Committed to growth—and child obesity.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Essay 4038
From The Chicago Sun-Times…
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Don’t let immigration bill be job America won’t do
The scary thing about the repeated failures of President Bush and Congress to push through that urgently needed, long-discussed, continually nitpicked immigration reform is that each time it is swatted down, nativists bent on making life miserable for the 12 million illegal immigrants in the country are increasingly feeling their oats. The longer members of Congress dicker over amendments and technicalities and voting procedures, the more the basic elements of the measure -- tougher border security and a path to citizenship -- get lost in the political haze.
This was never the sexiest issue for mainstream Americans, even those whose lives are directly affected by it through their reliance on low-wage immigrant workers. But from the day the president first proposed his guest worker program to last November when Democrats took control of Congress, Americans were thought to be open to comprehensive reform. Now, apparently, whatever sympathy was stirred up by the heartfelt statements of legal and illegal immigrants at mass rallies in various cities is fading. A Gallup Poll reveals of those Americans who have an opinion on the immigration bill -- and at this stage, most don’t -- three to one are against it. “Amnesty” has become even more of a loaded buzz word than it was: Most Americans polled don’t want people they see as violating the law getting anything resembling a free pass.
Bush, who has been roundly criticized for his failure to line up reluctant Republicans behind the bill, one of the major items left on his agenda, said the legislation was “temporarily derailed” following its late-hour crash last week and vowed to get it passed. Democrats say they are keen on renewing efforts to push it through, following a questionable decision by their majority leader, Sen. Harry Reid, to pull the bill rather than give Republicans more time to settle on what amendments to debate.
With the window of time for this legislation shutting -- there is no chance of acting on it once the presidential race heats up -- it is incumbent on Bush to use whatever clout he has left to line up Republicans behind it and for Reid to get it back on the Senate agenda. The more unproductive talk there is about the bill, the more tired people will become with it. Perhaps someone needs to engage Americans on an emotional level, to call into account the compassion for the underdog this country has always been known for. “Sometimes there are big problems that have to be addressed, and there’s no political gain in it and maybe even political loss,” said Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, a key conservative Republican supporter of the bill. “You’ve got to do it, nonetheless.” We can only hope he’s right in predicting it will be done before the Senate’s July 4 recess.
Essay 4036
Taxing tidbits in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…
• Wesley Snipes is griping he’s being charged with federal tax evasion because he’s Black. Snipes’ lawyers argued that prosecutors filed more charges against the actor and let two co-defendants slide with fewer charges because they’re “Caucasian, while Mr. Snipes is African-American.” Snipes probably wishes he was in the black.
• Hillary Clinton wishes she were in the Black and Brown, as the presidential candidate is stumping hard with minority women. Clinton’s campaign scheduled a meeting today with 300 “women of color” to raise funds and support. If Clinton really wants to impress the ladies, she’ll invite Wesley Snipes. Or husband Bill.
• Another up-and-coming rapper was gunned down and killed. Rayquon Elliott, aka Stack Bundles, was shot at his housing project in Queens, New York. The artist recently released a CD with Brian Wilson (not of Beach Boys fame) titled, “Riot or Die.” Guess he won’t be rioting.
Essay 4033
The story below appeared at Adweek.com. A brief MultiCultClassics response immediately follows…
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MyM Market Profile: Chicago
By Kevin Downey/Marketing y Medios
It sometimes takes the ad community a few years to catch up with population trends. Such is the case in Chicago, where the Hispanic population has been exploding but where the number of targeted media outlets and advertising revenue lag behind markets of comparable size, notably Miami.
That’s somewhat understandable for a market that is hardly a border town. But hundreds of thousands of Mexicans have been flooding into Westside and Southside neighborhoods and increasingly the suburbs. This trend is projected to continue well into the next decade, opening up opportunities for Hispanic media and for advertisers looking to tap into a large population in a market that is inexpensive for the moment.
Chicago is the fifth largest Hispanic market with 454,000 television homes, according to Nielsen Media Research. Its Hispanic population more than doubled between 1980 and 2000, from 635,000 to just under 1.5 million people, 75 percent of whom are Mexican, based on data from SRC LLC.
Moreover, Chicago’s Latino population is now estimated to be near 1.9 million, and it’s projected to grow by another 52,000 people each year through 2012, according to Boston-based consultancy Global Insight. Hispanics will account for more than one out of five Chicagoans by then, reaching 2.15 million residents with $58 billion in buying power.
“At some point this will level off at least as far as in-migration from Mexico,” said Gary Menger, lead demographer at Applied Geographic Solutions. “But these Mexican families are also having more children than native-born Americans. So even if that tide ceases you’ll find for the next 25 to 30 years an increase in the Hispanic population.”
Still, while Chicago’s Hispanic population has been growing, advertising revenue has been slow to keep pace in the changing market.
Advertisers spent $123 million in 2006 on Hispanic media in Chicago, according to Hispanic Business magazine, compared with about 41 percent of expenditures spent in Miami despite having virtually the same size population. Ad spending increased at the slowest rate among the 10 largest Hispanic markets, up only 3.8 percent from 2005.
Hispanic TV and radio accounted for about 40 percent of revenue at $49 million and $47 million, respectively, with print generating $27 million, according to Hispanic Business.
Ed Fernandez, vp/general manager at Telemundo affiliate WSNS Channel 44, said the struggle for Hispanic media outlets is that just a few multicultural agencies exist in the area.
“People don’t think of Chicago as a Hispanic market,” Fernandez said, noting: “We also lack the big-name agencies outside of [Starcom MediaVest’s] Tapestry. We need prominent, big agencies preaching the gospel to retailers and Fortune 500 companies that they need to advertise to Hispanics in Chicago.”
There are also a limited number of Latino media outlets to attract ad revenue.
Univision dominates with two of four Spanish-language TV stations, WGBO Channel 66 and TeleFutura affiliate WXFT Channel 60. Azteca America has the fourth Hispanic station, WOCK Channel 13.
Univision also leads in radio with five of the market’s eight Spanish-language stations, including No. 5-ranked WOJO (“La Que Buena” 105.1 FM). “Pasión” WPPN 106.7 FM is No. 10, with ratings up 45 percent in the morning since the station brought in L.A.-based host Eddie “El Piolín” Sotelo in January, according to Arbitron’s Winter 2007 ratings. Former Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) morning man Luis Jiménez now holds court at “La Kalle” stations WVIV 103.1 FM and WVIX 93.5 FM.
Univision’s dominance makes it tough for competitors to make headway in the market. SBS’ only station in Chicago, Mexican format WLEY 107.9 FM, is tied at No. 10 among listeners 12 years or older on an all-day basis. The station’s ratings, however, have been slipping.
But Benjamin Aguirre, a local media specialist at Tapestry, says Univision isn’t gouging advertisers because of its position.
“We negotiate on ratings and the fair share [each station] can get,” Aguirre said, adding: “I’d consider it extremely affordable when compared to the general market.”
Still, Univision’s WGBO has cornered the Hispanic TV market during prime time and in news dayparts. WGBO averaged an 8.7 prime time rating in the 18-49 demographic during the February sweeps, according to Nielsen. Telemundo WSNS had a 2.6 rating.
WGBO also far outperforms WSNS in news. At 10 p.m. in February, for instance, it pulled an 8.1 rating, compared to WSNS’ 1.9.
In the May sweeps, WGBO tied for No. 2 among all stations in the 18-34 demographic on an all-day basis, according to Univision. But WSNS has been making changes to its newscasts to make it more competitive.
WSNS’ Fernandez said the station overhauled its 10 p.m. newscast earlier this year, adopting a format that originated in L.A., “En Contexto,” where in-depth discussions about key news stories have replaced news bites.
In May, WSNS’ 10 p.m. rating among adults 25-54, the news demographic, was up 36 percent from May 2006, to a 3.0. “Since we launched ‘En Contexto’ in late January, it’s been terrifically well received,” Fernandez said.
Meanwhile, Hispanic print media outlets in Chicago has seen big changes in recent years. There are six audited publications, according to Latino Print Network, including weekly magazine Tele Guía de Chicago.
Tribune’s daily Hoy came into the market in early 2003, replacing the weekly ¡Exito!, and its weekend edition, which launched in December of that year, is now Chicago’s most widely distributed publication. Hoy’s Monday to Thursday distribution was 43,216, up from 40,366 in March, according to Certified Audit of Circulations (CAC); its Friday distribution was 55,373, up from 53,653.
Hoy’s Fin de Semana Chicago was distributed to 208,821 people in March, according to CAC, slightly down from March 2006.
ImpreMedia’s La Raza, which launched in 1970, is Chicago’s oldest Spanish-language newspaper. ImpreMedia bought the weekly in 2004 from investment firm Hispania Capital Partners. The paper's circulation is continuing to trend up past the 200,000 mark, said publisher and CEO Robert Armband.
A few years ago, La Raza also joined the Sun-Times Network Group newswire service, extending its reach throughout the market with content accessible both in English and Spanish to multiple media outlets, including English-language newspapers, TV and radio.
The free weekly Reflejos Bilingual Journal, with a 93,000 circ, had a changing of the guards this month with Jerry Campagna retiring as president. Paddock Publications purchased the paper from Campagna in 2000.
About 44 percent of Hispanics in Chicago prefer to speak Spanish, according to Scarborough Research. They also are younger than average, with 55 percent ages 18 to 34, a statistic Tapestry’s Aguirre said has prompted Chicago papers to make editorial tweaks.
Both Hoy and La Raza have made strides to give their papers a livelier feel, he said. “Hoy definitely has a feel similar to [Tribune’s English-language] daily RedEye, where the content is easily digestible but relevant.”
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The story’s opening line says it all: It sometimes takes the ad community a few years to catch up with population trends.
Of course, when the people movements include racial and ethnic components, the years turn to muchos decades with our industry.
On a side note, it’s ironic these revelations are now presented by Adweek, a publication whose parent company saw fit to eliminate Marketing y Medios, the premier magazine focused on the Latino market.
Is anyone really surprised that Chicago would be so lagging in this booming arena? The city’s major advertising agencies are notoriously White, with no organizations like New York City’s Commission on Human Rights to push progress. Although it is interesting to recognize Chicago is home to Rev. Jesse Jackson, the dictator of diversity.
“People don’t think of Chicago as a Hispanic market,” remarked Ed Fernandez. “We also lack the big-name agencies outside of [Starcom MediaVest’s] Tapestry. We need prominent, big agencies preaching the gospel to retailers and Fortune 500 companies that they need to advertise to Hispanics in Chicago.” One of the city’s largest shops, Leo Burnett, has struggled to hire qualified executives to run its minority Lápiz Division—which can’t help Burnett’s attempts to integrate the general market staff. So it will be damned difficult identifying any gospel preachers.
The laborious examinations of Latino media consumption show another basic flaw in reasoning: Why presume you can reach a unique audience by employing the same vehicles that are even failing with White folks?
Guess it’ll take the ad community a few years to figure this out too.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Essay 4029
From The Associated Press…
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Africans taken into slavery who died crossing the Atlantic honored
BY BRUCE SMITH
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Eighteen years ago, Tony Akeem organized a ceremony in New York City to honor the millions of Africans who died crossing the Atlantic during the slave trade. Similar observances have since spread around the world.
On Saturday, offerings of water, honey and rum were poured along the shores of South Carolina and elsewhere for Middle Passage Remembrance Day. The remembrance is held the second Saturday in June.
“We must, we must, honor our ancestors,” said Tony Akeem, who has been organizing an observance at Coney Island, N.Y., ever since a 1989 conference on the slave's brutal trip was held at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he works as a photographer.
The observances have spread from Philadelphia to San Francisco and from Brazil to Ghana. Most were started by people who have attended the New York event, Akeem said.
Saturday marked the 10th year South Carolina was participating in the remembrance. About 100 people gathered at a Fort Moultrie dock on Sullivans Island near Charleston.
The first slaves arrived in Charleston in 1670, the same year the Carolina colony was created. Historians estimate nearly 40 percent of the millions of slaves brought to what became the United States passed through Charleston. Many others died at sea.
“The stories run pretty strong that there were people who realized they were enslaved and would rather drown than be enslaved and when allowed up on the decks, would just jump into the water,” said Fran Norton of the Fort Sumter National Monument, which includes Fort Moultrie. “It commemorates those people who gave up their lives for freedom.”
Just how many perished in the slave trade will never be known.
“We know that many died of disease because they were packed in the ships like sardines,” said Osei Terry Chandler, a project director at a Charleston education facility who is helping organize the South Carolina memorial.
Participants at the ceremonies in New York and South Carolina drizzled water, rum and honey into the waves Saturday. Adjo Palmer, a Ghana native who led the South Carolina ritual, told The (Charleston) Post & Courier that such ceremonies are important in honoring her ancestors.
“We didn’t come here on our own accord. We were brought here,” she said. “So while we are here, we just have to do what we have to do to survive. I thank our ancestors for bringing us this far and … I pray that we will have unity and strength to go farther than where we are now.”
“Pouring libations is simply to venerate your ancestors,” said Bill Jones, who helps organize the Coney Island ceremony. “It gives the ancestors a cool drink of water, or a little bit of gin or a little bit of rum, whatever you pour the libation with.”
“In African spirituality we believe we are in constant contact with our ancestors. They are not someplace in heaven, they are right here with us.”
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Essay 4028
From The Chicago Tribune…
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What is a hate crime?
Some are asking why no media outcry over murders in which victims were white and suspects are black
By Howard Witt
Tribune senior correspondent
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- What happened to Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, a young Knoxville couple out on an ordinary Saturday night date, was undeniably brutal. The two were carjacked, kidnapped, raped and finally murdered during an ordeal of unimaginable terror in January.
But whether the attack was a racial hate crime worthy of national media attention is another question, one that has now ignited a fierce dispute over the definition of hate crimes and how the mainstream media choose to cover America’s most discomfiting interracial attacks.
That’s because the murders of Christian and Newsom didn’t fit the familiar contours of a traditional Old South attack, in which whites target blacks and reporters quickly assume the motivation must have been racial.
Instead, the races were reversed: Christian and Newsom were white; the three men and one woman charged with their murders are black. And the failure of the story to gain much media attention outside of the Knoxville area has galvanized conservative commentators across the country who insist the case offers clear evidence of liberal bias in the major media.
They have launched a broad Internet campaign, waged via blogs, e-mails and YouTube videos, to counter what they regard as suppression of a story about an anti-white hate crime.
“There is a discomfort level [in the national media] with stories that have black assailants and white victims,” said Michelle Malkin, a prominent conservative newspaper columnist and TV commentator who has featured the Knoxville case on her Web site. “If it doesn’t fit some sort of predetermined narrative of how we view taboo subjects like race and crime, there’s a disinclination to cover it.”
Country music star Charlie Daniels, who lives 150 miles from Knoxville, contrasted scant coverage of the Christian-Newsom murders with the national media frenzy that erupted last year when a black woman accused three white members of the Duke University lacrosse team of raping her at a party. The white players were cleared in April after the accuser proved unreliable and no evidence corroborated a crime.
“If this [Knoxville case] had been white on black crime, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and their ilk would have descended on Knoxville like a swarm of angry bees,” Daniels wrote on his Web site. “I guess the lack of TV cameras discouraged them.”
Cause celebre for extremists
Neo-Nazis and other white supremacists have jumped on the case as well, drawn to the state where the Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1865. Hate groups have organized rallies in Knoxville and set up Web sites under the victims’ names to spew racial invective.
But it’s not just conservative whites and extremists who have criticized the national silence over the Knoxville case.
“Black leaders are not eager to take this on because it’s one more thing that would cast a negative light on African-Americans,” said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, an author and nationally syndicated black columnist who has written frequently about the reluctance of black leaders to denounce crimes committed by blacks against whites. “There’s already an ancient stereotype that blacks are more violent and crime-prone, anyway.”
Rev. Ezra Maize, the president of the Knoxville chapter of the NAACP, has been one of the few black leaders to address the case.
“It doesn’t make me uncomfortable speaking out against this crime because it was African-Americans [allegedly] committing a crime against Caucasians,” Maize said. “It’s not a black-and-white issue. It’s a right-and-wrong issue. Those who committed this crime were unjust in doing so and they should pay the penalty.”
[Click on the essay title above to read the full story.]
Essay 4027
Stars behaving badly in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…
• Shrek recently came under fire for being a spokesogre for an anti-obesity campaign targeting children. Now comes news that McDonald’s has experienced record-breaking sales with a Shrek-backed Happy Meals promotion. Talk about having your McCake and eating it too.
• In the Borat film, Sacha Baron Cohen’s character was seen chasing a businessman down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, trying to hug the irate New Yorker. Now the businessman is chasing down Borat with a lawsuit charging violations of his civil rights led to “public ridicule, degradation and humiliation.” He’s probably angling for a part in the sequel.
• R&B star Akon recently stirred controversy by performing a racy onstage scene with an underage girl during a concert. Now the artist is in trouble for hurling a 15-year-old kid off the stage. The kid allegedly tossed something near Akon, prompting the artist to have the crowd point him out. Akon then called the kid onto the stage, picked him up and threw him back into the audience. At least one concertgoer reported receiving a concussion when the kid landed on her. Akon can probably expect a call of support from R. Kelly.
Essay 4026
The creative team responsible for this ad should have worked a little longer into the night for a better solution.
Essay 4025
From The Chicago Sun-Times…
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Fear of growing Latino power drives bias
By SUE ONTIVEROS
Are you really surprised that Carpentersville’s stupid anti-immigration ordinance didn’t do anything but stir up emotions? I’m not.
That proposal would have given the village the right to take licenses from businesses that hired undocumented workers. It also would have allowed fines for landlords who rented to those same workers.
All that proposal did was get everyone’s shorts in a knot and gave a lot of people a chance to voice their hatred toward Latinos. Because, let’s face it, when people say they are against illegal immigration, they aren’t talking about the Irish nanny on the North Shore. The anti-immigration forces are solely interested in getting rid of Latino immigrants.
They are tired of all “those people” and want to send them all back where they came from.
I don’t doubt that Carpentersville Trustees Paul Humpfer and Judith Sigwalt didn’t recognize that vitriol and knew it could work to their advantage come re-election time. And you know what? It all went just fine for them. As Sigwalt was quoted in the Sun-Times this week, “I’ve got four more years on the board and so does Paul, so it’s not going to fade away.”
Of course not. Anytime they need to whip up emotion and support for anything, they’ll just trot out that proposal again and people will be lining up behind them. It’s a great political move for them personally. Don’t be surprised if one or both of them use this as their launching pad for higher office.
Not such a hot move for their town, unfortunately. I can’t wait to see what this does for property values there. And what business owner in his or her right mind would choose Carpentersville now? Any national chain would have to be nuts to locate there, knowing a law like that could wreak havoc for business. The village could come in any day and just yank the business license. What business wants to operate under such Gestapo tactics?
I suspect few businesses would pick a town that has alienated an entire ethnic group, either. Latinos, documented or not, have major buying power, and are touted repeatedly as being the fastest-growing minority in this country.
And that’s exactly what I think is at the heart of a lot of this anti-Latino immigrant rhetoric. Mainstream America worries that a growing Latino population could change the landscape, especially when it comes to political power. They’ve tried to turn the issue of immigration into a situation solely concerning Latinos.
The Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform knows that the undocumented workers at the center of the immigration battle aren’t only Latino. They are Polish, Asian, African and many more ethnicities. So on Sunday, the campaign is going to host Welcoming the Stranger, a procession beginning at 1:30 p.m. at Division and Ashland that will culminate in a trilingual mass at St. Stanislaus Kostka, 1300 N. Noble.
Those participating have been asked to wear ethnic clothing to demonstrate the diversity of the immigration issue. Postcards bearing the names of real families hurt by the unsettled immigration situation will be handed out. The cards also will include names of the Illinois delegates to Congress. Participants will be asked to pray for those families and to call members of Congress to asking them to support immigration reform.
Cardinal Francis George will address the crowd. In the Archdiocese of Chicago, more than 50 percent of the population is made up of recent immigrants, legal and otherwise, said Elena Segura, Midwest director of the campaign. This is the first time the cardinal will be in this type of liturgical setting concerning immigration reform. His support is critical, especially because immigration reform efforts seem to have fallen apart.
And when it comes to leading the flock, especially on this volatile issue, the cardinal makes no distinctions, Segura said. “He is the pastor of everyone, documented and undocumented.”
Essay 4024
From The New York Times…
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The Shame of the Cherokee Nation
Many members of Congress were rightly outraged by the Cherokee Nation’s decision earlier this year to revoke the tribal citizenship of about 2,800 descendants of slaves once owned by the tribe. The tribe’s leaders have since tried to avoid any punishment by restoring partial rights to some black members. Congress should disregard that ruse and move ahead with legislation that would force the Cherokee to comply with their treaty obligations and court decisions that guarantee black members full citizenship rights, including the right to vote and hold tribal office.
This dispute dates back to the 19th century, when Cherokee, Seminole and Creek signed treaties with the federal government that required them to accept their freedmen — many of whom had mixed black and Indian parentage — as full tribal members in return for recognition as sovereign nations. The tribes have repeatedly sought to abridge black Indian rights, but the treaties have been repeatedly upheld in federal court.
Black tribal rights were also upheld last year in the Cherokee tribe’s own supreme court. Then the tribe voted to expel black members. This could potentially deprive them of their cherished tribal identities, along with access to medical, housing and tribal benefits.
Representative Diane Watson, Democrat of California, is circulating a draft of a bill that would strip the Cherokee of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid, and suspend the tribe’s gaming rights, until it returns black members to full citizenship. The bill would also require the Department of the Interior — which has dragged its feet on this issue — to report to Congress on the status of freedmen’s rights in all tribes.
It is shameful that the Cherokee have to be pressured into restoring the rights of their own black citizens. But that clearly is what is needed.
[Click on the essay title above for more.]
Friday, June 08, 2007
Essay 4023
Friday evening news in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…
• The NAACP is cutting about 40 percent of its staff nationwide, and temporarily shutting down seven regional offices. Interim president and CEO Dennis Hayes said, “We are right-sizing our organization to meet the present circumstances.” Meanwhile, organizational racism and discrimination seem to be healthy and growing with each fiscal quarter.
• About two years ago, investigators found $90,000 in cash packed in the freezer of Congressman William Jefferson—not to be confused with Congressman John Conyers (see Essay 4019). Jefferson was indicted this week and charged with soliciting bribes, ironically prompting a federal judge to freeze the politician’s assets. Wonder how long before Jefferson’s on ice.
• Free at last, free at last. Looks like Paris Hilton didn’t last a week in jail, released to serve the remainder of her 45-day prison sentence under house arrest. Congressman William Jefferson better hook up with Hilton’s lawyers.
UPDATE: Oops. Typed too soon. A judge reversed the decision to let Paris Hilton serve out her sentence in the luxury of her rich person’s house. Seconds after Hilton’s lawyers pleaded for her home confinement, the judge declared, “The defendant is remanded to county jail to serve the remainder of her 45-day sentence. This order is forthwith.”
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Essay 4020
From The Chicago Tribune…
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Snitching on snitches has troubling root
By Clarence Page
WASHINGTON -- Can snitching be ethical? The question has troubled me ever since I was a little-bitty boy. I ratted out my neighborhood friend Andrew. He had brazenly filched a couple of cookies out of his mother’s cookie jar after she told us not to. When I snitched, Drew was ticked off at me. But his mom let him off the hook. She even gave each of us a cookie. Years later, Andrew would go to prison on much more serious charges. I would pursue a career in journalism. As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.
My childhood friend came to mind when I heard about a Web site called whosarat.com, which is devoted to snitching on snitchers. It posts names, photos and court documents of witnesses who cooperate with the government. The Internet, that great megaphone for the masses, now targets tattletales too.
Whosarat.com was launched by a guy named Sean Bucci in 2004, apparently out of personal rage. He had been indicted in federal court in Boston on marijuana charges based on information from an informant. At first the site was free, but it caught on. Now it charges $7.99 for a week of access or $89.99 for a lifetime membership and a free “Stop snitching” T-shirt.
In case you haven’t heard, “Stop snitching” T-shirts, DVDs, rap videos and Internet sites are all signs that the criminal underworld’s values have gone mainstream, transmitted like a lethal virus through the culture and multibillion-dollar commerce of hip-hop.
As the rap star Cameron “Cam’ron” Giles said in a recent CBS “60 Minutes” interview, cooperating with police violates his “code of ethics” and damages his street credibility. “It would definitely hurt my business,” he said. As a result, neither he nor his entourage of potential witnesses have cooperated with police investigating Giles’ 2005 shooting in Washington by a presumed carjacker.
The whosarat.com site claims to have identified more than 4,000 informers and 400 undercover agents, many from documents obtained from court files available on the Internet.
Of course, police and prosecutors would like to shut down the site, if that pesky 1st Amendment weren’t in the way. The Web site claims that it does not condone violence. Yet, its home page prominently displays mug shots and bios of its “rats of the week” in a way that all but paints targets on their faces.
According to a recent article about the site by New York Times reporter Adam Liptak, at least one witness in Philadelphia has been relocated and the FBI was asked to investigate after material from the Web site was mailed to neighbors and posted on cars and utility poles in his neighborhood.
The “Stop snitching” culture is bad, but it has grown in reaction to two other malignant problems.
One is the false testimony offered up by too many witnesses looking for lighter sentences and used much too eagerly by unquestioning prosecutors.
The other is a persistent pattern of bad relations between police and civilians in certain neighborhoods.
Arrests and prosecutions too often have been tainted by witnesses lured or coerced into lying in return for lighter sentences.
As stated in “The Snitch Culture,” a 2005 report by the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law, “Snitch testimony is the leading cause of wrongful convictions in capital cases.”
An American Bar Association report, “Achieving Justice: Freeing the Innocent, Convicting the Guilty,” last year similarly recommended requiring corroboration of jailhouse informant testimony with other evidence or testimony to avoid wrongful convictions.
Even in the small-town neighborhood where I grew up, residents would refuse to cooperate with police if they felt the police could not be trusted. Urban crime declined sharply in the 1990s after cities and towns got a lot smarter about “community policing” programs to improve police-civilian cooperation.
What happens next at whosarat.com depends on how smart police, judges and prosecutors are going to be about the risks it poses.
The Web site’s operators could be charged with witness tampering or aiding and abetting criminals, but it would be hard to make the charges stick. The information on whosarat.com is drawn from court documents posted elsewhere on the Internet. The information helps other defendants receive fair trials. Judges are better off deciding in each case whether witnesses’ identities can safely be posted anywhere on the Internet or whether they should be sealed legally from public access.
There may be hope for hip-hop too.
Giles issued a national apology after saying in his “60 Minutes” interview that he would not even snitch on a serial killer next door.
Even the world of gangster rap reeled at that one.
Essay 4019
Separated at Mirth in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…
• Congressman John Conyers is irked over FOX News displaying his picture for a story about Congressman William J. Jefferson. Conyers and Jefferson are both Black. Despite an on-air apology from the network, Conyers is not satisfied. “FOX News has a history of inappropriate on-air mistakes that are neither fair, nor balanced,” said Conyers. “This type of disrespect for people of color should no longer be tolerated. I am personally offended by the network’s complete disregard for accuracy in reporting and lackluster on-air apology.” Fox is blaming the mistake on a 22-year-old production assistant who apparently grabbed the wrong videotape. The network must have a file labeled “Black Politicians.”
• The five Illinois high school students reprimanded for loud cheering at the graduation ceremony will get their diplomas after all (see Essay 4002). “It is time for the good of the community, the school district, the families and the students involved to move on,” said Superintendent Gene Denisar. One student expressed happiness over the decision but added, “If they would have apologized, it would have been better.” She’ll probably wind up getting Congressman William J. Jefferson’s diploma.
• The descendants of slaves owned by President James Madison have planned a gathering for this weekend. It’s part of a commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. There’s a Jefferson joke in here somewhere.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Essay 4016
The following appeared in numerous sources nationwide. These kinds of studies always seem like the work of hustlers—does any Black advertising agency not have a copyrighted version of this information?
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URBAN HUSTLERS EMERGE AS NEW SOUGHT AFTER TARGET; STUDY
Marketers looking to make a big splash with today’s urban consumer need to better understand what drives the group. And for this 20 million person segment that includes status, fame and fortune, according to a new study by Alloy Media + Marketing. Today’s urban consumers have shed their past geographic, inner city roots to include a whole new profile, which Alloy has coined “Urban Hustlers.” Some 39% of these consumers are white and another 39% live in suburban areas. The 18-to 34-year-old segment is defined as trendsetters who are largely driven by the need to succeed.
“They are not content,” said Tru Pettigrew, president of the Alloy Access, a division of Alloy Media + Marketing. “They are not satisfied. There is a constant need to get to the next level.”
The group, rooted in hip-hop and street culture, is really defined more by psychographic standards than by their demographics. The segment “transcends race, ethnicity and geography,” Pettigrew said. “The mentality is their starting point is irrelevant.”
Urban Hustlers have a particular affinity for a range of products, including cars, high-end apparel and shoes, entertainment, cell phones and technology. They place a high premium on fashion and lifestyle and frequently use social networking sites to find and share information. And with an estimated $90 billion in spending power, that’s an important point for marketers.
“We need to understand what motivates them, their dreams and passions so you can craft your message to appeal to that mindset,” Pettigrew said. “This is a group that is willing to spend lot of money to help enhance their image or help them achieve image they are looking for.”
According to the study, Urban Hustlers spend 45% more on clothing, accessories and shoes than non-urban consumers, with annual spending reaching $17.4 billion. These consumers drop an average of $100 more than the general market, with overall discretionary spending reaching $383 each month.
And when it comes to leisure interests, the group goes all out. They drop $9 billion a year on recreational activities, the study found. “They are spending money using the luxury lifestyle to project an image for how they want people to receive them,” Pettigrew said. Respondents identified Bill Gates (22%) as the person they most admire over celebrities including P Diddy, Jennifer Lopez and Oprah Winfrey, the survey found. Alloy surveyed 1,386 people ages 12 to 34 for the study.
Essay 4014
Satisfaction not guaranteed with a MultiCultClassics Monologue…
• The irate judge who filed a $67 million lawsuit against a dry cleaners that lost his trousers (see Essay 2080) has lowered his demand to only $54 million. The judge claims the service posted signs stating “Satisfaction Guaranteed” and “Same Day Service.” Next time, the cleaners will have to add a disclaimer reading, “Void when dealing with crazy-ass judges.”
• Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe is reluctant to apologize for the state’s role in slavery. Beebe said, “I think Arkansas probably has as good a feel for folks working together as any Southern state or any other state, so I think we’ve moved past that.” However, Beebe is probably open to offering an apology for former Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton.
Essay 4012
What do you bring to the party? That’s a question someone should ask the creative team responsible for this lame ad.
[Click on the essay title above to view the accompanying website.]
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Essay 4011
Extended courtships in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…
• Happy anniversary to R. Kelly, who was indicted on 21 counts of child pornography exactly five years ago today. A trial date has still not been set. “It’s ridiculous that it has taken five years to get to trial,” said New England School of Law Professor Wendy Murphy. “There’s no excuse for it. But this is a tried-and-true tactic when it comes to sex-crimes cases: ‘victory by delay.’ Witnesses end up moving away. They die. You tend to see a lot of delays for defendants who are wealthy. You don’t tend to see a lot of delays when the defendant is a poor kid from the inner city.” Hey, keep poor kids from the inner city away from R. Kelly.
• The Los Angeles firefighter who was fed dog food by coworkers (see Essay 1451) may add a retaliation claim to his racial harassment lawsuit, thanks to a judge’s ruling on Monday. Wonder if the firefighter will wait in the doghouse as long as R. Kelly.
Essay 4008
Thanks to Carmen Van Kerckhove of Racialicious.com for forwarding the press release below. A brief MultiCultClassics response immediately follows…
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PROMINENT ORGANIZATIONS JOIN FORCES TO CREATE HISTORIC
DIVERSITY INITIATIVES
The AdColor Industry Coalition Announces the Inaugural AdColor Awards to Recognize Outstanding Achievements of Diverse Professionals in the Advertising, Marketing and Media Industries
(New York, NY) June 4, 2007 — Today, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), the American Advertising Federation (AAF), The ADVERTISING Club of New York (AD CLUB NY), and Arnold Worldwide announced that they have joined forces to form The AdColor Industry Coalition. ADCOLOR™ is a first of its kind cross-industry collaboration on the issue of diversity. The Coalition hopes to combine the energies of the marketing, media and advertising communities to stimulate ideas, discussion and solutions to advance diversity goals.
The Coalition’s first effort will be The AdColor Awards, a program that will honor outstanding diverse professionals at the junior, mid and senior levels in each segment of the advertising, marketing and media industries. The awards show will take place at the ANA Multicultural Marketing Conference on November 4, 2007 in Miami, Florida. Interested applicants or those who want to nominate candidates can download nomination forms at www.adcolor.org. The deadline for nominations is August 1, 2007.
“We are thrilled to host The AdColor Awards,” said founding Coalition member Bob Liodice, president and CEO of the ANA. “We look forward to celebrating the accomplishments of Rising Stars, Innovators, Change Agents and Legends, as well as learning from their experiences so that we can replicate their path to success for future generations.”
Currently, Yahoo!, Advertising Age and Arnold have signed on as presenting sponsors of the program. Additional pro bono support is being provided by DraftFCB, Fox Networks Group, McCann Erickson, Publicis New York, Rokkan, Reed Smith, and The Kaplan Thaler Group.
About ADCOLOR™
ADCOLOR™ was established in 2005 to promote increased diversity in the advertising, marketing and media industries, as well as to inspire current and future communications professionals of color by celebrating the accomplishments of diverse role models and industry leaders. Go to www.adcolor.org for more information.
About The AdColor Industry Coalition
The AdColor Industry Coalition is a historic collaboration between The ADVERTISING Club of New York (AD CLUB NY), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) and Arnold Worldwide. These organizations and other companies are committed to the success of the AdColor Industry Initiative.
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Well, it’s certainly historic for organizations that have consistently failed in their diversity initiatives to suddenly team up to tackle the issues. Call it a case of the colorblind leading the colorblind.
And what better way to herald the new day than with another minority awards show? It’s the perfect supplement to the Mosaic Awards and other multicultural tributes that continue to segregate the industry. Funny how this innovative salute to cultural harmony doesn’t include any White categories. Or even disabled and GLBT silos. Plus, let’s not forget the growing segment of aging adfolks. Perhaps it’s time to distribute trophies to the chronic offenders fueling discrimination and exclusivity. Oh wait, that’s the role of New York City’s Commission on Human Rights.
The AdColor choir features a few rising stars, notably Arnold Worldwide’s Tiffany R. Warren. Ms. Warren was listed in Advertising Age’s Women To Watch 2007, and she allegedly calls herself a “diversity Pollyanna.” Hey, she’s clearly found a fitting forum to test the authenticity of that title.
[Click on the essay title above to learn more about AdColor.]
Monday, June 04, 2007
Essay 4006
From The Washington Post…
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Americans’ Views on Illegal Immigrants Are Complex and Conflicted, Poll Shows
Some Back Degree Of Legalization but Not Full Citizenship
By N.C. Aizenman and Pamela Constable
Washington Post Staff Writers
Jason Woodward, 31, a financial analyst in Clarksville, Tenn., says that putting illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship would be issuing a “free pass for lawbreakers” but that an attempt to deport 12 million of them would be “wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.”
Janet McIntee, 76, a retiree in Geauga, Ohio, supports a Senate plan that would lead to citizenship, but she has no sympathy for illegal immigrants.
“We have got to get ahold of who these people are and do something to make them legal,” McIntee said.
Joshua Grimes, 28, an accountant in Saginaw, Mich., thinks illegal immigrants should pay a penalty for violating the law but be allowed to remain.
“There needs to be some kind of system put in place so they can become legal,” Grimes said.
A new Washington Post-ABC poll and follow-up interviews found that Americans remain divided and uncertain about how best to deal with the estimated 12 million people living illegally in the United States.
The immigration debate in the past year has inspired heated rhetoric on talk radio and drawn hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets, but follow-up interviews with participants in the poll revealed that many Americans’ views are far more nuanced and complex.
More than half of those surveyed said illegal immigrants hurt the country more than help it, an opinion voiced by seven in 10 Republicans and about half of Democrats.
A slim majority believe in creating a pathway to citizenship, with younger people and Democrats far more open to the idea than Republicans and those over 55.
The number in favor of a guest worker program is almost identical -- 53 percent -- but on this issue, almost as many Republicans as Democrats back the concept. Those in the Western part of the nation are most supportive of it (65 percent), as are those in urban areas.
But the partisan divide resurfaced when people were asked what factors should be weighed the most in admitting immigrants. Democrats tended to say that reuniting immigrant families should be given priority, while Republicans were more likely to say that the skills of the immigrant should be paramount. The survey also found that those who oppose a Senate legalization proposal give a much higher priority to the issue of immigration than those who favor it in some form.
[Click on the essay title above to read the full story.]
Essay 4003
From The Chicago Sun-Times…
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Immigration hurts blacks
BY MONROE ANDERSON
President Bush scolded some members of his base for, of all things, fear-mongering on illegal immigration. “If you want to scare the American people, what you say is the bill’s an amnesty bill,” chided the Fear Monger-In-Chief, the man who would have us believe there could soon be a heaven-bent Muslim terrorist hiding under every bed and in every closet in America. “That’s empty political rhetoric trying to frighten our citizens.'”
The president and his acolytes have turned empty political rhetoric into a pop art. That’s why we had to stay the course rather than cut and run. It’s also why we’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here, and why we needed a troop surge to get the job done. Even as the president was tongue-lashing some party demagogues for not embracing the Senate compromise bill that would back his push to give virtual amnesty to the 12 million or so illegal immigrants who’ve successfully stolen across U.S. borders, he fell into his habit of using empty political rhetoric: “Amnesty is forgiveness for being here without any penalties,” the president said last week in southern Georgia at a training center for government security officials. “This bill is not an amnesty bill.”
The immigration reform bill is alarmingly reminiscent of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which was sold as the solution to the growing immigration problem. The bill 21 years ago gave amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants. The compromise bill for reform now being debated in the Senate would give amnesty to 12 million -- for a price. Those who came here before Jan. 1, 2007, must pay $5,000 in fines and apply for legal status in a process that requires them to return to their home country. That solution is so, so rich and rewarding -- for the rich. Illegal immigration allows the rich to get cheaper and cheaper goods and services and the black working class and poor to get hustled and trickled-down on.
And worse, according to a revised report released last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Using data from the 1960-2000 U.S. Census reports, researchers discovered “a strong correlation between immigration, black wages, black employment rates, and black incarceration rates.”
“This is basic supply and demand,” Jeffrey Grogger told me. Increase the number of low-skilled workers, and wages fall and unemployment increases for black workers. The employment rate of black high school dropouts fell 30 percentage points, to 42.1 percent from 72.1 percent between 1980 and 2000, the study reported. In that same period, an alarming number of unskilled black men were being put behind bars. Although immigration isn’t the only factor, said Grogger, a University of Chicago professor who helped write the report, it “accounts for 10 percent of the incarceration rate.”
In 1980, just 1.3 percent of black high school dropouts were in jail or prison. By 2000, it had skyrocketed to 25.1 percent. Even black men with a high school diploma were more likely to end up being locked up. Their incarceration rates increased to 9.8 percent from 0.5 percent during the same time period. The study reports another alarming statistic for that period. Much of the other 90 percent of the soaring incarceration rate for unskilled black men, Grogger suggested, can be attributed to the war on drugs in general and the crack cocaine epidemic in particular. With those jobs in the inner cities that didn’t go to immigrants being outsourced to the suburbs and Third World countries, uneducated, low-skilled black men turned to drugs and guns as their principal commerce. States enacted tougher sentencing laws, police stepped up enforcement of those laws and existing prisons became overpopulated with African-American men.
Black joblessness is compounded by employers who believe there is a stronger work ethnic among immigrants. During the Joint Economic Hearing on Addressing the Problem of African-American Male Unemployment in March, Sen. Charles Schumer noted that black men with no criminal records were no more likely to find work than white men with criminal records.
Now that’s what I call frightening.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Essay 4002
Please refrain from applauding during this MultiCultClassics Monologue…
• In Galesburg, Illinois, five high school students were denied their diplomas because friends and relatives cheered too loudly at the graduation ceremony. Hoping to control rowdiness and keep the event solemn, school officials made students and attendees sign documents promising to remain quiet. But the five students and their friends and families apparently violated the agreements. There are questions of bias, as four of the students are Black and one is Latino. Some parents contend cheers for White students failed to result in denying diplomas. “Race had absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever,” said the school’s principal. “It is the amount of disruption at the time of the incident.” Guess we can look forward to disruption after the incident too.
• An auction of Michael Jackson paraphernalia netted $1 million, much to the dismay of Jackson, who sought to stop the sale. The organizers plan to hold another auction and said, “We still have tens of thousands of additional smaller items that we think will be exciting.” Sounds like a thriller event.
• Robin Givens revealed that ex-hubby Mike Tyson raped her and threatened to commit suicide 48 hours before being interviewed by Barbara Walters in 1988. Of course, the revelation is part of Givens’ promotion of her new autobiography. Please refrain from wildly stampeding to your local bookseller to check it out.
Essay 4001
The campaign tagline reads: An American Revolution. But the use of hip-hop stars to hawk cars is hardly revolutionary.
Essay 4000
From The Chicago Sun-Times…
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CEO vs. slaves
BY BARBARA EHRENREICH
Recent findings shed new light on the increasingly unequal terrain of American society. Starting at the top executive level: You may have thought, as I did, that the guys in the C-suites operated as a team -- or, depending on your point of view, a pack or gang -- each getting his fair share of the take. But no, the rising tide in executive pay does not lift all yachts equally. The latest pay gap to worry about is the one between the CEO and his -- or very rarely her -- third in command.
According to a just-reported study by Carola Frydman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Raven E. Saks at the Federal Reserve, 30 to 40 years ago, the CEOs of major companies earned 80 percent more, on average, than the third-highest-paid executives. By the early part of the 21st century, however, the gap between CEO and the third in command had ballooned up to 260 percent.
Labor’s new bottom
Now take a look at what’s happening at the very bottom of the economic spectrum, where you might have pictured low-wage workers trudging between food banks or mendicants dwelling in cardboard boxes. It turns out, though, that the bottom is a lot lower than that.
On May 16, a millionaire couple in a woodsy Long Island suburb was charged with keeping two Indonesian domestics as slaves for five years, during which the women were paid $100 a month, fed very little, forced to sleep on mats on the floor, and subjected to beatings, cigarette burns and other torments.
This is hardly an isolated case (see my book, Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy, co-edited with Arlie Hochschild.) If the new “top” involves pay in the tens or hundreds of millions, a private jet and a few acres of Nantucket, the new bottom is slavery.
Some of America’s slaves are captive domestics, like the Indonesian women in Long Island. Others are factory workers, and at least 10,000 are sex slaves lured from their home country to American brothels by promises of respectable jobs. CEOs and slaves: these are the extreme ends of American class polarization.
Polarized division of labor
But a parallel kind of splitting is going in many of the professions. Top-ranked college professors, for example, enjoy salaries of several hundred thousand a year, often augmented by consulting fees and earnings from their patents or biotech companies. At the other end of the professoriate, you have adjunct teachers toiling away for about $5,000 a semester or less, with no benefits or chance of tenure. There was a story a few years ago about an adjunct who commuted to his classes from a homeless shelter in Manhattan, and adjuncts who moonlight as waitresses or cleaning ladies are legion.
Similarly, the legal profession, which is topped by law firm partners billing hundred of dollars an hour, now has a new proletariat of temp lawyers working for $19 to $25 an hour in sweatshop conditions. On sites such as temporaryattorney.blogspot.com, temp lawyers report working 12 hours a day, six days a week, in crowded basements with inadequate sanitary facilities. According to an article in American Lawyer, a legal temp at a major New York firm reports being “corralled in a windowless basement room littered with dead cockroaches,” where six out of seven exits were blocked.
‘Dark energy’ pulls us apart
Contemplating the violent and increasing polarization of American society, one cannot help but think of “dark energy,” the mysterious force that is propelling the galaxies apart from each other at a speed far greater than can be accounted for by the energy of the original big bang. Cosmic bodies seem to be repelling each other, much as a CEO must look down at his CFO, COO, etc. and think, “They’re getting too close. I’ve got to make more, more, more!”
The difference is that the galaxies don’t need each other and are free to go their separate ways nonchalantly. But the CEO presumably depends on his fellow executives, just as the star professor relies on adjuncts to do his or her teaching and the law firm partner is enriched by the sweated labor of legal temps. For all we know, some of those CEOs go home to sip their single malts in mahogany walled dens that have been cleaned by domestic slaves.
Why is it so hard for the people at the top to graciously acknowledge their dependency on the labor of others? We need some sort of gravitational force to counter the explosive distancing brought about by greed -- before our economy imitates the universe and blows itself to smithereens.
[Barbara Ehrenreich’s most recent book is Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream.]
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Essay 3098
From The Chicago Sun-Times…
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Biggest sellouts are blacks who destroy their communities
BY JEREMY LEVITT
How do we as African Americans define selling out? Is it dating outside of our race? Is it the shuck-and-jive entertainers? Is it the black Republican? Is it the overly ambitious, material-driven civil rights activist? Or, is it the well-spoken and studious black child?
I believe we need a new paradigm of selling out. Today’s sellouts are blacks who perpetuate violence and destruction in the black community and participate in the globalization of negative stereotypes and images of African Americans.
Not long ago, I was eating lunch at a restaurant near downtown Chicago, and a young black man walked in with a scantily dressed white woman on his arm. They were both in their early 20s and dressed the part. I saw a few “sisters” sigh as they entered. Yes, the brother -- smiley gold teeth and all -- looked real proud to have “Becky,” and she seemed even prouder to be on a safari with her African guide. They sat down near me and spoke very loudly, apparently wanting all to hear. I overheard a young black woman say, “It’s bad enough that he is a sellout, but do they have to be so ignorant, too?” I gave her a nod of approval.
Then, as I gazed at the local newspaper, I read an interesting story about hip-hop and its alleged misogynistic and materialistic culture. This caused me to ask: What is selling out? According to Wikipedia, it refers to “compromising one’s integrity, morality and principles in exchange for money, success or other personal gain. It is commonly associated with attempts to increase mass appeal or acceptability to mainstream society. A person who does this is labeled a sellout. Selling out may be seen as gaining success at the cost of credibility.” This is a pretty good definition. In the context of race relations, sellouts compromise racial solidarity and group identity and integrity for perceived societal acceptance, adventure or mere escape by dating outside of their race or ethnic genre. To many, love gives no amnesty to selling out.
However, given the poor state of black America, I believe we should redefine if not expand the term. African Americans rank at the bottom of nearly every social, political, economic and health indicator in the country. We are among America’s poorest, financially in debt and illiterate. Proportionate to the population, we comprise the single largest racial group in prison and are disproportionately the unhealthiest.
Based on this reality, perhaps we need to redefine selling out to castigate blacks who enable this condition. I mean blacks who are destroying our communities: the real terrorists. I mean those who murder, rape and molest, sell drugs, and gang-bang; those who keep our communities looking pillaged. I mean blacks who perpetuate and celebrate violent and destructive culture. I mean blacks who reinforce the global pathology of violence against black women. I mean black entertainers and athletes who sell out to corporate America and consciously pimp a materialistic, misogynistic and violent culture to our youth. I mean black media that are raising a generation of young dummies on a diet of racially disparaging music and sleazy reality television.
Today’s sellouts are individuals who wreak havoc in the black community through various forms of violence, including degrading imagery, and those black-owned institutions and corporations that exploit the consumer strength of African Americans by overfeeding us with niggardly products.
It’s time to quit blaming others; to call a spade a spade, not a role model.
[Jeremy Levitt is a professor of law at Florida International University and distinguished scholar at Northern Illinois University College of Law.]
Friday, June 01, 2007
Essay 3097
Dude, you’re getting a MultiCultClassics Monologue…
• Dell Inc. announced plans to lay off 8,000 employees. “While reductions in head count are always difficult for a company, we know these actions are critical to our ability to deliver unprecedented value to our customers now and in the future,” said Michael Dell. Dude, you’re getting a pink slip.
• Circuit City plans to cut about 850 jobs, adding to the 3,400 fired in March. The City population is now down to about 43,000 citizens.
• Forget peanut butter and jelly. Folks are concerned over peanut butter and salmonella. Since August, over 200 people got sick by peanut butter tainted with salmonella, leading to the Peter Pan brand being pulled from shelves. Peter Pan likes to sing, “I won’t grow up.” But he may make you throw up.
• The controversial Camel No. 9 (see Essay 2087) has inspired protests against publications like Vogue magazine. “If you draw income from the advertisement of tobacco,” stated one letter writer, “you are as guilty as big tobacco companies in selling the health and future of so many of our youth in order to pad your bank accounts.” Ellen Vargyas of the American Legacy Foundation added, “Research out there shows that young people are susceptible to advertising. I wish the publications themselves would look hard at what they’re doing. Readers look to them to see what’s cool and what’s trendy—and they see cigarettes.” Or photo spreads of supermodels smoking cigarettes.
Essay 3094
From The New York Times…
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Telling India’s Modern Women They Have Power, Even Over Their Skin Tone
By HEATHER TIMMONS
NEW DELHI — The modern Indian woman is independent, in charge — and does not have to live with her dark skin.
That is the message from a growing number of global cosmetics and skin care companies, which are expanding their product lines and advertising budgets in India to capitalize on growth in women’s disposable income. A common thread involves creams and soaps that are said to lighten skin tone. Often they are peddled with a “power” message about taking charge or getting ahead.
Avon, L’Oréal, Ponds, Garnier, the Body Shop and Jolen are selling lightening products and all of them face stiff competition from a local giant, Fair and Lovely, a Unilever product that has dominated the market for decades.
Fair and Lovely, with packaging that shows a dark-skinned unhappy woman morphing into a light-skinned smiling one, once focused its advertising on the problems a dark-skinned woman might face finding romance. In a sign of the times, the company’s ads now show lighter skin conferring a different advantage: helping a woman land a job normally held by men, like announcer at cricket matches. “Fair and Lovely: The Power of Beauty,” is the tagline on the company’s newest ad.
Not surprisingly, the rush to sell skin-lightening products has drawn some criticism, with people saying that the products are at best unsavory and that they reinforce dangerous prejudices.
When Unilever markets Fair and Lovely, it “doesn’t cause bias,” but it does make use of it, said Aneel G. Karnani, a professor with the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan who earned a business degree in India.
Global cosmetics companies — which also sell skin-lightening products throughout Asia and in the United States, where they are marketed as spot or blemish removers — argue that they are just giving Indian women what they want.
Taking offense at the products is “a very Western way of looking at the world,” said Ashok Venkatramani, who is in charge of the skin care category at Unilever’s Indian unit, Hindustan Lever. “The definition of beauty in the Western world is linked to anti-aging,” he said. “In Asia, it’s all about being two shades lighter.”
Sales of Fair and Lovely have been growing 15 to 20 percent year over year, Mr. Venkatramani said.
Skin-lightening products are by far the most popular product in India’s fast-growing skin care market, so manufacturers say they ignore them at their peril. The $318 million market for skin care has grown by 42.7 percent since 2001, says Euromonitor International, a research firm.
“Half of the skin care market in India is fairness creams,” said Didier Villanueva, country manager for L’Oréal India, and 60 to 65 percent of Indian women use these products daily. L’Oréal entered this specific market four years ago with Garnier and L’Oréal products, but so far has a small market share, he said.
The idea of “glowing fairness” has nothing to do with colonialism, or idealization of European looks, Mr. Villanueva said. “It’s as old as India,” he said, and “deeply rooted in the culture.”
There’s no denying that the notion of “fairness,” as light skin is known in India, is heavily ingrained in the culture. Nearly all of Bollywood’s top actresses have quite pale skin, despite the range of skin tones in India’s population of more than a billion people.
Lightening products can damage the skin if they are overused, dermatologists say, particularly if they contain hydroquinone. The compound reduces melanin but can leave permanent dark spots in high doses.
Deeply rooted ideas about women’s roles are slowly shifting in India. The percentage of women married before the age of 19, for example, has dropped sharply. Advertising and marketing gurus are aiming at young, urban Indian women, who are earning their own money and are potential customers for a host of products including name-brand clothes, cosmetics and new cars.
India is hardly alone in its pursuit of “fairness.” Korea, Japan and China are big markets for skin-whitening products. And the United States is not exempt. Ebony magazine ran similar ads relating to full-face “skin brightening” or “skin whitening” creams aiming at African-American consumers through the 1950s and 1960s, said Jeanine Collins, communications director for Ebony. Those ads changed their message during the 1970s and 1980s to talk about removing spots or blemishes, she said.
In India, advertisements for L’Oréal-branded products and the company’s Garnier line generally feature a pale model, and focus on the ingredients in the product, using take-action language like “YES to fairer and younger looking skin” or “Against inside cell damages.”
L’Oréal’s super-high-end Vichy line is more direct: the main advertising image in Asia shows a woman unzipping her blemished, darker face to reveal a light, even-toned one within.
“We have never had any complaints about the ad’s social implications,” said Nitin Mehta, India general manager of the active cosmetics division of L’Oréal, which makes Vichy products.
Unilever’s Fair and Lovely brand has drawn particular scrutiny because of its market dominance, its ads and the parent company’s image. Unilever also makes Dove products, whose “Real Beauty” campaign encourages women in the United States and Europe to embrace the way they look. This month, Unilever said it would ban super-skinny models from ads.
The All India Democratic Women’s Association has been monitoring advertisements since the 1990s and gets particularly angry with ads that convey the message “if she is not fair in color, she won’t get married or won’t get promoted,” said Manjeet Rathee, a spokeswoman for the association’s media group. The current crop of television ads for fairness creams are “not as demeaning” as ones in the past, she said.
In a twist that makes it difficult for critics to accuse Unilever of stoking just women’s insecurities, the company has begun to advertise a Fair and Lovely product for men.
Essay 3093
“My work improves our nation’s security…” This work doesn’t improve the nation’s diversity advertising.
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