(Full Length).
This very short ad, which touches on the very lengthy history of parents having to talk with young children about the ugliness of bigotry, and the gnawing fear of never seeing their child again. This has been, and still is, a necessary talk for most parents of colour. If anything, given the open bigotry and hatred on the part of too many cops these days, and their willingness to murder, well, things might not be worse, but they sure as hell aren’t much better.
I’m sure it won’t be a surprise, the white reaction to this. After having much of my hope for humanity utterly destroyed yesterday by skimming comments, the same thing comes to mind, that so many white people are so terribly frail, and delight in being cruel. It’s all liberal lies! Black people are delusional! Christ. Be smarter than me, stay away from all those willfully stupid, frail, malice filled bigots. They won’t make your day any better.
There is, naturally, a whinging howl to boycott Proctor & Gamble, those horrible, awful people. Damon Young at The Root addresses the storm.
But for what??? What the hell happened in the video that made them so mad? Did they film Michael Vick walking a dog? What the fuck?
Apparently they were triggered by an extremely tepid acknowledgment that the world might be a bit harder for black people than it is for them. The articulation of racism is racism. And not just racism, but racism-racism. That real, uncut and raw racism. Not that stepped-on shit with baking soda and milk.
The ads made me cry -- esp. the girl going to space camp, and the young woman’s uncertain ‘… Right?’ Well, all of it, really.
And the comments and reaction make me ragecry, because white people, you are such a shameful collection of human beings. Fuck you.
I had very much the same reaction. The one scene which got to me the most was the woman waiting at home after her son had gone out. I can imagine that sort of internal agony, trying not to wonder and worry if you’ll never see your child again. That it is beyond wrong for anyone to be in such a position, then see white people say things like “if he doesn’t do anything wrong…”
Yeah. Fuck’s sake.
“I’m a good driver, mom.”
And she (the mother) is trying so hard to not say out loud that it’s not about being a good driver.
I know (stupid and ignorant) people complained about the absence of fathers in the video, but really… that’s part of the issue, isn’t it? Women bearing a huge load of this worry (no, by no means all of it, but certainly a disproportion -- a direct result of the very racism institutionalized in the justice system about which the ad aims to provide a teaching moment).
It is an agony I know that I will never have to face, and that is so fucking unfair, and part of the rage I feel is at the utter helplessness I feel in the face of that unfairness. No one should be in that position, ever, but it is worse when a very specific demographic is put into it every single goddamn day.
Anyway.
What all the cruel and frail people miss is that this is part of PG’s ‘my black is beautiful’ campaign, which is focused on the beauty and diversity of black women. That’s a pretty big duh, but I have come to expect such base idiocy from bigots, who revel in their ignorance.
“This ad is not for you, white people.”
“The fuck? Why do black people get everything? Why can’t you make an ad for white people?”
“Umm…”
And so on.
I can only begin to imagine what it would be like growing up black in the USA.
Things like this ad help.
Racist comments denying reality really don’t.
Things need to change for the better .Lately they seem to be sliding back for the worse.
Didn’t get the talk, but mom was glad I passe for an Anglo.
It’s rotten to say, but I’m glad I do too.
Shit, reading what I’ve had to read about slavery, “The Talk” used to be saying goodbye to one’s child who had been sold.
Hm. That minds me of something I should post.