Posted on 01/10/2022 11:09:11 AM PST by Kaslin
Blacks have been a growing presence on television for decades. This reflects their huge and positive impact on the most visible aspects of American life—the arts (especially music), entertainment, religion, politics, and sports. Black leaders and stars achieved this even though they often faced discrimination and their group today is still only 13 percent of the population.
But that is not enough to satisfy today’s identity activists. From 2018, advertisements on television changed sharply. The actors in them had been mostly white, presumably because over 60 percent of the population is white. But now suddenly most of the whites vanished, replaced by actors of color, especially blacks. And most of the remaining whites were women. Identity politics had completely taken over. A survey by the Geena Davis Institute confirms that characters of color in ads grew sharply in recent years, reaching 46 percent in 2019, or well above their share of the population.
A friend in the advertising business explained that the companies funding the ads had demanded that the ad industry show more “diversity” on the screen. The pressure came from “Free the Work” and other activist groups. They contended that women and minorities had been excluded unfairly from leading roles, not only in the ads but in the business behind the camera. So producers have scrambled to make amends, although except on the screen industry leaders remain largely white and male.
The ads do give a highly attractive image of an integrated America. They typically show men and women of all races, and also children, interacting amicably as they display and recommend the advertised products. And the whites who still appear ignore race entirely. If a multicultural America really was this harmonious, everyone would cheer.
But the ads vastly over represent the minority presence in the society. They often depict minorities as outnumbering whites, who remain a large majority of the population. And the impression they give of a sudden minority advance is entirely artificial, the result of a mandate from on high.
The change reflects the crudest kind of social engineering. The research behind the demands, done at UCLA, defines equity solely in terms of groups, not individuals. These studies say that the share of a group hired must at least equal its share of the entire population, not simply of those who applied, let alone the most qualified. Anything short of equal group representation is taken as proof of discrimination. In this calculus, only gender and race are even considered.
The Biden administration is leading America down this path. Of all appointments to Biden’s Cabinet, 40 percent were white men; of earlier presidents, only Obama named so few. The woke vision imagines an America where all visible positions are divided up by gender and race to enforce equality. As in the ad industry, advocates will hound all firms to produce equal group outcomes, regardless of the merits.
Norms of equal opportunity have been totally trashed here. To date, white leaders have not resisted. They even confess their own racism, even though few if any of them can believe it. None of them dares to defend white men, for to do that would invite angry charges of racism or sexism. It is like the show trials in Communist Russia in the '30s, when senior apparatchiks were not only condemned but forced to admit fictitious crimes. But if preferences escalate, white men are bound to resist.
The emerging regime, however, is equally insulting to those favored by it. Women and minorities will get more and better jobs than before, but they can no longer take pride that they were hired on the merits. Maybe their role is only to satisfy a quota. Some of the production companies who generate ads for television are already owned by blacks. They are ambivalent about the new demands. After all, they got where they are without preferences. The effect of the new regime is inevitably to demean their accomplishments.
Blacks would do better to rely on the individual achievements that have already made them leading creators of American culture. They did that on their own, and they should keep doing it. Progress that way will be slower than the instant transformation promised in the ad world, but it would be much more real. The building of a freer, more integrated society cannot occur overnight.
As are supposed to be designed so that you like the product. That you feel good about the product. If you feel offended, that's bad for the product.
Actually, black men are portrayed as responsible fathers who lead solid families. White men are inept goofballs.
Life imitating what is not art. There is no real beauty to it. If it is an art, it’s the art of deception.
It's hard for me to even consider Rap music as music, and it sure as hell ain't positive.
Black leaders and stars achieved this even though ... their group today is still only 13 percent of the population.
But they are in probably 85% of the commercials.
And just like that white people like me stopped watching and buying 🤪
Do you watch FOX News?
Just do a simple experiment.
Show an ad with nothing but white people.
Then show one of the current ads with nothing but blacks.
Which side is going to complain more? Hint: It won’t be our side.
Someone watching TV from outer space must wonder how so few white people have controlled so many black folks for so long,
AJ was the first black millionaire in the country.
Yes…blacks want to see people like themselves on TV, not people like her.
TV is pushing perception. Perception, often, in no way resembles reality.
I used to actually watch one of those things. (Can you believe it?)
And actually, I still have the very same device.
When I found a plug on the back of it labeled: 'VGA - IN' I decided
that I coud still use it - so I didn't throw it away.
It's sitting on the desk in front of me, next to this tablet computer thingy.
Makes a pretty decent desktop computer monitor, actually. LOL
But you won’t see a white man/black woman couple. Dat makes the brothers mad.
‘...in these commercials, they are portrayed having solid families, cookouts, trips to the park, etc., and a lot of generally wholesome stuff.’
should you wish to be disabused of this notion, just watch the next NFL game. whenever it comes, this Saturday, if I’m not mistaken...
lotsa jive, lotsa loose fitting clothes, lotsa woofing...
I've seen a couple.
‘White men are inept goofballs.’
one of the many of those types that sticks out is a Folgers commercial that shows a white guy checking in on his laptop wearing a suit and tie and bright colored undershorts; he’s on with a black guy and a white woman and is oblivious to his appearance for awhile...
the look on the woman’s face says it all; the dripping contempt for white men...
why it’s necessary to do racial and genetic shaming to sell coffee remains unclear...
Re-read your post, and replace white with “hispanic” or black with “hispanic”.
Something else is happening here...
and it is not good.
A nice friendly visit to the “hood” will take care of that “perception” problem in a hurry.....
‘I’ve seen a couple.’
like the one where a white guy serves his black girlfriend a heaping portion homemade spaghetti on cheap paper plate; which he proceeds to dump right on her lap...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.