Racial Quotas

            A Jesse Helms add that was put out in order to pursue viewers against racial quotas among the work place uses insensitivity to neutralize white privileges and make racial quotas seem unfair and unreasonable.  The advertisement shows the hands of an obviously white male crumpling up a job rejection letter while the narrator speaks of how white males are tired of being rejected jobs they are highly qualified for because of racial quotas that businesses must meet. 

            Blaming racial job quotas for not being able to get a job is a sad excuse that should not be tolerated in any sense.  Many have a difficult time understanding why racial quotas exist and why racial minorities are often given preference when it comes to getting certain jobs.  For a person who has never had any obstacles before these moments in life it is hard to imagine how much these obstacles affect racial minorities in everyday life.  When specifically speaking about racial quotas around the work place, think of all the obstacles that racialized person faced just getting there.  People who come from racialized groups are stereotyped and discriminated against from their birth to their death; they face obstacles like socio-economic disparities solely based on their race. 

“Coloured is Better”

 

            An Italian laundry detergent commercial attempts to market its product by using the sexualization of a black male.  The detergent is specialized in washing darks and black clothing.  There is a female who is doing the laundry when a lanky, half naked Italian man walks into the room, assuming to be her partner, who seems to be initiating sexual behaviour.  When he walks over to her she looks disgusted and ends up shoving him in the washing machine and waiting for the cycle to finish while sitting on it, preventing him from coming out.  When the cycle is finally finished, instead of the same lanky Italian man coming out, a very handsome and buff black man slowly comes out of the dryer.  The female is obviously pleased about this change and the new man appearing seems to also be happy. 

Primitive Monster

            While browsing the internet one day I came across one of the most racist commercials I have ever seen.  It is designed to promote natural toothpaste that is black in colour, comparing the toothpaste to a black man.  In the commercial the black man helps a little girl by climbing up a giant light post in order to get a balloon she had let go of.  When the man returns from retrieving the balloon, he attempts to give it to the young girl but her mother comes and takes her away, acting as though he is some sort of monster or is trying to hurt her daughter.  The man is sad and returns to his home where you see he has numerous balloons suggesting this is quite a regular occurrence for the man.  He then lies on his bed, which looks like a toothbrush, and is then transformed into the black toothbrush.  The message the add claims to be sending is that we should not be deceived by looks.  If that is the case what ideas about black males does society have that we need to overlook?

“Lazy  Mexican”

            In a Veggie Tales film called “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything”, there is an extremely racialized character.  Though I am not sure which type of vegetable this character is supposed to be, he is given a Spanish accent and the persona he is given is even more troubling.  The movie is based on three vegetables who would like to be pirates, one is the Spanish male, assuming to be Mexican, and two other American vegetable characters.  In the beginning of this film the veggie characters are introduced, the two American veggies are failed pirates who have the desire to succeed as pirates but are just prone to failure.  My whole issue with this film begins with the Mexican character, who also does nothing but not because he is prone to failure, rather because he is lazy.  His vegetable wife, who also speaks with a Spanish accent, even complains to another one of the pirates wives about how lazy he is.  She states that she has to do all of the housework and works many jobs while he just sits around and does nothing.

Mosaic Multiculturalism?

Throughout Canada and other places around the world, Canada has had a reputation of being a mosaic, multicultural place.  It is hard to argue that Canada is not multicultural by simply walking along the downtown core of most Canadian cities and observing the surroundings.  However; it is also hard to argue that Canada is pushing for a mosaic society, or “tossed salad”, rather than the well known American system, the melting pot.  The Tim Horton’s commercial posted above not only warms many Canadian’s hearts, it also gives viewers an emotional sense of connection with the characters in the commercial.  Though the commercial is heart warming, are viewers missing other themes this text is establishing?  The theme that is present here is not centered on a “tossed salad” view of society but rather a melting pot.  The main characters in the commercial are of an eastern Asian descent and are the living products of assimilation.  The grandfather, having a heavy accent, conforms to the stereotypical Asian parent who wants his children to study, study, and study.  He is slowly assimilated into Canadian culture by accepting that hockey is just important as education in Canadian culture, or so this commercial portrays.  The alterations in what is important for the grandfather indicates a change in attitude based and more than likely a result of living in Canadian culture.  

Blackness and Whiteness Represent
 

          In her book Black Looks, bell hooks dedicates a chapter to the “Representation of Whiteness in the Black Imagination”.  Hooks covers a variety of ideas and concepts related to whiteness and how it affects society, specifically in relation to blackness.  Hooks believes that “Systems of domination, imperialism, colonialism, and racism actively coerce black folk to internalize negative perceptions of blackness, to be self-hating”(hooks, 1992, p.166).  This means that the inequalities that exist between races are created, and have been in the past, by people who associate themselves with whiteness.  Colonialism, and specifically slave ownership, has given whiteness the ‘upper hand’, making people outside of this minority group feel inherently lesser, even though this is certainly not the case.  Hooks argues that whiteness is its own entity, and that people who find themselves under the category of whiteness do not necessarily see blackness, or in other cases, just simply ignore the fact that blackness exists.