Aunt Jemima changes name and logo to Pearl Milling Company

Written for The Link Entertainment by

Kiara Desirai, Author at The Link Entertainment

Aunt Jemima has officially dropped their well known brand name and logo. They will now be called Pearl Milling Company.

Over 130 years ago, two white men created the ‘Aunt Jemima’ syrup. The founders took a Black slave archetype and made her the face of the syrup for profit. Aunt Jemima is finally being replaced after the company made billions using a slave’s image.

Pepsi Co, which owns Aunt Jemima’s parent company Quaker Oats, the pancake-mix and syrup line began rebranding itself after the negative criticism the company has been receiving for years, especially within the past year pushing them to move one step closer to permanently abandoning its long lasting name.

Aunt Jemima has been a part of the American breakfast table for over a century and the rebranded products will be arriving in stores in June. Along with the new redesign packaging the company plans to pledge $5 million to support Black communities where $1 million will go to empower and uplift Black girls and women.

Several known companies came under fire as well due to receiving criticism about their roots of their branding including Uncle Ben’s and Quaker Oats. Mars Food announced that they were changing the name of its Uncle Ben’s rice products to Ben’s Original and that it would also remove the image of an older Black man smiling from the box. Also the parent company of Cream of Wheat also said that the Black chef will no longer appear on its packaging.

Companies are finally listening to the voice of the consumers and change will soon be seen on the shelves.

George Crum paved the way for James Lindsay’s Rap Snacks to succeed

Written for The Link Entertainment at

Kiara Desirai, The Link Entertainment

By: Kiara Cooper

George “Crum” Speck was a Black American chef who was born in Saratoga, New York during the early 1900s. He is also the person we need to thank for those delicious potato chips we crave from time to time.

George Crum’s invention has allowed many other potato chip ventures to soar and James Lindsay is a great example of a soaring Black-owned potato chip brand.

James Lindsay, who is known as the Official Snack of Hip Hop, is the CEO of the potato chips brand, Rap Snacks. Rap Snacks began its journey in 1994 . In 2003, Lindsay later allowed rap stars to help endorse his chips with cartoon images and the opportunity for them to have their own personalized flavors.

The brand has historically been placed in 26 cities around the United States, Rap Snacks never reached mainstream outlets due to distribution and expensive manufacturing processes. That put him in a difficult place in the market, where large companies can have other options to partner with chip brands, such as Frito-Lay, rather than Rap Snacks.

Lindsay is working to go through companies a few at a time so he can get into those marketplaces or mom-and-pop stores.

He is one of the many Black owned companies that has been thriving for over 25 years. In over two decades he has expanded his product line by including noodles and more unique flavors to accommodate the celebrities that grace the Rap Snacks bag.

Recently, the company decided to partner with Slutty Vegan burger restaurant in Atlanta to create its first vegan potato chip in order to provide a culturally diverse option for their audience.

While Rap Snacks is still in the forefront for Lindsay, he has been the brand manager for artists like Master P and Meek Mill where he “connects brands with corporate America.”

Mogul and now business partner, Master P, who is also a great advocate for Black owned brands and companies, has been supporting Lindsay’s efforts for years along with his son, Romeo miller. He secured a deal in 2019 with Walmart to carry his Rap Snacks chips in 4,200 stores nationwide.

So the next time you reach for a snack remember Rap Snacks.

22-year-old utilizing TikTok to teach Black American Sign Language

Nakia Smith who is 22-years-old who is a popular TikToker that went viral on social media for teaching users BASL (Black American Sign Language).

Smith is a self proclaimed independent deaf Black American that is the fourth deaf generation of five generations. She utilizes her own experience to educate people in the deaf community and sign language where she has gained almost 400,000 followers on TikTok in the process.

Smith originally went viral when her and her grandfather shared the difference between old school and new school sign language.

Now she is using her platform to preserve Black ASL in the Deaf community and encourage people to learn sign. Many of her videos feature her great-grandparents, grandparents and siblings, who are all deaf as well.

Smith’s videos have led to an interesting topic in society that many individuals do not talk about mainly in the Black community; Black American Sign Language.

Smith was featured in Netflix’s Strong Lead, explaining that Black ASL is a dialect of sign language Black individuals created during the 1800s because of the segregation of the Black and white deaf communities. Integration between deaf schools didn’t occur until the 1950s.

“The biggest difference between BASL and ASL is that BASL got seasoning. I felt like a lot of people didn’t know about BASL until my video went viral. They were really curious and wanted to learn more about BASL and history. I told my grandfather that the video went viral, and he said, ‘Keep it going,” says Nakia Smith.

Black individuals infuse their signing with style, typically placing their culture into signing. Some may say that signing Black ASL is louder and expressive basically like telling a story through different uses of hand motions. Black ASL contains unique signs for everyday use and alternate hand placements such as at the forehead versus under the chin.

Smith continues to make a movement and bring awareness to the BASL and ASL communities through Instagram and TikTok.