America in a cycle...of racism?

In my American Studies class today in school, we talked about the use of black slaves on the labeling of tobacco products, perhaps as a means to sell it to the English market. But the use of black images to reinforce white privilege was not just a product of the 1600s.

During Michael Jordan’s reign as king of the NBA in the 1990s, Nike and other sponsors used visual representations of his black muscle to make millions. The way Jordan has his defined arms stretched out resembles the Vesuvian Man drawing by Leonardo da Vinci. The symmetry shown by Jordan connects to da Vinci’s perfectly proportioned human specimen. Although there is no denying that Jordan is the ideal athlete, is there a subtext to this ad that is unsettling?

Historically, the black slaves who were in peak physical shape were valued highest at slave auctions. Jordan’s image, at least at some level, suggests that America might not have progressed as much as we think it has. Just as blacks were objectified on tobacco packaging by showing that slaves were the fuel that kept the settlers in business, corporations such as Nike were using black muscle like Jordan’s to fuel their profits as well. Think about it: how often do you see black men portrayed as intellectuals in modern advertising?

Over the past few weeks, a couple of appallingly racist ads were released and quickly dropped. A Mountain Dew commercial featured a badly injured white woman and a police lineup featuring five black men and a goat. When I saw the article, I did a double take, unwillingly to believe that a major company like PepsiCo would release an ad like this:

As if that weren’t bad enough, a Uni-Ball ad showed an extremely muscular black man in a jail cell reading a letter from one of his “homies.” Here is a snippet of the letter:

What up, homie. It’s wack that 5-0 bust you shifting bricks of da funky buddha. . . .  But word up, me and my homie T-Bone, we got a hood snitch up in the pen. We gon’ cut you loose like a noose, my dukes. And you be chillin’ in the crib knocking boots with some hoodrats. Gotta bounce, dawg.

In addition to exploiting the mass incarceration of black men in America, this ad and letter portrays a stereotype about blacks that they are lawbreakers and cannot speak. You don’t usually hear folks in Winnetka calling someone a “hood snitch” or even uttering the words “da funky buddha.” However, the management of Uni-Ball felt it fitting in the context of their commercial, degrading blacks and making them seem inferior to articulate white America.

Why do you think black muscle sells in America?