Verizon is at it again this week with an interesting ad.
While Girls in elementary school like math and science at rates close to their male counterparts, by the time girls reach collage the gap has widened considerably. Encouraging girls to focus on outside appearance instead of intellectual pursuits not only affects the girls themselves, but all of us–you, me and your kids, too.
Anyone that watched the wonder that was Cosmos learned that there were lots of women in the sciences that made discoveries critical to our understanding of the world. Diversity of gender–or race for that matter–isn’t just nice, it ensures that our best and brightest get the support they need build us all a better future.
World Cup play has been nothing less than thrilling, with enough drama to fill Bravo’s TV summer line up. There’s been overly dramatic falls and equally dramatic play, not to mention a little zombie bite between friends.
What is also on display, as it has been so often in sports this year, is gross racism. And I mean gross not just in the quality, but in the straight-no-chaser approach to ugly racial epitaphs, racist costumes, and hate language.
Some German fans decided their love for team Germany was best expressed by dressing up in black face. And to make sure they spread their fan feces beyond the stadium, fans uploaded pictures to Instagram, lighting up social media.
FIFA took note of the racist behavior and vowed an investigation into the behavior. Of course, race has played a gross recurring role in football. In just the past year alone we’ve seen fans fight it out and even players taunted on the field. Is it because football fans are racists, or at least more racist than most people?
Football, like out own American sports, is more than a game, and the ability to paint our faces and pledge our fealty to the world is an old tradition still much desired even in our modern world. Sport is an opportunity to rise beyond the day-to-day existence to strive for a moment of glory and greatness–the hero’s summit at the top of his field has millions chanting his name, etched forever into the record books.
Sport is also a chance to pledge our allegiance to our tribe, to show off our country’s colors, and to win in competion the right to say our people are the best people.
Hmm, all that competitive spirit, tradition, nationalism and a little beer–or a lot of beer and capirainnias. What could go wring?
well there’s this
this
and then of course there’s this
To be sure on the other side of the coin, sport also brings us together, yes in pitched battle, but one where the biggest victims are ego’s and pride.
But what do these gross displays tell us about race in this moment in time? When we look for cultural messages, we have to consider the context–where is the message coming from and what is the culture there? This question is simplified, as a colleague asked me, “Well isn’t it different because it’s Germany?’
She’s not alone. Tweets and not a few twits have used the same argument in dismissing the recurrent use of black face and other racialized imagery in sports and other public events.
The general idea is that since black face–as we know it today– originated in the American south, that it is only symbolically powerful when referring to African Americans, but outside of America, black face isn’t really offensive. That’s like saying since Hip Hop was created as an expression of African Americans, there can be no hip hop anywhere but in America, despite the fact that people around the world have been exposed to it. Black face has been exported as has American ideology–and now media–around the world. Let’s be clear: black face is offensive, even between Germans and Ghanians.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel posing Black-faced magi for traditional three Kings Day. Yeah, black face is a thing in Germany
Black face in it’s American Minstrel mutation is one symbolic representation of brown-skinned people that was part of a much larger, more complex colonial narrative–a story that colonizers told to justify the oppression of colonized people. Cultural narratives like this are grand and sweeping, showing up in the culture of the time, in literature, art, even science. The story shows up in entertainment in one mutation as black face. But that was not the only negative depiction of “others” during colonialism, which operated on all continents.
To believe that the message contained in black face –the inhuman and uncivilized dark nature of the other–was contained in a few short centuries in America alone is to ignore the power and pervasive control of colonialism in all corners of the globe.
Just as black face in America today is an echo of the same old racist story born in American slavery, so does the racism on display at the world cup ring the bell of colonialism, and the lingering ideas of racial superiority, poison seeds planted by years of political, social and economic imperialism.
The games show us that racial conflict persists in our post racial world–even beyond America. Just as racism in America intensifies as the American population changes, so too with racism around the world. While America for sure has it’s own unique flavor of racism, changing demographics and increased mobility are bringing groups of people into new relationships. To really be a global village that won’t tear itself apart, we’ve got to be vigilant about dismissing the stories of the past so that we are careful they don’t become the stories of our future.
It’s summer, and that means every weekend there are dozens of people in my town who drag all the stuff they don’t want outside towards the street to see if they can convince hapless passers-by to pay for it. Yard sales pop up like weeds in the driveways all around town, and more prolific than the sales themselves are the signs on every telephone pole and street sign. Most signs are lackluster at best, utterly ignore-able most of the time….until–this!
Clever, funny, well drawn with a solid understanding of pop culture and advertising appeal! I may not want to buy the dusty crap from your basement, but you win the award for Best Yard Sale Sign of 2014!
This Verizon ad has been running widely lately, featuring some fine young black artists. The ad was originally developed as part of a black history month celebration.
Extended interaction online and at live events include a health challenge, several videos, and events; though it looks like it hasn’t updated since it’s limited launch in February, while ads are still in heavy rotation. The whole campaign is aimed at inspiring young people to reach their potential–great job!–by buying their products. #thisisanadnotacharity
The fight against the Redskin’s racist team name and NFL team owner Daniel Snyder, who has said he would never change the name, heated up this week when the US patent office entered the fray. The patent office has suspended the team’s trademark on the grounds that it is disparaging to Native Americans.
Before the good people breathe a sigh of relief, let me deliver the bad news: the Washington Redskins remain named so, and will for the foreseeable future while the appeal the team is already generating works it’s way through the courts. Team owner Daniel Snyder has yet to cry uncle.
What is exciting here’s that the government is taking a legal position, declaring racist language unacceptable, even in the service of massive profits. Native Americans and their allies have asked for a name change for years, but now both public pressure and the law are weighing in to tag team the team. Still, despite the widespread support, there is little that can legally be done to force a change. Even this week’s suspension of the trademark is not the first time the USTPO has taken a shot at Snyder–back in 1999 the office revoked the team’s patent, but the ruling was later overturned on appeal. One step forward two steps back.
Fear not, there is good news here. The recent dust up with the Washington team and the ongoing drama happening in L.A. with Donald Sterling means the courts will be forced to take up both cases. Can someone be forced to abdicate their business or their team traditions if they are found to be acting in a racist manner? The possibility exist for the courts to set new precedents that protect minorities from racism in ways that hold real consequences to those previously rendered untouchable.
The legal system has not, on the whole, done well to support the rights of minorities: slavery, Jim Crow, and today’s unfair prison sentencing policies are clear examples where our laws allowed blacks and other minorities to be oppressed without the perpetrators running the risk of repercussions. In fact, even if all Americans held hands, sang kumbaya and vowed to embrace diversity, we would still find that racist laws and policies continue to perpetuate racism. Systemic racism is pernicious and dangerous. Until racism is removed from the law, we cannot truly have a democracy that holds all men and women are created equal.
We have believed, much to our detriment, that racism is just about individuals who hold hate for others. The real heart of racial hate beats not in the chest of a man, but in the laws and policies of our nation’s systems. Public opinion is slowly moving towards inclusivity, but the courts and laws must follow or we will have done little eradicate racism. So pause, now to celebrate the courts arrival at the fight.
With the crisis getting medical care for veterans, the controversy surrounding Bow Bergdahl and increasing instability in Iraq, it would seem that this is either the best or the worst time for some embedded glory from Nat Geo.
This week the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, a Northern California Native American tribe ran this ad during the during the NBA finals.
The ad is a shorter cut of a longer version that has been making the rounds on the internet for a few months now. Controversy over the Washington Redskins is nothing new–we covered it here. Last season saw louder and more pointed calls for owner Dan Snyder to change the racist moniker, including a statement from the POTUS–all of which he ignored. Makes you wonder who really is the most powerful man in the world….
Viewers of the NBA finals are sure to have a leg up on Dan Snyder in the cause-effect relationship between racist behavior and team ownership. Snyder has clearly operated under the assumption that his decision on the team name is his and his alone.
Dan Snyder, Donald Sterling on the line….what’s that Don? Stripped of my ownership? They can’t do that….
Or can they? That is the lingering question in the slow moving explosion that is the Donald Sterling situation. What seemed so clear in the light of our outrage a few weeks ago was that a team owner could not be a raging racist ruling a plantation of players. Despite hard core hold outs on the wrong side of racial tolerance, most agreed Sterling had to go. Players from across the league boldly put integrity before profit and pledged not to return to play if Sterling still owned the team come fall.
Despite all of Sterling’s best efforts to get a beatdown in the parking lot have a butterfly net thrown over him in an interview with Anderson Cooper, he still owns the team weeks later. Reversing an earlier agreement to sell the team for a madly profitable $2 billion, Sterling is suing the NBA for a billion dollars. Before you chalk this up to King-Lear-crazy, sure to end in tragedy, consider Sterling’s peer Snyder.
The term Redskins is a pejorative, racist name for Native Americans, period. The term has a long and ugly history, connected to a genocide, one of America’s darkest legacies. People directly affected by this have respectfully requested Snyder cease use of it many times. Widespread protest of many people, including fans have been to no avail. At what point does the decision to use the term pass from Dan Snyder to someone, anyone, who might make a change? What role does the NFL and the owners association have, if any?
The National Congress of American Indians released this poster to call attention to the offensive Redskins logo.
Dan Snyder is not Donald Sterling. It’s easy to dismiss the crazy Sterling circus, but what we do when the perpetrator is less crazy and more entrenched in both sanity and his property rights? With this protest ad running during the NBA finals, Native Americans are definitely letting the NFL know that their protests cannot continue to be ignored in an era where pointed racism is an unacceptable way to run a sports team.
With the precedent of the blow up surrounding Sterling, we can be sure that there are a few more rounds in the fight to retract the Redskins name. But with the outcome of the Sterling situation still in flux, hard questions remain ahead.
Creating a hostile work environment is against the law, but calling the Washington Redskins the Redskins is still legal even if increasingly unpopular. If we want to be fair, and respect the rights of people to not be represented in terribly racist ways, then we have to keep the pressure on Snyder and the NFL to make change.
There is power in protest if it is partnered with persistence, but it has to be more than a few lone voices. Take a moment to shoot your good friend Dan Snyder a tweet here @Redskins, or a Facebook message here–help him avoid another season of shame.
Susan X Jane 