Acceptably black, my ass…

Another insightful post from The Angry Black Bitch. Please show her some love by visiting her blog-Dusty

A bitch has spent many a year working in the advertising industry with agencies and business owners. Years ago I worked directly with minority advertising agencies and I hoped, and still hope, that minority marketing done by minorities will better represent who we are to the world and to ourselves.

Having said that, advertising is still riding a big fucking F on the diversity report card. Agencies and vendors struggle to recruit minority talent even as they struggle to develop campaigns that appeal to a population that is diverse and more willing than ever to embrace our individual diversity.

Unlike other industries where small minded fools can debate the benefit of a diverse workforce as relates to the shit their company does, advertising really demands workforce representation. It doesn’t get it, but it needs it…big time. Even so-called general market agencies would benefit from having a workforce that reflects, well…the general market, which is not exclusively young straight white snarky Volkswagen driving indie band adoring desperate to set an international trend and win that coveted Addie award men.

Cough.

Hell, just look at the ads that offend you and you can bet your ass “you” weren’t in the room when that shit got the green light for production. Or, if “you” were, you were shot down due to lack of research to prove what you know to be true about your own damn culture.

Anyhoo, industry publications like Ad Age have been moaning about the challenge of recruiting diverse talent…and they have danced around any real examination of why agencies still struggle. Personally, I think agencies may want to look at the ad people in the mirror and I present this piece of shit article as an example of why.

Oh no…uh, uh…you really need to read this shit before you continue reading my post.

Pause to allow time for reading (wink).

Alrighty then!

I could go into detail about the unbelievable bullshit that is the phrase “acceptably black”. Who the fuck gave Bob fucking Garfield the anointed power to determine what about my blackness is acceptable and what isn’t? And since when do we validate the notion that society has the privilege to level that distinction on some and deny it to others?

And this, my brothers and sisters, is the twisted freak ad critic who influences the ad creators who then deliver the image of “blackness” for clients.

Think about that as I move on to Garfield’s “Halle Berry and Denzel Washington are acceptably black. Your local news anchors are acceptably black. Tupac was not.”

Mmmmhmm, it made my Afro hurt too.

Anyhoo, I could easily explore the disturbing glee with which Garfield drops the “N” word in his article. A bitch is pretty sure he was semi-aroused by the process and got an adrenaline rush when his rancid ass hit send. “Fuck yeah,” he probably sighed, “that’s Gonzo as a motherfucker, right?”

Wrong.

That was pathetic.

But this Ad Age article is a rare gem of a find…a look inside the mind of The Ad Man and how they justify their thinking.
Garfield wrote this shit.

Ad Age published it.

And this bitch can’t believe anyone at a general market ad agency is still trying to figure out why Black people…LGBT people…Hispanic people…Native American people…Asian people…women who would like to achieve something greater than middle management and a pat on the head…or the disabled take a pass on their trifling stereotype obsessed industry whilst cruising Monster.com?

Heaven to hell and back again, the answer to that shit is probably sitting next to you in a conference room arguing passionately about how board X is better because the images shown are “acceptably black” and not “threatening”.

People of color and other minorities aren’t martyrs to the cause of an industry’s diversity initiative. There’s a limit to what anyone is willing to put themselves through and, now that other industries have made advances, those industries that are still trapped in 1954 will not be able to compete.

The other thing this article makes very clear is that the imaging of black people is deliberate. That imaging perpetuates stereotypes…influences society…and often has a negative impact on how we see ourselves. Acceptable or Tupac…successful or dead…appealing even to racists or un-electable? We simply can not continue to allow The Man to define that shit and part of the definition begins with marketing.

I’m not arguing that the concept of “acceptable blackness” doesn’t exit. Advertising is a powerful medium and decades of marketing have had the desired affect.

But I’m sure as shit not ready to declare the mountaintop achieved because Bob Garfield predicts that even a racist would feel comfortable voting for Obama. C’mon, Bob…even Tiger Woods (the ultimate marketing creation of man of color acceptability) has a white woman casually calling for his ass to be lynched without advertisers running from the television channel she works for.

That ain’t progress…this shit is not acceptable …and Bob Garfield sure ain’t slick.

Lawd.

Give.

Me.

Strength.

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