Have You Seen the Rainbow?
Diversity in advertising — at long last.
I stopped watching broadcast television six years ago but haven’t been under a rock. I know, for example, that there was a sizable uproar (read sh**storm) around 2014 when General Mills released a sweet, innocent 30-second commercial featuring a (GASP) interracial family.
OH, EM, GEE!
The pearl-clutching was epic. Nine years ago. The adorable brown child in the commercial is probably seventeen now.
I still watch a little TeeVee news streaming live on my laptop, so I see a few of today’s commercials. And I suddenly awoke (yes, I am (I hope) Woke) to what I was seeing:
I’m Lovin’ It! — ©®™
Is this it? The end of racism and all the other ridiculous ‘isms? Could we finally write finis to everybody minding everyone else’s business about who they love, marry or don’t, raise kids with or not? Wouldn’t that be just awesomely awesome?
Yeah, I know, pipe dream, but don’t you think we’ve had enough of this crap? I am an old “white” (pinky-beige) straight cis male who thinks, knows, actually that this “white supremacy” BS is a load of — —
I am 80. I too-well remember when it was common for a so-called “mixed” couple, especially Black and white, holding hands in public, to be at least remarked on, glared at, taunted, or even physically attacked.
(Did I do anything about it? No. I didn’t do it myself; otherwise, I went along to get along, like most of us pinky-beige people, frankly. Moral and physical cowardice. Not proud of it; just the facts.)
Over time we have seen broadcast news desks become more diverse. Women began to anchor mainstream nightly news, then Black men, then Black women, then Latinas, Asians, tall, short, thin and not so thin, beat reporters on air representing American culture across the board. I can’t help but wonder if that has anything to do with getting the MAGA crowd’s knickers in a twist.
We are seeing more and more Black men and women in leading and vital supporting roles in everything from comedies to police procedurals (one of my weaknesses). I can’t know whether these shows represent reality, but they depict an ideal, a goal. It’s true of LGBTQ characters, who seem more legitimately portrayed by actual LGBTQ players. That opens doors for more and more marginalized people to practice their craft.
I do not think this slow but steady change is trivial.
I do not think this slow but steady change is trivial. I do believe it is imperative. It addresses and projects how I think things ought to be, if not how they are, yet. Social progress is always slow and painful, two steps forward, one or more steps back. Humans are tribal. We tend to otherize. Studies of numerous tribes, ancient and modern, establish that their word for themselves usually translates as “US,” and all other tribes are “THEM,” and very often decrypts as “ENEMY.” For example, the Lakota and Dakota nations are collectively called “Sioux,” derived from French, but it may be a pejorative Ojibwe term for the Lakota/Dakota, translating as “little rattlesnakes.”
Our American culture has often been described as a “melting pot,” but we are not and never have been. We are, and I hope always will be, a wild, messy assortment of cultures, colors, and languages. Today we are more chaotic and divided than at almost any time in our history as so-called “white supremacism” once again rears its hideous, monstrous head. We all fear or should worry, that our nation faces an unparalleled threat from within, a once-unthinkable potential for the end of the American Experiment of representative democracy itself.
If it takes seeing a rainbow on television or streaming, I will consider that progress if the experience changes a single attitude.
As always, thank you for looking and reading. I truly appreciate it! 😊👍
