Serious Question on Racism...sort of « Columbus Underground Messageboard

Columbus Underground Messageboard » General Columbus Discussion » Q&A

Serious Question on Racism...sort of

[11 posts] [9 contributors]

Topic Rating:

(Total Ratings: )
Rate this topic:

Started 4 years ago by Coremodels
Latest reply from DawonHawkins

Tags:

No tags yet. Add them below.

Coremodels
Really close to Explorer's Club.
Login to Send PM

So, I have no real gauge for what's racist and what isn't I think. I've been good enough friends with my black friends that we pretty much say insanely racist, stupid stuff to each other. Tonight we had a huge debate about this and I was curious what other people thought...
So, I'm on the nbc4i website and it's an ad for Franklin. The banner is "Byrone didn't think he could afford college". That's right, Byrone Brown didn't think he could afford college...and yeah, there's a photo. Now, my buddy...who I've told doesn't tip, wears his pants too low, spends far too much time moisturizing, and basically every other racist stereotype ever and we laugh about it...didn't think it was racist, but I did. The conversation basically devolved into him telling me I had "Cracker Guilt" and us drinking way too much...but it still bothered me.
Now, I can't quite put my finger on it being that they've chosen such a blatantly African American name, or that they've assigned it to not being able to afford college...but it just seems kind of off to me.
I'm just curious if it is White Guilt maybe, or if other people think it seems kind of racist too.

Posted 4 years ago #
drew

Login to Send PM

I may appear to be threading a needle by saying this, but I think it's more stereotyping than it is racism... and for better or worse, stereotyping is pretty much the essence of marketing. No doubt they're intentionally targeting a black audience, but it's not with any particular ill intent... it's with the goal of getting that audience to feel as though Franklin is speaking to them by trying to use traits recognizable to the people they're trying to reach. The same is done all the time based upon gender, income, orientation, ethnography... pretty much any way you can think of to slice and dice the populace into distinct categories, it's been done.
I completely understand why it makes you a bit uncomfortable (it does me, too) and it does seem as though they might have been a bit unsubtle in their pitch.

Posted 4 years ago #
ChrisSunami
King-Lincoln District
Login to Send PM

Here's the ad.
As I read it, Byrone is probably a real person who really attends Franklin. And perhaps he really did think he couldn't afford college. So essentially, they've chosen one of their black students to feature for this ad, probably in an attempt to appeal to black students --either that, or perhaps they have ads featuring students of diverse ethnicities, and this is just the one you happened to see.
Nothing in any of that seems particularly racist.
I think the vibe you're picking up is that it seems a bit paternalistic, and patronizing. Plus, the banner itself is kind of cheesy and cheap looking. But speaking as a black person, it all seems pretty benign to me.

Posted 4 years ago #
roy
Downtown
Login to Send PM

I know the ad, it's on the Dispatch site too. I don't believe targeted advertising is necessarily racist. Franklin targets blond women of a certain age too, and older working white people.
I see selected consumer goods advertised in black neighborhoods on billboards and bus benches. It doesn't hurt my sensibilities, and if the ads didn't work, they wouldn't be there.
Racism is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities. That's WAY different than giving a shout-out to employed black men who may be considering college.

Posted 4 years ago #
Coremodels
Really close to Explorer's Club.
Login to Send PM

kitoba wrote I think the vibe you're picking up is that it seems a bit paternalistic, and patronizing. Plus, the banner itself is kind of cheesy and cheap looking. But speaking as a black person, it all seems pretty benign to me.
I agree, I think patronizing was what it made me feel when seeing it more than anything. And yeah, don't get me wrong, targeted ads are cool, it just seemed this one was overly stereotypical I guess.

Posted 4 years ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
Login to Send PM

My real question is what are you and a friend doing sitting around drinking and looking at the nbc4i website for? :lol:

Posted 4 years ago #
Coremodels
Really close to Explorer's Club.
Login to Send PM

Walker wrote My real question is what are you and a friend doing sitting around drinking and looking at the nbc4i website for? :lol:
LOL...I was looking to see if there was an IAC story on it, as I was explaining the whole thing to his rather blank stare ;)

Posted 4 years ago #
Ndcent
OTE
Login to Send PM

My view: If it gets more people to go to college, who gives a shit?

Posted 4 years ago #
Schoolboy
Columbus
Login to Send PM

so if dude was named something like kevin smith it'd be cool? 8)
i agree, he's probably a real guy.
targeted ads don't irk me even a fraction of how much television show segregation does. it's a major reason i don't watch that crap.

Posted 4 years ago #
greenhouse1014
Columbus
Login to Send PM

Having done some advertising work, I can pretty much bet there wasn't a racist lean towards it. Every business target markets and the imagery you use has to fit with your target. What good would it do to increasing black enrollment if it was about Kip the yuppie not being able to go to college.
I DO think, however, that a lot of what you felt IS white guilt. As a white guy with mostly black friends, hang out in the black clubs, whatever, I'll tell you that it is alive and well here in the US of A - White guilt. We've had PC beat so hard into our heads that even we see racism where it doesn't necessarily exist. It's the uber-sensitivity of knowing that our (sweeping) ancestors committed a terrible crime to the ancestors of those people we have to see and deal with every day. Consider if you killed your next door neighbors mother and got away with it. And further, in some wierd bizarro world that only exists for the sake of this argument, consider that there was nothing your next door neighbor could do about it. How would you feel about seeing your neighbor on mother's day. OK, well, maybe that's a REALLY EXTREME example, but its what I could come up with sitting here bored to death at work.

Posted 4 years ago #
DawonHawkins
Sixty Spring (Downtown Columbus)
Login to Send PM

My 2 cents:
The ad isn't racist, nor is it stereotyping. The ad simply reflects the testimony of a guy who didn't think he could afford college, but could at Franklin U. Oh, and he happened to be black.
Just like the commercials that show a woman who's struggling to get by, and a coworker tells her about going to school for dental hygene and graduating in less than 2 years. Oh and she happened to be white.
These are simply testimonials whose primary aim is to let people know that "they too" can... (fill in the blanks).
Having sensitivity towards the mistreatment of other people can be a beautiful thing. But we shouldn't always have to feel as though we're looking over our shoulder every time we laugh at a joke, watch a particular television program, or hang out with the friends we have.
Anyone can sit here and dissect "white guilt" for you... but the question you have to ask yourself is "do I treat people poorly, while elevating others, because of their race (black, white, asian, indian, middle eastern, etc.)?" And if you do, then the next question becomes..."why do I do that?"

Posted 4 years ago #