, ‘Old Aunt Jemima,’ 1876–77, and later reinforced by the ‘Aunt Jemima’ brand of pancake mix].
1992		(con. 1930s–40s) Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore I 153: Sung by children in Scranton, Pennsylvania, 1934, and in New Rochelle, New York, 1940 [...] ‘Hey, Aunt Jemima! look at your Uncle Jim, / There in the pisspot learning how to swim’.
2002		Guardian Rev. 30 Mar. 2: Being a review of the history, antics and attitudes of handkerchief heads, Aunt Jemimas, head negroes in charge and house negroes against the freedom of the black race.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1958

C. Himes Real Cool Killers (1969) 59: Cut that Aunt Jemima routine and get up off your ass.