Old Navy Advertising Race FAIL!

by JuJuBe (Joanna)

Wow, how offensive can an advertisement get?? The commercial shows a Black female mannequin, two Black child mannequins and a Black male mannequin. There is also a white child mannequin, and a white human female. While the advertisement is for the outerwear, the white woman wants to possess the Black male instead.

How many times have we seen this same tired imagery? A Black male as a sexual object for the pleasure of a white woman, rather than as a human being. Nothing new there. This commercial takes it a step further though, because not only is this man objectified by the lustful white woman, but he is literally an object.

He is a lifeless mannequin, which she feels perfectly justified in dragging home with her. Pulling him away from what I can only guess is supposed to be his family. And to add even more insult, this is a sale; 50% off! Kind of brings to mind a slave auction. A white woman purchasing a "Black buck" to serve as her (sex) slave. And the Black female and children and left behind, silenced. They can not say a single word in protest as the man is dragged off by this predatory woman.

Note that only the two white females in the commercial are living, breathing human beings. In most of the Old Navy commercials, all of the characters are mannequins. But not in this one. In this one, the white women are given their humanity, while the Black family are merely decorative objects. Apparently, in this day and age, Black people mannequins have no rights which white women are bound to respect.

Vanity Fair doesn't like black people

My 16yr old daughter has dreams of becoming a big star through acting one day. Like almost all teenagers she has the fantasy of living in Hollywood and living the glamorous life. But for her, it’s more than a fantasy; she has already started along a path to make this a reality. She has taken acting classes and is currently looking into enrolling at one of this countries prestigious school of the arts upon High School graduation. Oh to be sixteen again and have big dreams I tell ya. I love my daughter and it pains me that I have to tell her to give up any hope of success outside of being in a Tyler Perry movie; what father wants to do such a thing. But according to the good folks over at Vanity Fair there’s no future in Hollywood for black women or women of color – at least for the next decade, as evidenced by the obvious absence of any black women on the cover of their March “Young Hollywood” issue. Nine women on one cover and they couldn't at least photoshop a black person/woman into the shot?

The real irony of this is that they pulled this crap right at the beginning of Black History Month. The nerve of these people! They put a “brother” on the cover who doesn’t even consider himself black one month before Black History Month posing like an iron pumping convict in prison. And the next month they throw up a cover with nothing but white chicks as representative of the future decade of Hollywood? See what you did Soul Plane? Lemme guess, there’re no young black actresses to throw into the mix? Oh my bad, Gabourey Sidibie who played the lead in Precious is just a tad bit on the too dark and over-weight side, right? Yep, and that’s not good for Hollywood unless you win an Oscar because then you can be airbrushed like another plus size entertainer recently. That is, unless your mom and dad are Tina and Mathew Knowles, and you wear padded underwear when you perform on stage to make your booty look bigger than it actually is.