Reverse Discrimination in Commercials

I've actually noticed this for a while, but thinking about the "magic negro" thing has once again brought it to the front of my mind.

If you look at television advertisements today, you can see a clear spectrum of reverse discrimination....the white male is always the bumbling fool that uses the wrong product and/or does not behave well, while a black female is the pinnacle of intelligence, always doing the right thing with the right product. Black men and white females usually fall somewhere in-between.

Does anyone else notice this?

Examples I'll list:

Quaker Oats: White male in commuter train tries to cook oatmeal on a gas burner while black woman looks at him like he's crazy and eats her oatmeal breakfast bar.

Avis: Black man and white woman conduct transaction for iTunes in the car by opening their mouths and producing music, while the white guy has no idea what's happening and fails when he tries to do it too.

United States Postal Service: packages and other things talking to each other. If there's a thing that sounds black, it's always correct.

I know there's a lot more, I'll list them later as I see/remember them. I just wanted to get this started while I was thinking of it.



[edit on 3/29/2007 by djohnsto77]

I have not noticed the racial reverse discrimination much but have certainly noticed the sexual reverse discrimination. 90% of adverts have a guy/guys acting like an idiot or complete moron.
I was actually thinking of starting a thread on it at one point.
I live in the UK so it may be a little different here, but I can't say that I've noticed many black people in adverts here, for some reason.
I certainly agree and am aware of this reverse (opposite of the "norm") discrimination being used heavily in advertising though. It really gets on my nerves.

I don't know if this pertains - but in the late eighties, early nineties there was a huge stink about the African American population not being "represented" in television commercials. People were flying off the handle that almost everything was being "marketed to whites by whites".

At least, that's the way it was where I lived at the time.

Progress marches on.

I understand completly. It is not just commercials anymore. Radio stations, MTV, everything is out of the spectrum. Nothing is equal and nothing will ever be equal unless we all just grow up! It sucks that we can't get along. I live in a city that says the majority is white but if you go anywhere in the city, you do not find white people. You look in the police blotter and it is black people. It's not the people per say, but the culture they learn on TV. Rappers in big houses carrying guns, acting like fools because they can. Trying to intimidate even small children. Our world needs an upheaval or someone needs to slap my generation and show them reality. White people are sometimes worse! Driving the brand new BMW that daddy bought, spending daddy's money, then treating daddy like crap....grrr...its equally unaccpetable, both black and white culture need major adjustments.

DJ - Do me a favor. For a week, keep a tablet and pen by your TV viewing chair and log the race/foolish elements of every commercial you watch. Here's what I practically guarantee you'll find...

Commercials where:
- the white guy looks stupid and the black woman looks smart.
- the black guy looks stupid and the white woman looks smart.
- the white guy looks smart and the black woman looks stupid.
- the black guy looks smart and the white woman looks stupid.

And many other combinaitions. Depending on what you're looking for, you'll find it. I think the fact that you listed a couple that you remember and will list more as you remember them, tells me that you're looking for something particular and you're finding it.

With the variety of TV commercials today, you're going to see it all. As you should. There should be more Asians and Latinos in commercials, but I'm sure that's coming.

The reason I know this is because another member made the accusation that TV commercials were terribly racist. With the black man always looking foolish. So I started watching and comparing and I found what I listed above.

I'd be interested to see your results if you do make a log. I think it would be a really good experiment!

Ok so I can't point out any specific commercials as examples but you see it on TV everywhere. DJ has noticed something that I've actually discussed with a friend and even my dad! TV is always trying to make the male look stupid in a "cute and forgiving way."

So maybe white males take the brunt of the assault, but in general men are constantly depicted as beer drinking, sports watching slobs who have no clue about anything.

I do realize it's all in good fun. Yes the stereotypical guy likes beer, sports, is incapable of understanding women or asking for directions. Ha ha ha. But do they stereotype women, blacks, asians, or hispanics as much? I don't think so. But hey I could be wrong. Maybe I'm not watching the right channels.

No matter how they make the commercials somebody will be complaing. Too many whites - blacks will riot. Too many blacks - whites will go crazy. Too many men, women, asians, anything - people are going to complain.

The only way to please everyone is to make commercials and shows starring grey blobs. But until then everyone will have a problem with it. You just have to deal with it.

Besides - who watches commercials anyway?

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
DJ - Do me a favor. For a week, keep a tablet and pen by your TV viewing chair and log the race/foolish elements of every commercial you watch. Here's what I practically guarantee you'll find...

Commercials where:
- the white guy looks stupid and the black woman looks smart.
- the black guy looks stupid and the white woman looks smart.
- the white guy looks smart and the black woman looks stupid.
- the black guy looks smart and the white woman looks stupid.

I'd be interested to see your results if you do make a log. I think it would be a really good experiment!

I'd certainly be interested to give it a go, but I notice the sex issue to be relevant here. I will be fair and I'm not sexist, but I'm almost certain of the bias in ads over here.

I just wanted to say that there is a point about white men... White men are seen as the only "safe" group to discriminate against. Make anyone else look stupid and you're going to hear about it. But unfortunately, for most of these commercials to be effective, someone has to look stupid so the "smart" person can relate to the consumer. And if you don't want to get the minority groups up in arms, make your dummy a white male. Or a whole group of them.

WAMU Ad racist

And

Racist Ads

The fogginess of how we deal with race and racism is illustrated by two recent mass media incidents, brought to our attention by 'Demosthenes'. The first is basketball player Shaquille Oneal's use of faux Chinese phrases while trash talking about Chinese player Yao Ming on a talk show. The second is a new Smirnoff Ice commercial that depicts a group of black men questioning the presence of two white men at their party. "What would've happened had the races of those involved in each situation been switched?"

And it's not only in commercials...

Discrimination in Hiring Now Works Against White Males
Affirmative Action and the White Male

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
I'd be interested to see your results if you do make a log. I think it would be a really good experiment!

I'll try to take you up on this, but I have noticed some more, like the commercial where the white guy plugs the leak in the dam with chewing gum, while the black woman is meeting with the retirement planning professionals.

This trend has been going on for more than a decade and it is one that is rarely mentioned.

There was a woman on Fox News a night or two ago who mentioned this phenomenon, but it wasn't in the context of what the effect is on men, mainly because I don't think men give a rat's patootie, but rather the effect of these commercials and the general smear jobs against men in the popular culture on boys.

I would not doubt if the professional literature contains at least one content analysis of television programming and commercials along these lines. If not, the field is wide open for some PhD candidate.

That's a good point Grady. Although I think it does bother some men, it's the boys - and girls, actually - (of any race) that we really should be concerned about. The more impressionable of the species. I don't think it's a good idea for little girls to see certain men always portrayed as looking stupid, either.

And while I think there are commercials who make white men look bad (stupid, goofy) I think it's important for kids to have real life role models and not get much of their influences from men on TV.

And I also realize that it's simply not PC to make a minority look bad on TV. I'm not saying it's right to discriminate by race, but in today's society, if you make a black man look goofy you're really going to hear about it. Unfortunately, there's the danger of going too far the other way - always making the white man look bad...

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


Well that's pretty much what's happening in all commercials nowadays. They ALWAYS make the straight, white male look like the bumbling fool who always is using the wrong product, etc. And it's been going on for more than just 10 years. It's been going on for at least 40 years now, and getting worse as time goes on. Personally, I've made it a point to try not to use anything advertised where they make the white male look like an imbecile who if they were that idiotic in real life would be in a home for mental defectives.

reply to post by Scramjet76


U SAY THAT THEY R ALWAYS MAKING THE MAN LOOK STUPID. I DISSAGREE, THE MAN IS ALWAYS LOOKING STRONG WHILE THE WOMAN LOOKS WEAK AND VULNERABLE. WHY IS THAT?, SIMPLE B/C SOCIETY HAS MADE IT THAT THE MAN IS ALWAYS STRONG AND THE WOMAN IS WEAK. IF U LOOK AT THEIR EYES A MAN IS ALWAYS LOOKING ATRIGHT FORWARD AWAY FROM THE WOMAN AS IF SHE IS AN OBJECT AND DOSENT MATTER AND THE WOMAN ALWAYS HAS HER GAZE AT HIM. THE WOMAN IS NEVER LOOKING FORWARD AT U... SHE IS ALWAYS MADE OUT 2 B WEAK AND VULNERABLE