jell-o=equality

I’ve been reading a book on the history of Jell-O by Carolyn Wyman. Of course, I would be the only one who would buy something like that, says almost anyone who knows me well!

Trust me, it’s a cool book. I got it cheap at Barnes & Noble and it’s been a quick but interesting read. I never realized all the trials, tribulations and intricacies of something I took for granted as an always-here snack that I guess I thought magically appeared on store shelves.

Before Jell-O gelatin, Victorian housewives had to endure a whole day’s work to create gelatin desserts. Before Jell-O instant pudding, all pudding was slow-cooked on the stovetop. The Jell-O products were some of the first convenience foods and are a uniquely American creation.

This easy-reading book was the antithesis of the last book I read, A Consumer’s Republic, by Lizbeth Cohen. That book was all about how consumerism and government consumer policy shaped late 20th century America. Though a thorough read filled with well-documented facts, it’s not a bedside delight, unless you’re suffering from insomnia and need a cure.

There was an interesting parallel between the books, though. Cohen spent her childhood in New Jersey and focused a great deal of research on the city of Newark, which saw its population shift from prosperous and white to poor and ethnic, partially due to government economic polices that eased the transition to the suburbs for middle-class whites.

One of the people left behind in the ruins of what was once the prosperous metropolis of Newark was playwright and author LeRoi Jones, now known as Amiri Baraka, who wrote a controversial one-act play called “Jello” in 1965.

“Jello” addressed the empowerment of blacks by turning Rochester Van Jones, the black valet of Jack Benny’s character on “The Jack Benny Program” into a radical militant that robs Benny and other cast members who reference Jell-O products as they suffer for the wrongs they have done to Rochester over the years. Benny was a spokesman for Jell-O for over a decade starting in the 1930s and his radio show was sponsored by them.

“Jello” attempts to explain some of the rioting and especially looting that occurred in urban areas throughout the 1960s, which wraps back around to Cohen’s thesis that once blacks were exposed to consumerism, they wanted to experience it first hand. Since laws, traditions and economic policy prevented them from joining the mass market, urban blacks fought for their piece of the pie, even if it meant burning down the kitchen to do it.

The Federal Government responded by passing laws that gave minorities greater access to the basic pleasures of American life, allowing blacks to more fully experience the American Dream. One of the beneficiaries of the Civil Rights movement was comedian Bill Cosby, who went on to become Jell-O’s most famous spokesman.

When you think about it, two books that seemingly have little to do with one another can be intricately connected. Both Jell-O and mid-century American economic policy empowered consumers. Jell-O was the snack of choice in the early days of suburbia and symbolized the future of packaged foods, much as the Civil Rights movement symbolized the future of the interaction of Americans. Jell-O takes time to solidify, much like the grass-roots and government forces that joined together to make every American free and safe.