The other day, I saw a new SUV commercial clearly geared towards African-Americans. It initially pleased me quite a bit to finally see an SUV commercial that's actually geared towards somebody other than pasty-assed white boys. But then I watched the damn commercial, and my stupid fricking bubble got burst when I realized that, even though the pasty-ass white boys aren't on-screen, they most definitely (and most obviously) are behind the scenes.
Picture if you will an African-American fellow and his family driving down the road in an expensive, shiny new SUV (fancy rims very obviously gleaming) and passing what apparently is supposed to be their "old 'hood" with a couple of old black guys sitting out on the sidewalk in lawnchairs, a mean-looking black man that's as muscular as a tank walking two dogs down the street, holding them back with one leash wrapped around each tree-trunk of an arm, run-down stores, etc. while the narrator offers up some catchy phrase about "not forgetting where you came from" but taking it with you to where you are now (pardon my paraphrase) and the African-American family pulls into the driveway of their picturesque suburban home.
Why, pasty-assed white boys? Why? I mean, the commercial is APPARENTLY trying to offer up a "remember your roots" kinda theme and in doing so, trying to "connect with the African-American culture" and all that, but what's so goddamn disastrous about it is that, in doing so, it fails to acknowledge that just because you're black doesn't necessarily mean that you've had the same shared upbringing as every other black person alive (for christ's sake, people!). It also doesn't mean that you grew up "lower class." It also doesn't mean that you grew up "urban."
So essentially, in attempting to finally deviate from kissing the ass of white folks, it instead just reinforces stereotypes of African-American folks--perhaps not awful or offensive ones, but ones that fail to acknowledge that *not all fricking black people are exactly the same* (gasps of surprise and shock).
Granted, I probably shouldn't get so enraged, seeing as television commercials almost always rely upon stereotypes, regardless of race, gender, class. And yet, this pasty-assed white girl had been hoping, with every little weenyish bit of hope, that this commercial might be different. *Covering up my pasty white ass in shame*
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