Why and how people of color are included in advertising

It is all interesting. I actually noted that a lot more commercials include all kinds of PoCs, increasingly black women with natural hair textures (and by natural, I mean unstraighted by heat or chemical process). Of course, a discussion about this with someone who preferred straight hair turned into a "Yeah, but now there are less black women with straight hair in the media."

That kind of made me blink a bit and think of the counter argument for anti-racebending-movement who say, "Well, now there are less opportunities for white people./What about the white actors?" I have nothing against straightening hair, my hair is straight at the moment. But isn't it nice for the media to say, "Hey, your natural texture is normal" (or beautiful depending on the product) after years of us just saying that to ourselves?

Still, advertising knows that it's trying to get everyone to buy. It's weird and it may be a bit biased, but I if I see a commercial with any sort of PoC, I may actually look into the product even if it's not something I would have bought initially.

Thank you for linking to that blog, it was really a very interesting read. Since I found it interesting, I decided to read some more from the site, and lo and behold, I found this:



I think this is really relevant to our cause, as it points out a lot of films were Middle Easterners are vilified, which is really what seems to be going on with TLA. (Though, TLA also went ahead and vilified South Asians as well...)

IF TLA can even tell the difference, given many of the Fire Nation folks were cast using the breakdowns sent out by Dee Dee Rickets. Ugh.

Thank you, I've been trying to find this forever!

Yea, extra proves my point in Racial Impact 3. Speaking of that, I need to get back to those some time this month.

You're welcome! I'd never seen it before, but I was glad when I found it, because it really does tie into our point. I've heard a lot of people argue that Hollywood isn't really that racist towards minorities, and I'm glad that I have a video that I can link them to now.

I've seen this whole documentary in a series -- I have no idea if the whole thing is on youtube but they have a study guide and a website that might be helpful if you google up the name of the documentary.

And I tell you, the examples in this documentary (if you actually see it) are not only terrifying at times (or just astonishingly shocking) but also some of what's happening with how they're treating Fire Nation (clothing, actor representation etc) could fall into some of the mistakes shown in the documentary. There's even an example of a movie where, normally if you see kids dying (especially if it's in a war-zone or a war-ravaged area) you know it's happening but you don't see it, you actually not only see them being murdered but you see all the blood and gore of it and most of them happen to be Middle-Eastern children. It's just a thought to think about.

I hope they don't end up treating the Fire Nation in association with Middle-Eastern culture or the Arab-American image because that might bring some negative political connotations and with all the more negative images versus positive ones, I wouldn't doubt they would go the more negative route and Middle Eastern people don't need that kind of thing.

I don't know if we have to worry too much about that. So far everything about the Fire Nation makes me think they're going for this bizarre Chinese/Japanese/Greco-Roman/ look that just happens to have dark skinned people wearing it all. The only think Middle Eastern seems to be the actors.

"I think this is really relevant to our cause, as it points out a lot of films were Middle Easterners are vilified, which is really what seems to be going on with TLA. (Though, TLA also went ahead and vilified South Asians as well...)"

Certainly, because TLA is typical for Hollywood in lumping Arabs, Persians, South Asians and "swarthy looking" people of every background all together as if they are interchangeable.

I know several of the "Arabs" in just this little clip are played by South Asians, such as the Pakistani actor Art Malik. "Lost" is another big one, with an Iraqi character played by Naveen Andrews.

Considering Hollywood expected us to believe Eurasian actress Kristin Kreuk was actually a Muslim Indian in "Partition," I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Sent this our information over to Sociological Images and they're going to be posting about it this weekend! They've heard about it before and were glad to get someone submitting more information. Sent in information on the website and the lj as well.

That's awesome! Can't wait to see what will become of it. :D

Sent this our information over to Sociological Images and they're going to be posting about it this weekend!

Their post just went up.