Slavery's Influence on Society Today

     Heather Humann's brings up some very interesting views of Toni Morrison's portrayal of Racism and Hegemony in the novel Beloved. She starts her essay with connections to racism seen in popular movie scenes in The Sapranos and Bamboozled reminding us of the stereotypes we still have in our society today towards African Americans. From these scenes she connects aspects of everyday life such as Aunt Jemima maple syrup and Uncle Ben's rice making the reader realize that racist influence from the days of slavery is still very present in our everyday lives today. Humann then goes on to describe parts of Beloved that exemplify where these cruel stereotypes we have today came to life. She goes in depth about the "Schoolteacher" and his profound affect of Sethe during this book from his animalistic treating of slaves. Through her analysis of the relationship between these two characters it is really demonstrated how Morrison depicts the huge gap in social class between a white land owner and a slave during this time period. 

    Humann's text on Beloved brought up some aspect of our society today that I had not realized are so heavily influenced by racism. Every saturday morning I wake up and don't give a second thought about smothering my pancakes with Aunt Jemima's syrup. The fact that the brands name originated from the song "Old Aunt Jemima" depicting and old slave mother which was often performed in black face in theaters during the times of slavery. The fact that this brand still continues to use this name I find very disturbing yet it is seldom questioned by anyone. While slavery is a part of American history and is something that we must remember, this is a disrespectful way of doing so. I fully agree with Humann in that we as Americans should do everything we can to keep the influence of people like "Schoolteacher" out of our lives.