it's racist and unacceptable. - Edit 1
Before modification by Aeryn at 23/03/2010 09:09:42 PM
I'm white and I'd be offended by the ad. "Black" when used to describe music has nothing with color anymore, but a musical style, history, origins. To bring it back to skin color in such a crude, literal way is unsavory. I actually use that term frequently to describe the kind of of music I like, or I say "non-white" music. But that ad would offend me and make me feel excluded since I do not have the right skin color. I would not listen to the radio station.
In this advert, "blackness" as a quality of the music (whatever that may mean) is presented in a positive way. If it's racist against anyone, it's non-blacks.
What I mean by this is that it would be consistent with the implications of the advert to say "There's too much damn whiteness in this music; let's get rid of it" (not that they do say that, but they could without contradicting themselves). Similarly with "Indian-ness", "Chinese-ness" or whatever. But they couldn't say "There's too much damn blackness in this music; let's get rid of it" without effectively saying the opposite of what the advert suggests.
America: Seriously, I can understand why you guys are so hypersensitive about anything to do with race, but it's still really annoying. And it doesn't help you get over your problems.
What I mean by this is that it would be consistent with the implications of the advert to say "There's too much damn whiteness in this music; let's get rid of it" (not that they do say that, but they could without contradicting themselves). Similarly with "Indian-ness", "Chinese-ness" or whatever. But they couldn't say "There's too much damn blackness in this music; let's get rid of it" without effectively saying the opposite of what the advert suggests.
America: Seriously, I can understand why you guys are so hypersensitive about anything to do with race, but it's still really annoying. And it doesn't help you get over your problems.