Intel Apologizes for “Insensitive and Insulting” Ad
Have a look at this ad from Intel.
I followed some of the discussions in the blog community and tried hard to believe this is not racist. I can’t.
Responses claiming this is not racist:
- If you think this is racist, you are a racist because you are not color blind.
- There are no women in the ad; is this sexist?
- Those blacks are not bowing to the white guy; they’re in the ready position in a sprint race
- This is just an advertisement; why read anything into it?
- The black athletes represents performance. The fastest sprinters are almost always black.
- It’s not intentionally racist, just poor taste.
- Political Correctness sucks.
- If those athletes were all white, wouldn’t it be more racist?
- Would it still be racist if it were an Asian guy being the boss instead?
- Not racist at all; just stereotypical.
Some interesting arguments and questions there. Let’s go through them one by one.
1. If we were living in a perfect world where words like “black/African”, “brown/yellow/Asian”, or “white/Caucasian” were just descriptive, neutral adjectives like “broad-shouldered”, “straight-haired” or “shaven” then yes, we should be “colorblind” and not read anything into it. For sure, words almost always carry to some degree connotations and associations based on your experience, but as far as I know, no one has ever been persecuted, murdered and enslaved for the broadness of their shoulders or the curliness of their hair. Until that perfect world dawns upon us, you can’t just turn a blind eye to the deliberate use of colors and its subliminal messages.
2. There’s no God in the ad; that doesn’t make it atheist either.
3. I’m sure that’s what Intel would say. What kind of sprint race takes place in an office, where six identical clones get ready to run facing each other? Are they supposed to charge into each other? Shouldn’t the white IT man be getting out of their way? The Nazis didn’t send anyone to the gas chamber either; they only sent them to take a shower.
4. In the world of advertising, nothing is ever just something.
5. Are they supposed to symbolize the CPUs? Facial features obscured, deferential, with no individual identifies, they certainly make a reliable and powerful machine that would make every white man that owns it very happy.
6. If Intel hadn’t predicted the repercussions of their ad, they’d be lying. The fact that this went into print at all shows they’ve probably carefully calculated everything, from the shock to the apologies. Surely we can’t hold them responsible when they’ve apologized?
7. Yeah, I know; political incorrectness is just, like, so cool and, like, so in fashion.
8. For some time, the white media has been sensitized to always cast a a couple of minorities, and most of the time, assign them stereotypical roles. Having deliberately ostracized Asians from the mass media, the people love to see us come out as William Hungs or Geishas. No representation is definitely better than distorted representation.
9. Why would that be any less racist? Less impact and backlash maybe, but still racist.
10. Isn’t racism always preluded by stereotypes?
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