Critics of this meticulously researched, spell-binding work could argue the presence of African Americans featured on foodstuffs could be a paean to black visibility via capitalism (where purchasing popularity becomes linked to empowerment/) but the argument would conveniently neglect the undeniably problematic implications of linking African American service and purchase.

Not even a transformation from turbaned servant to the vague "modern woman" has completely resolved very serious cultural contradictions and dilemmas surrounding Aunt Jemima. Is she a tool of the dominant society, a covert agent for revolutionary change or somewhere in between? Through art deconstructing and explore cultural politics, she is positioned as an uneasy reminder of America's less than admirable history of discrimination and bigotry.

Reading this book is tough, but critical for everybody interested in political change and pop culture. Advertising imagery is not inanimate, instead both reflecting and shaping the nation. Encouraging critically thought about the political undertones of pop culture, the author by extension makes profound contributions to civil rights public policy.