links for 2007-03-06
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“The Red charity advertising campaign endorsed so lavishly by Hollywood celebrities…has taken in only $18 million…And the disproportionate ratio between the marketing outlay and the money raised is drawing concern”
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“There are Asian-American stars in sports, movies, television and classical music. But the “Asian thing” is what Mr. Lee and many other aspiring Asian-American singers say largely accounts for the lack of Asian-American pop stars.”
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Thanks Kyla! “The president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said on Sunday that he was stepping down after only 19 months on the job, signaling divisions within the organization, the nation’s oldest and largest civil ri
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She’s baaaack!
Thanks Kyla! “If my kids end up identifying as “black” rather than white or biracial, I’ll be secretly pleased. But in the end, if they can go toe to toe with me, they can consider themselves whatever they like.” -
Thanks Tereza! “Bernal is among Native Americans across the West fighting to excise “squaw” from the names of region’s waterways, peaks and river valleys…They claim the term evokes the painful chapter in American history”
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“Korean American community leaders who met with a top official at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Thanks Rob! “Los Angeles on Friday said they were disgusted by anti-Semitic depictions in a comic book by a popular South Korean author and vowed to mobilize
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More Princeton anti-Asian racism. “Graffiti written Friday night on the walls of Blair Hall targeted students in substance-free housing, characterizing them as gay or Asian. Mathey College administrators said they do not yet know who is behind the vandali
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Thanks Vandia! “The search for a better life drives hundreds of thousands of people from poor countries to try their fortunes abroad each year…retraced the odyssey of 46- year- old John Ekow Ampan, a Ghanaian father of three, to Europe.”
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
m wrote:
Debra Dickerson doesn’t have to worry…given the “white-washed” upbringing she has provided her children they will most likely never identify as black. And does anyone really care?
I found it curious though, that on the one hand she states how “crushed” she would be if her children solely identified as white because it would be “tantamount to saying all my love … sacrifice and devotion meant nothing” and yet she has no problem with all but cutting ties to her Southern relatives and Southern roots, because “I live far, far from [them]..travel is foreign, and too expensive, for my working-class family.” Good grief, you would think her family lived in Siberia and not “Miss’ppi” (did I spell that right). And why can’t she and her children visit her Southern relatives instead of the other way around? Isn’t she a member of the middle-class? Well, the middle-class people I know travel! And since when did black people become “exotic creatures” to other black people? Ms. Dickerson’s essay betrays a level of social distance between she and her black counterparts. For all her proclamations of, “I’m black and proud” she nevertheless comes off as downright hostile to anything SHE determines to be black. Most parents pass their cultural habits to their children seemingly by osmosis. Yet Ms. Dickerson feels the need to overanalysis her “roots.” Its okay for her children to prod their father into tell them about his Scottish and Norwegian heritages, yet she ’s afraid to take her children to a gospel church of all places! I guess there are no Norwegian or Scottish cultural habits that are distasteful to Dickerson’s sensibilties…but gospel churches that another story!
And I just love the stereotypes she throws around..gospel churches, collard greens, and my all time favorite… Ebonics. She was also pretty comfortable with the label “Negro” although I’m sure she will argue that she only used the term for stylistic effect.
I guess what troubled me about her piece is the lack of humanity she exudes for her own people. From her vantage point, you would think black people/culture is this great boogie man that should be approached with all caution. Its funny though, that had Ms. Dickerson’s husband shared her same sentiments she would not be blessed with those “white-looking biracial” children of hers.
Posted 06 Mar 2007 at 4:06 pm ¶
m wrote:
Actually Dickerson didn’t mention collard greens, but soul food.
Posted 06 Mar 2007 at 4:13 pm ¶
Ananse wrote:
When you read the AdAge piece, read the comments. The campaign launched against RED has been generating fierce backlash because of the weird mixed message it tries to convey (I’m still not sure what it is).
It has been especially heated within professional marketing circles, especially on:
http://www.brandchannel.com/forum.asp?bd_id=78
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http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2007/03/rediculess.html#comments
Interested folks here might want to add thoughts, especially since there’s been little talk about the “A” meaning stuff other than Advertising instead of AIDS or Africa…
Who says money *and* awareness to benefit through a wider range of means can’t be done when the needs and costs are great?
Posted 06 Mar 2007 at 5:21 pm ¶
kim wrote:
m: “Most parents pass their cultural habits to their children seemingly by osmosis.”
Right. And for all the reasons that Dickerson and I could probably share stories, I think she’s full of shoo-be-d0-it. This woman is backstepping, trying to do a double-step for her mis-steps with the Obama thing (this last sentiment is taken froma blog by Prometheus6, but I concur completely.)
I guess you see the view some folks hold of gospel churches in this one, eh? (Did you read my previous response to you?) Touring the black church…visiting…and watching the cornrowed dwellers on display.
She made this crap up, or her psychotherapist is extremely happy to be on speed dial.
Posted 06 Mar 2007 at 11:13 pm ¶