Somebody much smarter than I am will have to explain to me how this kind of Jim Crow/Stepin Fetchit Minstrel show caricature is at all helpful to anyone, including anyone interested in purchasing insurance.
I mean, I can easily imagine rednecks thoroughly enjoying commercials like this, nodding appreciatively at the "accurate" depiction of black people as grinning, dancing idiots who jump at every opportunity to perform for the overwhelmingly white audience. So I guess I kind of answered my own question- it's helpful in reinforcing stereotypes?
I guess it's also helpful to Tag Team, which picks up what I'm sure is a welcome paycheck and a reminder that they existed on the radio (and everywhere else) with that One Song Using the term Song Very Very Loosely back in 1993. Hey, thirty years is a long time to go without a number anyone cares to listen to, let alone one that inexplicably became a hit because headaches were really popular in the first year of the Clinton Administration.
But if I'm a black person in the United States, I find this all to be very, very UNhelpful in multiple ways. Do I have to keep explaining why?
This very commercial came on my tv as I was reading this. Spoopy. Anyway, I didn't see this from a race angle so much as the "lame embarrassing parents lamely and embarrassingly dancing to some lame and embarrassing song from Back in Their Day" angle.
ReplyDeleteThe random Deep Voice Tossed the Alley Oop, then they started acting Goofy 🤦🏽♂️. I knew I was feeling weird about this. I thought I was tripping.
ReplyDeleteJust watch Donald Glover’s music video “This is America” that reflects on black Americans role in entering whites in our history.
ReplyDeleteDikembe Mutombo slapping a box of breakfast cereal as it’s being tossed into a shopping cart is extremely racist and I demand Geico be cancelled.
ReplyDeleteThat form of black on Asian racism should not be tolerated.
; )