Am I Crazy...Have You Ever Noticed?

[Steely_Dan]

Okay, before I say anything, let me stress that I'm one of the most progressive people I know and what I'm posting here is merely an observation and NOT a judgement. Finally, this has nothing to do with Obama being elected (at least not directly). As far as I'm concerned, it's about time that our country elect a person of color.

About year ago (maybe more) I started noticing something about TV and the movies and I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed the same thing.

In the past, African-Americans have been presented in less than admirable or respectable positions in movies and commercials. Thankfully we have left much of that behind (though it still exists). Anyway, I started noticing over the past year that African-Americans were regularly being given rolls that were at or near the top of the cast of characters in a story (or especially) in commercials.

A good example, but certainly not the only one, is a current Sears commercial where a white guy is camped out in front of a Sears at the crack of dawn, waiting to get a special deal when they open. A black Sears employee walks up is unlocking the door to the store and they greet each other. The dialogue is written to make the white guy look a little silly. All of this is done in the name of humor.

Let me re-state that I have no problem with this, it is merely an observation.

However, start looking at the rolls of blacks and whites in commercials and see if you notice that African-Americans are often given positions of authority or knowledge like...doctors, supervisors, chiefs of police, lead detectives, CEOs, etc. etc. Also notice that if a character in a commercial is given the role of being silly or over the top, it is often a white person.

Am I out of line bringing this up? Is this not a safe place for a progressive Democrat to make this kind of observation...

Just curious.

-P

[rurallib]

1. mentioned that to my wife the other night. Thought it was my perception.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

2. Well, at the risk of starting a flame war

There have always been two major categories of stereotypes whites held about non-whites (this statement can probably be broadened to include all humans' beliefs about the Other, although I don't know a whole lot about prejudice in non-white cultures with a few exceptions). The first is what we're most familiar with through our culture and from social studies classes - the Other is inferior and needs to be tamed. That's where one can find the most hateful and "typical" racial stereotype.

The other category is the the "noble savage" (the Other is mysterious and should be admired; it is inferior but very useful in one way or another). JJ Rosseau has been deemed the literary father of this stereotype because of his romanticizing Africans and indigenous South Americans in his writings. The "noble savage" is the human being in his "pure" state, a creature of wisdom, intuition, and emotion (as opposed to European rationality and logic). This stereotype has some parallels in modern society (the one that comes to mind immediately is the myth that all East Asian students are math geniuses). What these commercials could be doing is inadvertently tapping into that meme.

Or I'm sure my conservative friends would call it "political correctness" and "white guilt run amuck" Take your pick.

[noiretextatique]

15. And then there's the ever popular

magical negro, for example, the character in "The Green Mile." I think the magical negro is a newfangled version of the noble savage.

[tridim]

3. Slightly off topic, but have you seen that Monster.com commercial..

With the 80's keyboard player in the orchestra?

I LMFAO every time I see it.

[annabanana]

4. Not that unusual...

It's in the same category as the sitcom where the guy is an idiot child and the gal is the long suffering, over-forgiving (and clearly out of his league) paragon..

formulaic stuff.. tiresome.

Maybe it's some kind of power compensation for the popular imagination...

[Hello_Kitty]

12. I think you're right about that

Men can point to sitcoms and claim that they're the ones being discriminated against and I guess now white folks can do the same.

[liberalmuse]

5. "24"

You are not out of line.

[pipi_k]

16. Every time I see that Allstate commercial

I think, OMG!!!!

What the hell is President Palmer doing in a commercial???


:7

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

6. Advertising Execs

do NOTHING without reason. What you are beginning to notice undoubtedly reflects some measurable demographic dynamic.

[hfojvt]

7. I might note that a black guy, the same actor

played a police chief, or high ranking officer, in both "Blue Thunder" (1982) and "The Terminator" (1984)

[Fire1]

8. HA! It's going to be interesting to see what kind of responses

you get. Anyway, yes, there is a noticeable difference in the 'casting,' of late, particularly in advertisement, imo. Long over due.

[Jane Austin]

9. I've noticed it, too, especially in commercials for pharmaceuticals.

They tend to be wise elders giving advice about drugs.

But sometimes it's young black family buying a house or other consumer product.

I suspect it has something to with archetypes - our deep unconscious conception of roles.

I noticed it because I am drawn to those commercials, they were different from what I was used to seeing and I tend to chew on things that don't fit into the patterns I usually see.

If you think about it, the wise, elder Black character is often the "feel good" character in movies and literature - Scarlett O'Hara's maid, Miss Daisy's driver, Jim in Huckleberry Finn, etc.

And in political life, Colin Powell was long the most popular American politician, and now President Obama is.

Whatever it is, you can bet the advertisers tested it on focus groups, so it must work for them.

[BrklynLiberal]

10. i would guess that some advertisers have suddenly realized that black people

spend money too. duh!! They have realized that there is whole new market out there for them to tap into.

[dixiegrrrrl]

25. Yeah, they did this with gays about 15 years ago...

Subtle, but clearly gay oriented on tv, less subtle in some magazine ads.
And with women, starting late 70's.
Suddenly there were single women buying insurance and cars on tv ads.

[ccinamon]

11. I noticed about a year ago...

I think it is a welcome change to have more minorities (of both sexes) be in more commercials and tv shows.

[Steely_Dan]

13. Whew....

I was so afraid that people here were going to flame me for making this observation.

The responses are very insightful. One point made that I thought was excellent is that there is not an all or none explanation for this.

-P

[noiretextatique]

14. i think it's been happening for a while

gradually. mostly because of $$$$$$, i suspect.

[Catherine Vincent]

17. No. You're just crazy.

It's been happening for a while.

[ColbertWatcher]

18. Just a question ...

... all those authority roles are black men, right?

Has anyone seen any black women in commercials in "authority" roles?

[bain_sidhe]

19. Don't see many women of any color in authority roles

At least, not that I can remember off the top of my head. Unless it's an "authority" on some cleaning product.

[ColbertWatcher]

26. Ah yes, Miss Pine-Sol. How could I forget. n/t

[TroglodyteScholar]

20. Yea...

Mom

[treestar]

23. Not a commercial, but there is the police supervisor on

Law and Order.

[customerserviceguy]

21. I did notice something counter to that trend

There's a commercial for one of the cell phone companies that offers rollover minutes. Of course, in reality, these are abstractions, but this company runs ads that depict them as little clock-like physical things.

There's a garage sale, and a white woman picks up one of the "minutes". The white woman running the garage sale announces that they're not for sale, it's meant to imitate the situation where a family member puts something out for a garage sale that they undervalue, but another family member values highly. The white woman's white kid even refers to his mother as being sentimental about antiques.

A black child comes up, and starts to inquire about the minutes while this discussion is going on, and the mom sneers at him, "Beat it, kid!" I don't think that ad would have been cast and scripted that way in an era of great racial oversensitivity.

Maybe we have moved past that in a small way.

[GentryDixon]

22. It's now time to give equal treatment to Asians

and Native Americans.

[amoreena]

24. Maybe these are authoritative roles but

they're not what I call major roles in commercials. Reminds of when they needed to cast a person of color in a movie with the white leads already cast. The black person would always be a cop or a judge, etc. I would like to see color blind casting one day very soon. Then we will have made some real progress.