General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"I'm Biracial & That Cheerios Ad Is a Big Fucking Deal," ALSO "10 Reasons It's Best Commercial Ever"
Last edited Sat Jun 1, 2013, 12:59 PM - Edit history (1)
http://jezebel.com/im-biracial-and-that-cheerios-ad-is-a-big-fucking-dea-510740851I'm Biracial, and That Cheerios Ad Is a Big Fucking Deal. Trust Me.
Meagan Hatcher-Mays
Yesterday 5:10pmg 165,006L 875
By now you know some racist dicks have whipped themselves up in a frenzy of racist dickery over the portrayal of an interracial family in a Cheerios ad. You see, Cheerios has committed the heinous crime of acknowledging that interracial families exist, and also that sometimes interracial families need to eat breakfast. This was too much for the racist dicksCheerios was forced to disable comments on YouTube where the video was posted. (Whats up with you racist dicks, anyway? Dont you have jobs?)
I am biracial. My mom is black and my dad is white. My family often had the audacity to eat breakfast even though cereal was not being specifically marketed to us. When I was growing up, there were no families on television that resembled mine. My family was something of an anomaly in the overwhelmingly white neighborhood of Seattle where I lived. When I was with my mom, people would look at me and ask, What is she? When I was with my dad, people would ask, Is she Italian? Because this is definitely the kind of information that strangers are entitled to.
But life was even more confusing for my brother. He was born with blond, curly hair and bright blue eyes. He looked nothing like my mom. When they were alone together, well, thats when shit got real. The white mothers in my neighborhood not only assumed my mom was my brothers nanny, but they inquired after her services. Single brows were raised when my mom assured these awful women that she was, in fact, the biological mother of my brother. (This was before Botox. Eyebrows could move freely then.) When my maternal grandmother came to pick us up from daycare, despite being on the authorized pick-up list, they made sure to call my dad to make sure this black lady was legit. (By the way, there are worse things than being kidnapped by a black lady in a luxury Cadillac who takes you to her country club for lunch and lets you drive the golf cart.)
- snip -
This commercial is a huge step for interracial families like mine who want to be seen in public together and maybe eat some heart-healthy snacks. But it also validates the existence of biracial and multiracial people. Often were treated like exotic flowers, who should feel complimented when people say stuff to us like, All biracial women are so beautiful or I would kill for your skin. One of the hardest things about growing up the way I did is feeling like you need to choose one racial identity over another just to fit in. The fact that strangers constantly ask you to identify yourself (forcing you to put yourself in a category) makes you feel conspicuous and gazed upon. You catch strangers looking at you. You know what they want to ask you. You know that they wont leave you alone until you give them a rundown of your heritage.
MORE[p]
http://m.globalgrind.com/news/reasons-why-just-checking-cheerios-commercial-best-video-interracial-couple
10 Reasons Why The "Just Checking" Cheerios Commercial Is The Best Ever
Global Grind ?- 8 hours ago
If you thought you lived in a post-racial world before yesterday, you were probably ...
calimary
(81,594 posts)Isn't the idea to appeal to the largest possible consumer pool? Isn't the idea to produce ads to which ANYBODY can relate, and in which ANYBODY can see themselves? The better to resonate with the product and imaging being sold, so you wind up selling MORE, no?
It's very annoying that this stirs up shit. There are MANY American families that aren't the cookie-cutter white daddy/white mommy/white kids version. MANY. And many with one parent. And many with a combination of elders contributing. Forcryingoutloud, we have a President like that.
And many with same-sex parents, too. And unfortunately JC Penney has taken shit for its ads that feature families like that as well.
So frustrating, and disappointing, too. WHY is this still such an issue? This is the 21st Century, for Heaven's sake.
grilled onions
(1,957 posts)breakfast with a family get's a certain group of people very uptight. I looked at the calendar and it did say 2013. However we have people that cannot get past this issue. Oddly enough many who can't cope with it came from the very part of the country where this was an issue during slavery. Whether by chance or choice many a babe was born with mixed race parents. Were they such a disgrace back then? Today I wonder if many groups who would like this issue to be avoided at all costs, are trying to come up with sneaky by laws that would prevent such "scenes" as mixed couples at their yearly dances or golf outings. Uptight mothers are often keeping their kids away from such children as if they might catch something or worse yet ask such questions as to the tone of their skin! Kids learn this ignorance at a tender age from parents who have less then tender thoughts to biracial children. They have feelings and they deserve to be treated as an equal to any other child out there. People--grow up!!
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Don't ask these guys:
They don't get it either.
Warpy
(111,437 posts)to get them out of the ghetto and into ordinary, boring America than most other efforts to do so because commercials are set up to feature the boring everyman and everywoman. Now we know those "everys" come in all shades of the human rainbow.
Bigots gonna hate. It's all they have to keep them warm on a chilly and friendless night. This feeds right into the Klan's worst fear, that white women will be taken over by black men. They never consider that the women might have something to say about that, "consent" is not something they have ever recognized as important.
The rest of us think this commercial is kinda cute.
valerief
(53,235 posts)Warpy
(111,437 posts)but it took the banality of commercials to make it normal. Otherwise, it would have remained tokenism.
valerief
(53,235 posts)calimary
(81,594 posts)This:
"They never consider that the women might have something to say about that, "consent" is not something they have ever recognized as important."
What a woman might have to say about something, anything, has been such a non-issue for so long. I mean - seems like we're talking thousands of years. I don't know. But I've found it something that I thought about a lot, even from grade school times. I found myself thinking - "how can you make pronouncements like that? You're not a woman, how on earth could you possibly know?" What did megyn kelly even get pissed off enough to say? "Who died and made you the god of science"? (Or some such thing. Guess that one was even too much for megyn kelly.) Mainly it was for the early exposures outside my nuclear family, including doctors and of course the visiting priest who came to our school once a week to conduct the catechism class - and the other priests in the parish, too.
Women have been regarded as property - to be bought, sold, traded, and owned, or lent out maybe - for as far back as womankind can remember. I sometimes find, in my own mind, that the issues of the woman supersede pretty much all other social and social-justice issues. Mainly because there are women in EVERY demographic imaginable. There are black women. There are Latinas. There are Asian women. There are white women. There are indigenous tribal women. There are old women. There are young women. There are gay women. There are disabled women. There are warrior women. There are business women. There are rich women. There are poor women - and how! Seems to me that ALL issues eventually settle down onto one shared foundation: that involving and directly affecting the female of the human species.
And maybe we need to assert that more, and help integrate that reality into the general (and male-dominated mindset). I don't know. Just rambling, really. But one thing I think is certain: a large part of society is so unaccustomed to having to include and accommodate the female view - not just in Madison Avenue matters but in policy matters. It reminds me of a statement one of the women US Senators made not terribly long ago. I forget who said this but the statement was made that if women held a majority in the Senate (maybe Congress in general), many of the big problems we face would be solved. Because women would be interested in getting something accomplished and some problems solved rather than putting total emphasis on political posturing. We don't have that majority yet, and I'm sure there will be whole population segments that resist it like crazy, but I'm thinking that it's the way we're headed. And I hope so. 'Cause I hate the idea of being held back for such an arbitrary assumption.
edbermac
(15,950 posts)Then you'd really see heads exploding.
Behind the Aegis
(54,051 posts)CNN: "Scientists baffled by series of "sonic booms" throughout the US. Coming up in the next hour: A scientist specializing in cereal."
FOX News: "Muslim Terrorists attack US by eating breakfast!! Freedom-O's fly off the shelves!!"
Alex Jones: "Zionist-occupied Hollywood fights to have commercial they made banned from airwaves!!"
Pat Robertson: "I am not sure how or why, but the homosexual lobby is behind this...behind, get it?!"
Lucinda
(31,170 posts)Adorable!
I'm too tired right now to wrap my head around yet another case of people being horrible. I seem to be in a perpetual WTF? state lately when reading online...
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)GOOGLE: cheerios gmo backlash
PRESS RELEASE
Dec. 6, 2012, 2:09 p.m. EST
GMO Inside Campaign: Cheerios Facebook Page Flooded By Anti-GMO Comments
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Thousands of Negative Posts Result in General Mills Removing App Encouraging People to Share What Cheerios Means to Them.
The GMO Inside campaign announced today that thousands of concerned consumers have flooded Cheerios' Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Cheerios) distressed about genetically engineered ingredients in Cheerios and outraged at General Mills contributing over $1.1 million to "No on 37" in California, the narrowly defeated ballot initiative that would have required the labeling of foods with genetically engineered ingredients. Since November 29, the GMO Inside Campaign has been encouraging visitors to its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/GmoInside) to post comment on Cheerios' Facebook page regarding GMOs. The outpouring of comments demonstrates that the drive to label GMOs that led millions of people to support Prop. 37 in California is growing throughout the U.S.
Visitors to Cheerios' Facebook page also used a Cheerios app that allowed users to provide comments on what Cheerios means to them (and which then posted the comments in Cheerios' trademark font) to call out genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Cheerios. In response, General Mills removed the app from its Facebook page.
"The sheer volume of comments on Cheerios' Facebook page raising concerns around genetically engineered ingredients is incredibly inspiring," stated Alisa Gravitz, CEO and president of Green America. "It is also amazing to see the creativity that visitors to Cheerios' Facebook page use to call out Cheerios on using their customers as a science experiment for GMO consumption. Cheerios is a cereal that is frequently fed to children, and many of the comments are from concerned parents who are worried about the fact that they have been feeding a cereal with genetically engineered ingredients to their children."
<>
#OccupyCheerios: A Facebook Revolt
The General Mills cereal brand didnt just get likes when it posted a vintage commercial on Facebookit got biting criticism for its use of GMOs too.
December 7, 2012Willy Blackmore
It wasn't an obvious forum for an anti-GMO protest.
A YouTube video posted on Cheerios Facebook page depicts an elderly woman leaning over the highchair of her infant grandchild, cooing about family and the holidays, drawing a map with pieces of cereal representing relatives far-flung houses. But dont you worry, the grandmother says, pushing two Cheerios together, well always be together for Christmas.
More than 1,200 users have commented on the vintage Cheerios commercial since it was posted last week, expressing outrage over the General Mills-owned brands use of genetically modified ingredients. Commenters have also been criticallike heavy-exclamation-points-use criticalof General Mills significant financial contributions to groups fighting against Prop. 37, Californias defeated GMO-labeling ballot initiative
Comments like Can you please inform the public exactly why it is that General Mills spent $1.2 million to keep consumers in the dark about GMOs???? and Nostalgic old commercials are no substitute for healthy ingredients. I won't buy Cheerios until they are GMO-free are a far cry from the stories of spending holidays with familyand perhaps a bit of Cheerios nostalgiathe post was surely intended to elicit.
The protest campaign was stoked by GMO Inside, an organization born of the failed Yes on 37 campaign. The group also called on people to comment-bomb a Cheerios app, which has since been removed from the companys Facebook page. But beyond that, Cheerios response to the criticism has been . . . nothing. Anti-GMO comments are still piling up on the post, and no new material has been added to page in order to bury the video in the timeline.
<>
https://www.google.com/search?q=a+pusztai&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari
http://adventuresinautism.com/files/ArpadandSusanChapter17.pdf
http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2008/05/monsanto-gmos-arpad-pusztai-looks-at.html
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)validates bi-racial people in this country. It acknowledges that we exist. I see now why for the LGBT community this kind of validation has meaning. I got tears in my eyes at this video because that family looked like my Asian/Anglo family. We are largely invisible in this country. The South wouldn't even make it legal for mixed race couples to marry until 1967. "Miscegenation" was a crime there.
Today 1 in 12 marriages is bi-racial. But you would never know it because this group has been ignored by the media in America.
I live in an area where almost any extended family I can think of has at least one bi-racial child in the family. That seems fairly normal to me. What seems extremely abnormal is the nasty reaction of other Americans toward bi-racial families.
I mean what the fuck, America? "E Pluribus Whitebread" -- I suggest we change our nation's motto.
Heather MC
(8,084 posts)I am happily married with two beautiful Children in a biracial Marriage
I heard about the uproar over the Commercial before I saw it, and my first thought was Oh it's a GMO product.
I would have gave it more attention had it been a company that actually did what was right for the consumer and not their bottom line.
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)wryter2000
(46,130 posts)Don't know what on Earth I'd do with them...maybe donate them to the food pantry at church.
Cha
(298,018 posts)having one. It's totally awesome on so many levels. Well, good for ol Cheerios!
thanks Hissyspit.
zentrum
(9,866 posts)...bi- racial ads in the past year but since I don't focus on that when I see it--I can't remember what products. Also am seeing lots and lots more b-racial couples in the street in cities. It's less and less "notable" when it happens--which shows it's mainstreaming.
Long way to go--but it is happening.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)....think it's silly for the Middle East to have a meltdown over a cartoon.
MrSlayer
(22,143 posts)I seriously doubt anyone is going to hunt down and slaughter the creators of this commercial.
There's crazy and stupid and then there's crazy and stupid.
There's no equivalence between the two.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)I would not defend those who kill over a cartoon, but their anger is not just about religion - it's got to do with the political conflicts, too.
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)...except post on discussion boards.
proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)A conversation with General Mills CEO Ken Powell
Article by: MIKE HUGHLETT , Star Tribune Updated: February 19, 2013 - 9:10 AM
Oops, maybe not.
Rhiannon12866
(206,712 posts)Tikki
(14,562 posts)Tikki
Rhiannon12866
(206,712 posts)onestepforward
(3,691 posts)and it made me smile!
cynatnite
(31,011 posts)It just never occurred to me to think of it any other way. I think that's because we've got a lot of bi-racial families around here and it's a fairly normal sight.
However, I think the writer is correct. Bi-racial families portrayed on TV are indeed rare. It's a big deal.
Behind the Aegis
(54,051 posts)I have a number of friends in mixed relations, some have children. But, I am glad this ad is out and hope many more follow because while it might not really register for me, it certainly will among those who watch tv and see ads and don't see representations of their family. I was giggling at the end of the commercial; the dad waking up covered in Cherrios. That was cute.
excringency
(105 posts)It was for Philadelphia Cream Cheese. It showed an interracial couple lounging around their bed while enjoying a schmear. I remember cries of the apocalypse being upon us and calls for boycotts from many a nut job. Maybe if such things became more common they wouldn't elicit shock.
grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)Even as a kid in the 90s, biracial marriages were normal. Always wondered why I didn't see any on TV.
Guess the old-timer executives are dying out and advertising is catching up to where society was 20 years ago. Are right-wingers really freaking out over old issues like this?
MADem
(135,425 posts)Raine
(30,541 posts)xxqqqzme
(14,887 posts)bi-racial grand daughter. I have 2 grand sons so I am thrilled to pieces. I just want her to be healthy and grow up in a peaceful world.
tblue
(16,350 posts)Mazel tov for your new grandbaby!
(Btw, I am bi-racial--black-Asian. My kid is tri-racial. And I love this Cheerios ad!!!! Nobody I know would dislike it. My kid's friends would have no idea it was even controversial.)
I remember when this song was banned from the radio in southern states for daring to talk about interracial love. Gee, I thought times had changed more than it turns out they have.
alphafemale
(18,497 posts)What isolated bubble have they been living in the past 30+ years? sheeesh.
Le Taz Hot
(22,271 posts)NewJeffCT
(56,829 posts)it's all like Mayberry, USA from the 1950s. All white people in small towns from coast to coast.
treestar
(82,383 posts)That's their real problem with the ad, the President, everything that reminds them the 1950s are gone.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)I would hit the Mason-Dixon Line. I have always been surprised at how right he was.
NewJeffCT
(56,829 posts)however, go 5 miles outside of Boston and you're still in fairly liberal suburbs - same with much of the Northeast at least - New York, CT, etc.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)The further you get from the water, the more likely you are a racist extremist Sarah Palin style teabagger.
AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)I can see the Ocean outside my window, 2 miles away! I guess I am safe, ...unless we get a Tsunami.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,227 posts)She's got a cousin who is one of the most openly racist people I've come across. All with a thick New Yawk accent.
JackInGreen
(2,975 posts)and Stupid (and I don't like name calling, I prefer wishing grievous bodily harm). If the USA were all Mayberry our cardinal law enforcement officer would be an understanding, 'spirit of keeping the peace' progressive, and the town population pretty well integrated (and yes, there were Black people in Mayberry...though not widespread or entirely equal, taken as just more folks without the dread or public psychosis the right would have), and the business interests low impact and based around the local economy....I think I'd be ok with that, but I don't know about THEM.
DCKit
(18,541 posts)Think ahead babycakes.... what do they have once they've exhausted the racial hatred?
They're stupid, mean people, we should be able to anticipate their actions.
malaise
(269,278 posts)My mom was biracial and one of my sisters married a white man and they had two children.
Her daughter looks exactly like her down to the dimples, but she is very fair. On her wedding day my sis went to pick her up from a hairdressing salon in Texas (sis lives in Atlanta after having resided in Texas for 20plus years). She went in, didn't see her and asked them if she had left.
One woman looked at her and said no one looking like you is here. Niece heard her mom's voice - she was in another room and came out and hugged her mother. Only the most racist of people would not see the resemblance.
JustAnotherGen
(32,025 posts)I love it. I didn't "get it" when I first saw it.
Know why?
That's my family circa 1978 - but - my parents were exceptionally good looking people in their youth! And I don't care who that offends. They were two intelligent, progressive, HOT people that got together and fell in love. And that's that. And a Cherokee medicine man once told me it was all about how good looking they were when they first met. And my parents confirmed their quality and extent of shallow for me when I shared this info with them.
My husband is FBC - full blooded Calabrese (Immigrant from Italy - regional and ethnic Calabrese). I just showed him the commercial only and he's like:
You should go back to your natural dirty blonde. I'm way wrong about the dark hair.
He didn't say a single word about anything else.
So yeah - America - get over ourselves. Get over it. Someone from one of those "evil, racist, backwards, Western/Southern European countries" didn't blink an eye and neither should we.
He totally didn't get it!
Number23
(24,544 posts)JustAnotherGen
(32,025 posts)Later on today Giovanni says - oooooooooh! I see why you made me watch that now! :lmao:
What's kind of "hmm" here. . . Folks are giving examples where race is the joke, or the highlight of the program/movie. A girlfriend and I were discussing last night the movie The Words. What was different about that? What made it different say from Something Different?
Race wasn't the centerpiece. It was never brought up - just a footnote of the love story in the story. The greater focus on "two very different people" was the love story in the love story.
Number23
(24,544 posts)and some other just baffling shit. It's one of the reasons that so many of us don't discuss race here.
There's one thread where the guy says flat out that the reason it wasn't a black woman/white man in the ad is because when white guys "schtup" black women, these types relationships don't threaten the status quo. Like that's all interracial relationships are about is fucking.
The stupidity, the sexism and the racism is just too much. This is a sweet little ad and very cleverly done. I wish that could have been the end of it. Even the people who are trying to help on this matter are making it worse afaic.
Edit: And when you say Something Different are you talking about Something New or another movie? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437777/ I just referred to that exact movie in another thread.
JustAnotherGen
(32,025 posts)You are correct! . I didn't see the other threads - I won't go looking for them!
And this is such a stereotype: re schtup.
I bet the man who wrote that doesn't have as good a relationship or marriage as my husband and I do.
And if he's single - I hope ANY minority woman who comes across him - runs. I hope he shows his ass early - and she runs.
iemitsu
(3,888 posts)of American viewers to the commercial. He was not defending racist or sexist attitudes, he was pointing out that those attitudes dictated much of the negative reaction to the commercial.
Some people posting on that thread apparently misunderstood and twisted the OPs comments.
Number23
(24,544 posts)maddiemom
(5,106 posts)those "backward" people, and too many "progressives" are still afraid of offending them.
pampango
(24,692 posts)Marriage across racial and ethnic lines continues to be on the rise in the United States. The share of new marriages between spouses of a different race or ethnicity increased to 15.1 % in 2010, and the share of all current marriages that are either interracial or interethnic has reached an all-time high of 8.4%.
In 1980, just 3% of all marriages and less than 7% of all new marriages were across racial or ethnic lines. Both of those shares have more than doubled in the past three decades.
Just as intermarriage has become more common, public attitudes have become more accepting. More than four-in-ten (43%) Americans say that more people of different races marrying each other has been a change for the better in our society, while only about one-in-ten think it is a change for the worse.
Intermarriage in the United States tilts West. About one-in-five (22%) of all newlyweds in Western states married someone of a different race or ethnicity between 2008 and 2010, compared with 14% in the South, 13% in the Northeast and 11% in the Midwest. ... Minorities, younger adults, the college-educated, those who describe themselves as liberal and those who live in the Northeast or the West are more disposed than others to see intermarriage in a positive light.
This must drive republicans crazy.
The number of multiracial people rose 3.4 percent last year to about 5.2 million, according to the latest census estimates. First given the option in 2000, Americans who check more than one box for race on census surveys have jumped by 33 percent and now make up 5 percent of the minority population with millions more believed to be uncounted.
Demographers attributed the recent population growth to more social acceptance and slowing immigration. They cited in particular the high public profiles of Tiger Woods and President Barack Obama, a self-described "mutt," who are having an effect on those who might self-identify as multiracial.
Population figures as of July 2008 show that California, Texas, New York and Florida had the most multiracial people, due partly to higher numbers of second- and later-generation immigrants who are more likely to "marry out." Measured by percentages, Hawaii ranked first with nearly 1 in 5 residents who were multiracial, followed by Alaska and Oklahoma, both at roughly 4 percent.
Utah had the highest growth rate of multiracial people in 2008 compared to the previous year, a reflection of loosening social morals in a mostly white state.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30986649 /
mattclearing
(10,091 posts)General Mills' lobbying against GMO labeling is still a dealbreaker for me, but it's a great ad.
rurallib
(62,478 posts)that is fairly normal where we live, so it is no big deal - well at least to many around here.
53tammy
(93 posts)My sister and brother in law with any luck is going to bring home a beautiful baby boy (birth mothers due date is 6/3)
and has been mothering the greatest little girl from Ethiopia for 6 years now . My sister is white her husband is french and will be completing her family with 2 black children.
My niece has had white school children comment on her white mommy instead of just assuming it is normal. More than anything I want my loved ones to feel as if they and their family are accepted for the valuable citizens they are.
842,025 views so far
9,902 likes 967 dislikes
Go to youtube and tromp the down votes
dembotoz
(16,865 posts)I sorta knew about the add so when I first saw it I paid more attention than I might have.
wonder if I would have even noticed it prior.
grew up in a pretty racist area and I have overcome much, but perhaps still has a way to go
Clear Blue Sky
(2,156 posts)No idea what is racist about it.
TDale313
(7,820 posts)Some people are taking offense to it for reasons that are quite racist.
Gothmog
(145,839 posts)This is a very cute commercial and the fact that there are people objecting to this commercial is sad.
Response to Clear Blue Sky (Reply #32)
Name removed Message auto-removed
marble falls
(57,479 posts)since the election of the President. Its getting more public again and less self conscious. People used to at least act like it was wrong. Now they just put their racism out there just like the bad old days.
savebigbird
(417 posts)I just don't see what the big deal is.
Whisp
(24,096 posts)adorable.
can't say I have seen one for a long time I could say that about.
mnhtnbb
(31,415 posts)is displaced in this ad.
Why are people surprised?
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)NewJeffCT
(56,829 posts)think he's an African born in Kenya.
treestar
(82,383 posts)It reminds them there is a black man in the WH, something they just cannot stand.
mountain grammy
(26,666 posts)My mom used to say if God didn't want the races to mix, their children wouldn't be so beautiful.
Schema Thing
(10,283 posts)but she doesn't actually say "just checking". Which triples down on the awesomeness.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)Last edited Sat Jun 1, 2013, 06:52 PM - Edit history (1)
and growing up biracial with a sister that had blond hair, pale skin and me being the color of the child in the video.....well to say the least about it, both blacks and whites made it difficult for us. You are in better times, although with the fear mongering of the racist right, I fear that portion of the populace whining about the cheerios commercial and REALITY will always be with us. I just hope they can be marginalized somehow. At my age, now, I finally appreciate my mixed genetic/racial heritage.
notadmblnd
(23,720 posts)"What is he?" My reply was always, he's a little boy. I new what they were really asking and I enjoyed giving them a hard time about it.
Yes, that Cheerio commercial could have been something that could have occurred in our home, except we didn't eat much dry cereal for breakfast.
Now that my son is grown, I don't think he feels a need to choose a racial identity. Maybe it's because he's always been immersed in a very diverse community? His long time circle of friends include 2 African American friends, 3 White friends. One Jewish friend, one Indian friend and two Hispanic friends. His current girlfriend is white and he's known her since he was 11. However he has had African American girlfriends and Indian girlfriends in the past.
Personally, I don't buy into the labeling of human beings culturally or by race. When you get down to the nitty gritty, we are all the same. And in my opinion labeling people serves no purpose other than to divide us all.
66 dmhlt
(1,941 posts)WcoastO
(55 posts)For years I've noticed (and commented to my family about it) that commercials have been careful to not show interracial relationships. Things are much better than when I was younger, but the US is not "post-racial" yet.....especially with the GOP, where racism is alive and thriving.
mettamega
(81 posts)1monster
(11,012 posts)In my experience, most biracial and multiracial children are usually very beautiful... Perhaps the backlash is just jealousy?
Zorra
(27,670 posts)A pathetic blast from the past
pink-o
(4,056 posts)And their son was born a year later. The marriage didn't last, but the child grew up strong, good warm and loving He'll be 20 in December, and he's paying for his own schooling, working a full time job and playing in a band that actually gets gigs.
In 93, there were still people who "confided" in me that they felt bad for the boy, because he'd go thru life "not knowing who he was". (Like racial identity is the only thing that gives someone a purpose?). Well, he knows exactly who he is. I was a stupid idiot at 19, and I'm a middle-class white woman. This young man has me outclassed by miles!
Not to mention, if he was insecure about his identity, then Obama's election would've erased all those doubts. For anyone who wondered about biracial children and their social "disadvantages"--well, you'd think that would've finally been put to rest 5 years ago!
NewJeffCT
(56,829 posts)I dated a lot of non-white women in the late 80s and through the 90s and would often get looks/stares from others - mainly from either white women or men of the race of the woman I was dating. Occasional verbal comments to one of their friends that was just loud enough for me to hear, but nothing more than that.
Now, if I'm out at the grocery store or whatever, I'll regularly see grandmothers with their mixed race children doing shopping in the store and nobody says a word.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)My own father said essentially the same thing to me in way of apology. I sometimes thought he felt he had handicapped me by marrying an Asian woman. That hurt. So thanks for posting your comment, Pinko. I always thought it was just me who held this sort of painful memory of the past in my heart.
pink-o
(4,056 posts)And your dad probably told you that because all his well-meaning "friends" drummed it into him. It's always a whisper campaign, like the kids are too stupid to figure out they're being judged. But it sounds like your dad must have loved your mom a whole lotta to defy the cultural ignorance of the day.
And the really sad thing is that kids start out with NO CLUE that there are different races. Remember when you met some other kid on the playground, you'd hang out with him or her, and the last thing that would occur to you is your new friend's ethnicity! Like the old song in South Pacific, you have to be taught--to be afraid, to be wary, to be defensive of someone who looks different.
And then you have to spend the rest of your life unlearning those lessons!!!
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)but I was stung by the sense I could not be the perfect "white" daughter to him. And that he expected me to be treated badly. The up side is that he taught me to be a fighter. And I forgive him for feeling pity for me for not being "white" enough.
GeoWilliam750
(2,522 posts)Have so many advantages, and so many different perspectives.
Disclaimer: From the father of an absolutely fantastic daughter with much different parents.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)They are bridges and they will link us all eventually.
iemitsu
(3,888 posts)I agree with you 100%.
kimbutgar
(21,270 posts)I was in Disneyland a couple of weeks ago. There were so many multi racial blended families of all races. The children were beautiful. The families seemed happy. A rainbow of wonderful people. As a person in a multi racial marriage of 24 years we are happy and our love is more important than our colors. What's in our hearts is more important than the color of our skins.
astonamous
(1,336 posts)I'm not sure I would have noticed if it wasn't pointed out to me.
CarmanK
(662 posts)csziggy
(34,139 posts)Multi-race, same gender, multi-cultural, etc. Especially on House Hunters, they are loaded with a wide variety of people that I expect are a decent cross section of the US population.
These racist jerks need to take off their blinders, get out of their bubbles and really LOOK at the world.
I think the Cheerios commercial is awesome - not only in their quiet acceptance of the new reality, but as an ad that is fun to watch and gives a smile every time.
treestar
(82,383 posts)They could deal with the issues. I remember an old sitcom about a Jewish guy marrying a Catholic girl and this could be on similar lines. Though they'd need to avoid racist stereotypes. There was also a couple on the Jeffersons and George Jefferson was as bad as Archie Bunker in being against them. But it was in a comic way.
SCVDem
(5,103 posts)JustAnotherGen
(32,025 posts)Couple who give birth and where race is not a punch line? Nope.
SCVDem
(5,103 posts)I posted this in the other one.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2931953
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,776 posts)lupinella
(365 posts)Makes me wish I ate cereal. I'm mixed race as well, & it feels like a big deal every time I see such a portrayal.
DFW
(54,502 posts)From one of THE funniest films I ever saw, "Putney Swope." My two roomates in college were black, and they turned me onto this film, which, back in 1970, was NOT exactly considered Oscar material (should have been a comedy nominee, but SO not PC!!).
Here's the "Ethereal Cereal" ad:
Revolutionary back then--wouldn't even raise an eyebrow today--well....maybe except for the last 5 seconds
Hekate
(91,003 posts)She with her "Italian" looks, her brother with his blond hair/blue eyes, mom and dad of different ethnicities. That was the case up and down my block, in all my classes in school. Third generation crosses became pretty unpredictable.
This is probably one big reason Michelle Obama said back in 2008 that she has told her husband's friends that, "If you don't get Hawai'i, you won't get Barack." A lot of this country still doesn't get it.
Cute commercial, btw.
oxymoron
(4,053 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)I love it!
I work in UC Berkeley where mixed marriages and partnerships are quite common. UC Berkeley has recognized gay partners as legal health beneficiaries for many, many years.
GeoWilliam750
(2,522 posts)Why some people want to marry somebody just like themselves.
We are all frightening closely related already.
A little diversity is a lot of a good thing.
pangaia
(24,324 posts)I saw this ad on another post,of course, but you know what...until you posted this.. I didn't even realize it was an 'interracial' couple. !!
Thanks for the post....
Auntie Bush
(17,528 posts)Now I realize I did and didn't even notice they were a biracial family. I guess that's a good thing.
ewagner
(18,964 posts)...I never thought that I could irritate my political opposites by purchasing a box of cheerios....but you can bet your sweet A$$ I will now!
patrice
(47,992 posts)tavernier
(12,415 posts)Had some for lunch.
TxDemChem
(1,918 posts)I'm mixed and my daughter is even more mixed (half Mexican). This family looks like mine. I hope those racist bastards realize things have changed. Perhaps they should watch Imitation of Life to get a full understanding of what it means to be bi/multi-racial...then fast forward 50 years with the rest of society. We're mixed, we're proud, get used to it.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)and amerikkkan attempt at revealing it's soul.
TxDemChem
(1,918 posts)I cry every time I watch it
VA_Jill
(10,045 posts)One is half African-American (probably a smidge of Native American in there too). One is half Puerto Rican. One is a fair-skinned blond. They are all beautiful! I also have a nephew married to a Chinese woman--he lives and works in China. His brother is married to a beautiful girl from Mexico. I can't wait to see the kids they'll have! I still have another niece and nephew who are single and it should be interesting to see who they marry. My mother, who just died at the age of 95, was raised in the south but all the intermarrying was just fine with her. I just think my family is a beautiful rainbow.
proud patriot
(100,716 posts)7wo7rees
(5,128 posts)"What is she?" "Why, she's a human female child, you ignorant halfwit."
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)were uptight about their kids dating a (gasp) Catholic. On the other hand, I dated a guy whose Mom was upset that I wasn't a "good Catholic girl." Dating someone who was Jewish was heart attack inducing. Fortunately my family had already been screwed up multi-religion-wise for a couple of generations. Both my parents were (non-practicing) Protestants, so the subject was never an issue at home. I married a fallen-away Catholic whose wonderful parents accepted me happily. When our daughter became uncomfortable not "having a church" when she entered school, we let her do the whole Catholic thing because church with her paternal grandparents was the only one she knew. By high school, she'd blown it off, except for Midnight Mass on Christmas. For HER generation it's a racial thing. One of her friends, growing up, had a white mom, black dad; another an Asian mom, white dad. Race was never an issue at our home, and she's dated inter-racially. So the beat goes on. Hopefully the generation coming up now will have solved the racial thing to a large extent.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)The only thing I could see wrong (and this is nitpicky and has nothing to do with the context in which the commercial is being discussed) was the box wasn't that close to the mom and it kind of makes it look pretty fake that she was reading the box (yes I know it is fake, but at least they could have make it look a bit more real). They could have had her pick up the box then either put it down or hand it back to the girl.
HipChick
(25,485 posts)Plenty of inter-racial couples and ads there..
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)I wouldnt have noticed anything different about it.
MichaelMcGuire
(1,684 posts)yellowwoodII
(616 posts)Well, it's a darling commercial. So silly that anyone would even notice the racial difference.
But, have you ever looked at the ingredients in this "healthy" cereal? I have a box of "multi-grain" cereal right in front of me.
Here are the ingredients in order of quantity: Whole grain corn, whole grain wheat, sugar, whole grain oats, whole grain barley, whole grain rice, cornstarch, and various added vitamins.
So two of the top ingredients are corn and sugar. Might as well eat the box for nutrition value.
Meanwhile, they cost almost $4.00 a pound.
A family could do well to switch to oatmeal in terms of nutrition and value.
azureblue
(2,157 posts)in America, means one thing - the person has Negro blood. Would the term be used if a person was half Scot and half Greek? No. Half Chinese and half Spanish? Of course not. I'm half Sicilian. No one comes up to me and seeks to make me define myself as Sicilian. Silly. And just as silly as people that expect a "Biracial" person to define themselves with one culture or the other. My point is that the term used today is society's attempt to impose a stigma on people that are part Negro, to pigeonhole them as being "not one of us", and, as the diarist points out, it carries a negative connotation. Just like New Orleans' Creole culture, people of mixed race will define their own identities, on their own terms.
mike dub
(541 posts)And leave it to General Mills to make such a good commercial. My parents own a summer vacation/lake house in northern Minnesota ( O/T - theirs is two doors down from (former Michelle Bachmann opponent) Jim Graves' lake home) and it seems like some Minnesota companies (Target, as well) are progressive and actually 'reality-based'. Good on you, General Mills, and Minnesota.
CrazyBob
(132 posts)Didn't you ever see The Bodyguard? No uproar. None. A Bronx Tale. Guess Who? (Comedy movie). ANY Halle Berry movie. No frenzy. No outrage. How about Kevin Durant's hilarious Sprint commercial in which his "wife" is Asian. No outrage.
The issue about this ad isn't about interracial couples. Its about white women pairing off with black men. Nothing will piss a white guy off faster than that.
Go take a look at the movies with interracial relationships and you will find something pretty peculiar. Black women pairing with white men is fine. Been doing it in soap operas for decades now. No outrage. (Yes, Jessica and Duncan got married in 1992!) No complaints.
Look at Will Smith's movies. The directors always find a black woman to be his love interest. And when they didn't (Hancock), she ended up with a white guy at the end - same as The Long Kiss Goodnight (Sam Jackson and Geena Davis).
Its time to admit that there's much more to this than just race. Racism isn't as simple as some would like to believe. As it turns out, white guys don't mind seeing Pierce Brosnan banging Halle Berry's brains out. Blockbuster movie. Or Kevin Costner taking the wood to Whitney Houston (RIP). Blockbuster. But they don't want to see Sam Jackson banging Gwyneth Paltrow or Geena Davis. THAT is the problem.
AAO
(3,300 posts)Unless you piss him off:
craigmatic
(4,510 posts)It's a white mom and a black dad and throughout most of our history the powers that be really didn't want to see this couple dynamic happen but white men with black women has historically been seen as ok. Well not ok but more tolerable. People make a big deal out of this yet nobody complains about the interracial dynamic on that show scandal. I know I'm reaching expecting bigots to be consistent. But at the end of the day this commercial is positive and progressive and the next logical step will be to see same sex couples get a cereal ad and that day will come.
Lithos
(26,404 posts)This is one of the sweetest commercials I've seen in a *LONG* time.
I have a daughter about this same age. This is a simply priceless commercial, IMHO.
L-
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