I am a racist!

Status
Not open for further replies.
I can understand why it was pulled. I knew nothing of the "test" either, but apparently some people do, and it then wouldn't be correct to use the ad. Also, I have to wonder if this is children just goofing around, or is it children laughing at the black kid because of his hair, so then the context is not clear. I can understand why it would make some nervous.
 
Last edited:
Double Negative said:
I look at it this way. It's one thing if an image is obviously racist (e.g. KKK rally or whatever). They have their place - to document history or to make a certain point, in context.

But in those two photos above (girl/Intel) I might suggest that if you saw something racist in them, perhaps it is YOU that may have... Issues.

We're breeding a society of fearful folks - walking on eggshells constantly, getting more and more sensitive by the day. As a consequence, it takes less and less to offend someone these days.
Click to expand...

wtf does cultural sensitivity have to do with being fearful? It's about respect, understanding and tolerance. You have no need to be fearful if you are respectful.
 
I think the black models in the Intel ad were chosen for the way the lighting would show off the color and the definition of their skin. I don't think the ad would be so dramatic from a visual standpoint if it was a bunch of pasty white guys. In this ad I'm sure there was no racist intent, but I can again see the objection.
 
I'm not arguing the intentions of the marketing ppl, but it's an unfortunate coincidence and imagery. Maybe they hired a well-known sprinter that happened to black. Or maybe due black people's dominance of track & field for running.

Companies have their public images to worry about.
 
There are many who'd like to kick up a fuss out of nothing, or even go further by applying their interpretations to your words or pics as if the same were yours. But everyone is entitled to his or her view. But they shouldn't assume it is your view as well. I see these as lack of understanding and education leading to the formation of an uninformed opinion. As long as you have stated your meaning of your pic, that's sufficient. Would the pic be non-racist if the blackmen all became white and the white man became black? Oh, I forgot about positive discrimination. You see, either way you can't win.
 
Nh3 said:
So, stop with the drama and be glad that you learned something. this is no big deal.
Click to expand...


This has stimulated an excellent debate. I have learned something about that horrible regime in South Africa and, I am better off for the information.

If I was being truly dramatic, though, I would have titled my post "I am a racist child pornographer!!!!!" as the females are obviously not clothed in the traditional head-wear of some place or other, and can obviously be seen laughing in the company of a male child - which, I am sure, is not permitted or has not been permitted in some village at some time or other etc etc

...see what I mean?

And..it is a big deal for the kid in the photo. He and his family were really happy that his relatives would see this picture on the internet. And now ... well...you know :(
 
It's true.
Somebody must really have been a freak, to invent such a test, but it is indeed the way they were "scientifically determining" the race.

I don't think they labeled YOU a racist. I think it's just the usual over-carefulness of not to hurt anybody's feeling with an image tht might remind someone of some dark past of a far corner of the Globe. Don't take it personally. It happens.

It's funny here at work, somewhat related story: We have in majority Christian originated colleagues but there are two muslims and a witness of Jehova. Every December we have a dinner called "christmas dinner", on the budget of our employer. It's just a get-together in a nice restaurant, eating and drinking for free and chatting. Nothing remotely related to any religious thing.
However this year there was a suspicion that some of our colleagues might have chosen not to join the event...because it's called christmas dinner. SO it was renamed by the boss to "mid-winter dinner".
I find it ridiculous... I personally am officially catholic but not practicing it, practically i am an atheist but i did not even think about being "offended" by this.

Moreover, we also received in these day a box from our employer called "christmas gift". Just some little things, consumable and non-consumable stuff.
Everybody received it.
Nobody refused it, saying it is offensive:)

That's just how the world is, i guess.
 
Actually, about the Intel ad:
I am white and i feel offended. The ad wants us to believe that only black men can run properly.

:)

Which is in average true, by the way. But that's how we are. Races are different in what their strength is, in average, whether we like it or not.

Remember the movie "white men can't jump"?
 
the test is to ask many black americans and see if they respond to this ad in a negative way. what percentage of them have heard of this pencil test thats been going on in africa?

in a time where we have a black president, it's pretty stupid imho... racism only seems to be one sided.

i think political correctness goes beyond race anyway. it has affected how we talk to each other and we treat each other in fear of being called a racists or prejudice... we lie to ourselves and in what we truly believe in.
 
It's stupid. The child isn't old enough to have been lived under apartheid. Neither he nor the photographer has earned its stink.

I say shame on them who forced the image down, they are guilty of callus repression and are themselves fascists. It reminds me of zero tolerance policies in this country, which purposely excludes consideration of intent, context, and reason itself. There is never, ever a good excuse not to have to think.

Better to have included a caption describing of how the image might be misconstrued and how thankful we can be that this child and every other one like him can put pencils into their hair in playful fun. And if we think about it, isn't that the world we all want anyway?
 
freeranger said:
So...
Click to expand...



maelswarm said:
intelad.jpg
Click to expand...

I turn angry for this ugly work. First photo is just beautiful and who is against it, disservice good reputation of antirasist movement. Dislike it sounds too high or just blind and stupidity: are they angry for beauty of colour or coloured people?

Sorry, I dont follow discussion before. But in general: times are chancing all the time, as usual, and I hope that humanity and solidarity win and most people in anti-rasist movement are still wise.
 
Last edited:
Cool picture. Set up your own website on a server hosted in a country where the ISP is not strongly liable for content, and post it there.

Call it ART and explain your motivations and the connotations of the image in a caption. Or don't explain it at all - think Maplethorpe and Koons. (Not that I am implying that your image is REMOTELY in the same realm of shock-art :D just mentioning them to illustrate that "art" as "speech" is generally more protected and tolerated than "commercial speech.")

I don't think the rejection of your otherwise excellent photo is about political correctness - it is about business. If just one person - however neurotic, misguided or overly-sentized you might think they are - is offended by an image, especially in an advertisement, they can raise such a stink (thanks to the internet) that it is simply not worth it to most companies to risk it.
 
What's the horrible regime in SA? The old one where law and order prevailed (ok, with some flaws) or the one that's going on today? Free but totally chaotic with the highest crime rate per capita in the world?

On a different note, I can understand this image's connotations.
 
Pherdinand said:
Remember the movie "white men can't jump"?
Click to expand...


Had the movie been call, "Black men can't swim" then it would have been considered racist...

Political Correctness is doing the opposite of what it was meant to do...
I'm seeing that in trying to keep everyone happy and equal, Political Correctness is actually just pointing out what "It" thinks is unfair...
In photographs like the one posted by the OP, one has to show a boy, a girl, an Asian, an African-American, a Caucasian (actually had to look up how to spell that one), possibly a Handicap person (boy or girl) and someone in the mid-brown tones (like me)...
Now, if you leave someone out you're a Racist...if you put pencils in the girls hair and place the darker child in the background and slightly out of focus you're a Racist...I'm almost convinced that if one of the other kids had something done to them, someone, somewhere would have found something to be offended by it..all in the name of "Political Correctness"

In another forum, if I had seen any of the photos posted here I wouldn't have seen them as being wrong or demeaning...I'm not looking for what's unfair or offensive in ads, I don't think that way...
What about the ads that depict "Men" as uncaring idiots who can do nothing right...why is this still acceptable behaviour???

Also now having read this thread and while watching the News, I see that our next Vice President has pick a German Shepard as his new "Puppy"...doesn't Mr. Joe Biden know that German Shepards were use against Blacks in the 60's during the Civil Rights movement...
I can recall many a photo showing these dogs attacking young men and women in the South...

Okay...I'm done...sorry for the rant...(heart rate back to normal)...:D

I don't want to think this way but "Political Correctness" is behind this thinking...It's doing more to divide than bring together...
 
Last edited:
Goldorak said:
What's the horrible regime in SA? The old one where law and order prevailed (ok, with some flaws)
Click to expand...
Well... that quote takes the biscuit, and I ain't being PC!

And yes, the trains did run on time under Hitler.

As to the OP, yes, it is a pain and an over-reaction. But it was probably worse, 30 years ago, for the kids who got their hair tested in the way we've just had explained.
 
.ken said:
in a time where we have a black president, it's pretty stupid imho... racism only seems to be one sided.
Click to expand...

But , which side? Remember two things... it isn't January yet so he is not "our President", and he isn't black, or "colored", or African American; he is bi-racial - technically half-white, half-black. That make reference to him in this this type of discussion even weirder.
 
Gumby - and yet, Obama was called "the first black president" bla bla non stop in the election days. On every news channel.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom