THIS IS NOT A COMPLAINT, MERELY AN OBSERVATION.
PLEASE READ THIS TOPIC IN ITS' ENTIRETY BEFORE REPLYING.
YOUR OPINION MATTERS.
Advertising seems to be a prime indicator of racial harmony in American culture.
QUESTION: Has anyone ever noticed this most curious thing about advertising on television, print media, even the internet: In a commercial, if there is a scene involving a woman (of any race...), one or more black men, and a single white man, and the script calls for someone to play the "fall guy", IT WILL BE THE WHITE MAN, EVERY TIME?
DITTO if the scene depicts a white woman/women and one or more white males. Again, the white male(s) will play the "fall guy".
Has anyone seen otherwise?
Producers of such commercials, as well as retail stores, restaurants, etc., are "playing it safe".
I would like to see more equality in TV, print, and internet advertising. This will indicate equality in INCOME amongst the various ethnic groups in America.
This will indicate racial divides have dissolved, and that harmony exists among the races.
ALL OF US WILL THEN BE AS ONE: AMERICANS.

Sorry... I've got no idea what you're talking about ...

Its called Politically Correct!

Everyone is overcompensating.

Andy, you are one cool dude.

political correctness... does it have a place. HOWEVER, people get to damn offended to easily these days.

"Hot dogs, Armor hot dogs, what kind of kids eat Armor hot dogs?".

Blah, blah, blah!

i agree to both

I'll pay closer attention to the ethnic thing but I have always noticed that the white guy in an ad is usually played as a baffoon, moron, stupified and dumbfounded, a weasel and generally misguided and bewildered.

trublu4u, this is a highly complex subject and I think I would bore the pants off Mingle members if I really got into answering this question in it's entirety.

How times have changed........ "For some reason, Fate hates the black man, putting them that much higher on the Sorting Algorithm Of Mortality. The Comedy Black Man? Despised beyond measure.

In the past this was because there were few black leads in big-budget films outside of those that focused specifically on race or used it to make a point. Historical moviemakers were generally writing to white audiences, so it was natural (at least in their opinion) for whites to get more screen time. And if the writers throw in a Token Minority to give the cast more believable racial balance, who do you think is going to die first, them or the folks who have a bigger role in the script?

This, of course, has led to increasing inversion in recent years, as there have been more black moviegoers with money to spend, leading to more and more prominent black characters and more big-name black actors, none of which are likely to get killed off quietly. Studios have also finally accepted that white audiences are not generally as racist as was once assumed, and do not need to have a white as the protagonist. In other words, if you're gonna go after the black man nowadays, you might want to check the credits to see who's playing him. If it's no one you've actually heard of, they're probably fair game. Tony Todd? Go for it. Denzel Washington? Bad idea. Will Smith? Run away and hide.

As black actors become more common in significant roles, this trope has found new ways to stay relevant. Often films will take a Scary Black Man, turn him into The Big Guy, and kill him off to show how strong their monster is. In horror films, the afflicted main character might have a sassy Black Best Friend that gets killed off to show that this is no laughing matter.

This became a Dead Horse Trope once black comedians began to reference it in their routines, and comedy movies began to reference, parody, subvert, and lampshade it. Like many aspects of racism that have become less overt over the years, some people refuse to believe that it ever existed, but these people probably haven't seen many movies made before 1990.

This is a Death Trope, so you'd better turn back now or face the spoilers.


(from The Black Death) http://www.blackhorrormovies.com/blackdeath.htm
It's hard to pinpoint an exact moment when this phenomenon began, but there's little doubt that 1968 was a watershed year. Two films served as vivid illustrations that things were turning decidedly deadly for black characters. The first, Spider Baby, Or the Maddest Story Ever Told, opens with a cameo by Mantan Moreland, the African-American actor renowned for playing comedic sidekicks in over a dozen thrillers in the 1930s and '40s. In films like King of the Zombies and the Charlie Chan mysteries, Moreland's bug-eyed reaction shots and Scooby Doo-like skedaddling earned him crowd-pleasing laughs that ensured his survival, but they also earned him the ire of civil rights groups like the NAACP, who all but ended his career by lobbying for more dignified roles for people of color.


Since the '70s, there's been little documentation of the phenomenon of black death apart from the occasional punchline. Jamie Kennedy never mentions it amongst his "rules" in Scream (and thus, unprepared, Jada Pinkett and Omar Epps get shanked in the opening minutes of the sequel). Most academic discussions on race in horror movies deal with the portrayals of African-American characters while they're still alive rather than their inevitable demise.

BlackHorrorMovies.com has endeavored to document the phenomenon. Based on a sampling of almost 1,000 horror films containing over 1,500 appearances by black actors and actresses, this site has found their mortality rate to be about 45%. How high this figure sounds depends on your point of view, but given all of the minor, non-speaking roles that were accounted for, saying that nearly one out of every two will die sounds pretty slaughter-ific.



The new black ( from the UK Guardian)

Black and Asian people used to be caricatured in TV adverts - if they were there at all. Now, with the help of Thierry Henry and a Halifax bank manager, they've arrived in the cultural mainstream. That's because everyone, from advertisers to fashion designers, is realising that the brown pound is worth billions...

White people are fast becoming the minority. True Blue eyed blondes are becoming fewer and farther apart in most populations. Segregation is fading from many things so I think that will be reflected on TV.

They have always been in the minority in South Africa, yet they were the perpetrators of racism towards Black people.Star, I love the idea that there is no such thing as a "pure race"

White folks as far as I know have never been a majority by numbers,
culturally we seem to have held some majority.
I remember telling my kids as they grew up when we interacted, discovered, read about, saw something in a movie etc. that most of the world is not 'white' and they don't speak English.

Without sounding condescending;michiganman, you have made a vital point here.I try to ignore the "race" issue at most times but will react when I am singled out (I'm not talking about this thread)I'm citing real life.

Wow, BonnyMiss! Thank you so much for this most intelligent, informative, and thought-provoking reply.
The "blaxsploitation" film which comes to my mind is "Blakula".
"Shaft", starring Richard Roundtree, is also considered to be exploitative. I've actually seen "Shaft", which turned out to be a very successful movie, for the time. I seem to remember a scene when Shaft had caught his young son smoking his cigars, and, as punishment, forced him to smoke many more until he became very sick. Seems to be a very effective punishment!
I would like to see the ethnic cast structure of commercials, movies, etc., to be more diverse...more reflective of the actual ethnic makeup of our country, and less so of buying power, political-correctness, etc. This may seem to indicate that racial divides in our country are dissolving fast.

There are invisible cogs and wheels in the machinery of any given society which ensures its' survival. "Mixing" of the races is one such inevitable occurence. I don't consider myself to be a citizen of merely the town in which I live, but a citizen of the WORLD. Therefore, "mixing" (...which seems to be an unneccessary, moronic term), does not unsettle me in any way whatsoever. We're all just one people.
Maybe we do need to experience a "War of the Worlds" type invasion by aliens! The resulting strife between HUMANS and squid/crab-like beings would surely bring us all much closer together, with the acknowledgement that there are, after all, far more disturbing differences between people than mere skin color!
Consider: "Daddy, I'm bringing my new alien friend home for dinner. His name is 'Calamari'". And please daddy, no jokes like, "When my daughter told me she was bringing "Calamari" home for dinner, I was all excited! I love the stuff with a little hot sauce!"

As much as I would like to see films and adverts reflect real life, I fear it may take some time before all nations are viewed as equals(?) I do dislike getting on my proverbial soab box ( for fear of being branded an "angry Black Woman")

I was taunted by my mother-in-law, branded "one of them" never did I react to her negativity, yet she stated I was arrogant and ignorant. She disliked seeing "your sort" on the television and would chnage channels to avoid watching the news because a Black man ( Sir Trevor McDonald) was reading it.She felt the country had "gone to the dogs" I am happy to say she made her peace before she died. I am not angry at racism, nor am I angry at or with racists, I pity them.