Subliminal Racism? You Tell Me!

A few years ago I remember hearing U.S. Army recruitment commercials on the radio. I used to get offended by them because it seemed to me that they were geared JUST for blacks & latinos because that was the kind of music they used in their commercials. However, as I matured, I realized that to be nothing more than a marketing tactic. By that, I mean the music was geared towards the target audience of the particular station I was listening to.

Then I began to pay closer attention to the television commercials they used.

Here is what I noticed:

One commercial has a father & son talking on their porch. The son is in uniform and his father says to him, "You did something today I've never seen before. When you got off that train you looked me square in the eye and shook my hand. Where did you learn that?" The father and son share a look and then the U.S. Army logo comes up. The father and son are white. In fact, all of the recruitment commercials with white soldiers and their parents have either both parents or a strong father/son theme.

On the flipside, whenever you see the recruitment commercials directed towards African Americans, it's totally different:

Although showed with different actors on different looking sets, the main theme is always that there's a young man talking to his mother, and he's trying to convince her why he's decided to, or is thinking about joining the Army. There are no commercials with the young black soldier getting advice or kudos from his father.

So I thought ...

Then today, I saw a commercial that had a young black soldier getting kudos from BOTH of his parents. Again, I figured that someone really must have gotten to them and convinced them to change their themes, but just a few seconds later, the soldier's mother is congratulating the Army for making her son a better father. As she's doing so, there's an image of him holding a baby in his arms. (So what's the problem? There's your black father!)

The problem is that when the young black soldier was holding his baby and getting praise from his mother, was he standing next to his wife? NO ... he was standing next to his mother!

Why is it that there cannot be an image of an intact African American family?

Now, in my circle, I am normally the one who plays the voice of reason - quick to calm my boys down and tell them they're making something out of nothing.

HOWEVER ... This here is some bullshit.

This is nothing more than the reinforcement of racially and negatively based stereotypes of how the black family exists and functions. It's because of commercials and images such as these, that make the concept of successful black people who are not music or sports celebrities so hard for black people to grasp for themselves.

The solution ...

DAMN ... wish I knew.

By that, I mean I wish I knew who the "creative director" is for these commercials. There ain't a damn thinkg motivational I would say to his or her racially ignorant ass.

Okay ... I'm done venting now.

But you know I'm right. And if you don't think so ... start watching & comparing those commercials then holla back!