Audi television commercial says we are all not the same

Ah the holiday season. It’s a time of credit card debt, long lines at shopping malls and department stores, and occasionally a truly inspired television commercial. I recall somewhere in the back of my mind a time around now that would be called the Thanksgiving and then Christmas Holidays and family gatherings, but that’s a bit fuzzy and a long time ago. And it’s not my point.

The television commercials promoting the purchases you need to make to ensure the happiness of your loved ones are interesting. Often television can provide dramatic insight to the real mood and thoughts of the nation. This is never more true than during a holiday, or the Super Bowl. And Audi really made a statement early into the season.

Now I have to admit that I did not notice the problem in this commercial the first time I saw it. It was a friend of mine who saw it on Friday and asked if I had noticed something glaring in the commercial. I finally found a copy of it and I wonder if you will see the problem.



You only need to pay attention to the details of the commercial to get the message. It’s subtle and visual, and only on for 2 seconds.

Need help? I did at first too. Look at the road that each guy gets. It’s not the design of the road, it’s the size of it. And that says a lot, especially when each home is considered too.

The Black couple have a piece of the road, a very small piece. They have a decent if not plainly decorated home. There is no extravagance, and their clothes are neither new nor impressive.

The next couple is White. They have a far bigger piece of road. The style the room is decorated in seems to imply an apartment while the art, furniture, lamps, and books imply white-collar professionals. That means the apartment is a condo. And this implies a higher income than the Black couple.

The last couple are also White (or at least the man is, and the woman could be argued to have some Latina traits though I don’t see it). They have a huge home, and an equally large section of road.

I realize that Audi included middle-class African Americans in their commercial. I know they are projecting an image of success for them as well. And obviously they want African American customers. But that’s just a secondary thought. They really are saying that they want White customers. And that they value White customers over Black ones.

Some might say I am overly critical of the television commercial. I think not, because when you have only 30 seconds to make a statement everything that is seen is part of your message. There are teams of people making more than I do each, pouring over every detail in this commercial and then another group of even better paid people that approve the idea and pitch it to Audi. And then Audi’s really well paid people go over it all before it gets a greenlight.

Audi doesn’t care if Billy Joe working at the gas station likes the commercial. They don’t care if Santiago working at the printing company watched the commercial. They want people with money and tons of it. And that is reflected in the commercial.

What the commercial really says is if you are Black and can put some money together you might be able to own an Audi. If you are a yuppie in the city you can own their car, and if you relax at the country club you are a member of on the weekend and live in the suburbs you need to own this car. Because it’s the White guy with the big house that gets the car in the end.

Now I will say again that I didn’t pay attention to this commercial the first time I saw it. But I have watched it since a few times. And I’m happy that Audi has joined the growing number of companies targeting African Americans for their products. It’s nice to see that at least commercials are willing to acknowledge the existence of, and buying power controlled by, African Americans. They are ahead of television programming that continues to emphasize a view of the world more akin to 1960 than 2000.

But that does not mean I enjoy the message they are sending out. It’s not as bad as the insulting commercials that McDonald’s puts out that are obvious in their targeting of African Americans via stereotypes in the media. But the message is not as positive as it could have been either. Simply having all the pieces of the road the same size (hell they could have used the same piece for all it mattered) would have been enough. A simple statement that all the customers that could afford an Audi are equal in their eyes, and welcome. But that isn’t what they believe according to their commercial.

Again, commercials are the window to the thoughts in the back of the collective minds of the nation. It’s the backhanded compliment (like when Colin Powell and President Obama are called clean and articulate), or the obliviousness of using terms based on racial segregation and Jim Crow that thankfully stopped being used 25 years ago (Lindsey Lohan ring a bell?).

I’m not saying that every commercial has to include African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Native Indians (who you really never see at all) and every other group in America. But I am saying that when the majority of commercials exclude all these groups, and when the small portion that do show us imply imperfections and secondary status, I speak on it. It means to me that America still has a long way to go. That it’s not just people in Pennsylvania or West Virginia that have problems. That the world continues to feed upon the negative images our media provides, diminishing the nation by diminishing parts of our nation.

Do I like the Audi? Yes I do. Would I buy one after seeing this commercial? I might. But what I would rather see are commercials for whatever product that includes people just like me, in exactly the same manner as they target anyone else. Because I have the same Rights, money, and dammit I have earned it.

The March for Megan Williams on Saturday - 10.26.2007.1

I want to remind everyone that tomorrow there will be a march in Charleston West Virginia on behalf of Ms. Megan Williams. The march is planned to start at 12 noon.

The purpose of the march is to draw national attention. This crime has been largely ignored to this point, on the horrendous and obvious hate crime that was committed there. 6 Whites (men and women) kidnapped and tortured Ms. Williams for over a week. The major news media has turned a blind eye to this event, and it cannot be allowed.

Go here to be able to see a video of Ms. Williams describing what she had to endure. http://video.ap.org/v/Legacy.aspx?g=97224454-cfa0-4fda-8b5f-a1dc25ebce27&f=wvchg&fg=email&partner=en-ap
After hearing that, realize that this is still only being covered in local news and that information is difficult to receive. Then think of how much attention this would garner if only half of this was done to a White woman by Blacks.

You can see details for this march at http://www.blacklawyersforjustice.org/ . I strongly suggest visiting this site for details on the march. You can find multiple posts concerning this case by clicking Megan Williams at the bottom of this post.

In addition you may want to consider a donation to the fund for Ms. Williams to help her cover her medical and legal bills. Were it your child you’d want them to be returned to health, and see their attackers punished to the full extent of the law.

We cannot let acts like this get pushed to the wayside. If the major media can discuss Ellen Degeneres’ dog for 2 days, they certainly can discuss this case. If they can waste my time, and kill my brain cells, discussing the endless saga of Britney Spears and her multiple acts of absolute idiocy, then how dare they not discuss this case.

They must. We must remind the media and the legal system that no matter the everyday bias, there is a line and this crossed it. Justice must be for all if it is to be for anyone.

March for Megan Williams - 10.18.2007.3

As I have previously stated I am in the process of following up information on the status of Ms. Megan Williams and the case against the 6 people that have been arrested for viciously kidnapping, torturing, and abusing her.

Part of my continuing effort has led me to contact the office of Mr. Malik Shabazz. Mr. Shabazz is the lawyer for the Williams family.

While I am continuing to gather details, I can inform you that there is a march planned for November 3rd, at 12 noon, at First Baptist Church. The address is 423 Shrewsbury St Charleston, West Virginia 25301.

The march will lead to the State Capitol Building.

This march has been organized by Black Lawyers For Justice, and the Support Committee for Megan Williams.

You can contact Black Lawyers For Justice for further details at 202-397-4577

I will have further information shortly.

Compare White and Black news coverage Part 2 - 9.25.2007.2

Continued from Compare White and Black news coverage Part 1...

Beyond the fact that the Jena 6 just got a lot of coverage over the inequality and unfairness of the punishment, there is no difference on the face of it. Now what if it’s proven the police that the White teenager did something to provoke this, like beating on a younger Black kid or selling drugs to someone? Will the media still follow this case? Will they still feature the video tape? What if this was an arranged fight that was meant to go on YouTube? Will the media still be implying the boy’s innocence?

Let’s go to an even bigger issue. In West Virginia there were 6 Whites that tortured, sexually abused and violated in the worst ways, a Black woman. Ms. Megan Williams had boiling water poured on her, stabbed, and raped. This lasted for DAYS. Sadly for the news media there is no video of this vile torture, but there is of Ms. Williams in the hospital. Where is the sympathy for this woman and her SEVERE injuries?

This boy has gotten 2 days of coverage so far. In day 2 he has gotten more than twice the coverage of Ms. Williams of West Virginia. In fact the coverage, in day 2 has been maybe 5x that of the West Virginia case in total to date.

Where is the local police interview? Where are the city council members denouncing this repeated and aggravated attack? Why has the federal government not filed hate crime charges?

The bias sickens me. If a boy being beaten with minor wounds is worthy of news (and I don’t doubt that) then why is the rape, kidnapping and torture of a woman not?

I want to know from CNN, Fox News and all the other major news media why they don’t care about Ms. Megan Williams of West Virginia. I want to know why it takes MONTHS before the injustice of the Jena 6 is acknowledged though bloggers were aware and constantly speaking on it. I want to know why this one situation deserves more attention and investigation while these others do not. I demand to know why Jonathan Riches can evade prosecution and gain local legal authority protection for DECADES, and when he is finally brought to justice there is no coverage for his double murders.

Can anyone explain why I can have found and investigated information about these issues, and discussed them, but the major news media with dozens, if not hundreds, of employees and reporters cannot. Why is it that bloggers can see bias and inequality but major news media can’t?

What agenda is being promoted by the major news media? There must be one as I cannot see another reason why one case is followed and others are ignored. Corporate policy is dictating that one is a higher priority than the other. Does that bias benefit or detract from America?

This isn’t some loony extremist vision. This is what major news media is doing. This is the coverage they are presenting to America and the world. What messages are they providing and why? That is an issue that I feel must be addressed.

This is what I think, what do you think?

Issues stemming from Jena 6 Part 3 - 9.21.2007.3

Continued from Issues stemming from Jena 6 Part 2...

MH: Well then here is the crux. The black student wasn’t arrested for sitting under the tree; they left nooses basically taunting him. Not hanging him outright. So what would have happened if he ignored it?

mike vass: Who knows? I feel a noose is more than a taunt. In the South that's a death threat.

MH: Agreed, a noose is more than a taunt.

mike vass: somehow I don't think it would have ended with the threat.

MH: We will never know, but the escalations that followed were done by blacks retaliating with physical harm.

mike vass: If you don't respond then it's a sign of fear and/or weakness and the aggressor pushes to see how far they can go. I agree that they reacted badly. But that was a death threat. Not justifying it, just a point.

MH: So then report it to the authorities, we have that right now as opposed to the 60's when we were on our own.

mike vass: True and I agree they should have. But to charge attempted murder is going overboard. Especially when other fights around that time, by whites against blacks, were never given charges most of the time and the ones that were got misdemeanors.

MH: Why is it overboard? It was 6 to 1 right? Were blacks beaten up? If the colors were reversed, how would it play out?

mike vass: Yes. And it would be like in West Virginia with Megan Williams.

MH: This is not in WV

mike vass: Fine, but nothing so serious would have happened. It wouldn't make the news or the blogs. You know that.

MH: But would justice be served? That is the important thing, not whether I can see it on CNN. If it doesn’t make it on TV and the people have been prosecuted correctly then I don’t need to see it. TV would probably put a negative spin on it anyway.

mike vass: Does justice get served now? Jonathan Riches took 43 years to get arrested and convicted and not a blip on national news. And as true as your words are, it isn't getting prosecuted correctly.

MH: And it’s on the TV, so what is the difference?

mike vass: For every one case we do hear of there are 15 that don't get any attention. I mean it took months to get this news out on the Jena 6, and bloggers were speaking about it for months. Oh, by the way, I just heard one kid just had his conviction overturned. Which is more just.

MH: But it didn’t make a difference, the boy is still in jail.

Continued in Part 4...

Why hasn't Al Sharpton gone to West Virginia

Post written by guest blogger CMiller

I am going to have to say that it is a shame upon the Black community when the Reverend Al Sharpton and Reverend Jessie Jackson have not even shown up to champion the Black woman who was brutalized by 6 white people that consisted of 2 white females and 4 white males. My gosh even the Federal government has abandoned this poor woman by not calling this a hate crime. If it was not a crime that consisted of major amounts of hate then what would you call it. Why in the world would 2 women be involved in such a crime being committed against another woman? Could it be because she is a black woman? I believe the possibility is more than present in this case.

But again I must ask, where is the Black community’s voice on this matter. Its as if everyone thinks its ok for such a heinous crime to be committed against a Black woman and that the reaction should be next to invisible to the American public. Why in the world would the major news media not be interested in such a story. One would think that the way they latch on to bad news within the Black community that for once they could come to the aid of one of us.

It would seem that no one is interested in helping this poor woman not even spiritually it would seem, do to the lack of even the ambulance chasers being at her side.

I say this would be such a blight on the Black community if this one slips between the cracks. Are we not sick to death of what happens to Blacks, for the love of pete its 2007 and we are still being made victims by the major news media. I expected BET to have something to say about this but I was wrong. I hope for the sake of this woman that the Black bloggers out there in the world come together and help this woman so that she will not be forgotten. That for once justice will be done and served to the fullest extent of the law.

Should this woman be forgotten, everyone of us should stop and think how they would feel if that woman was their mother, sister, daughter, aunt or cousin. Would it be so easy to forget then or would a cry of outrage erupt from your soul for what horror she had to endure at the hands of 6 hateful white people.

Regardless of the color of this woman’s skin, no person should go through what she had to endure. All women are sisters and should stand together and support one of our own. I am saddened that in America people can turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the plight of one of its own.

Our community needs to pull together and support this poor woman in her time of need. Respect her privacy but don’t’ forget her. She after all is one of us.

Surprise, OJ is arrested - 9.17.2007.1

So, as many expected OJ Simpson has been arrested. The shock that this was going to happen is underwhelming. The excitement among the various news commentators and news media (if not much of the American populace) is hard to miss. Of course this is again a leading news story.

8 charges are being placed on him. 7 felonies and a misdemeanor. That works out to 100 or so years. And if anyone thinks he won’t go to jail is either very drugged or in need of psychiatric help. The nation, or segments of it, has been waiting for this opportunity for a decade.

I have talked to several friends over the weekend and the fact is that every single person I spoke with expects OJ to get convicted and receive the full penalty of the law. This has nothing to do with his actual guilt or innocence of this alleged crime, but the continued desire to punish him for his prior trial. This is the retribution for his innocent verdict. As one friend mentioned

No matter what the article is about him, they say the same thing, "A jury found Simpson not guilty of the crimes" not that "he was innocent".

It’s that pervading anger, as expressed best by Sheppard Smith on Friday (which I wrote about), that will convict OJ. He could have been J-walking and the result would be the same. Yet is this justice?

What about the Kennedy cousin that fled prosecution of a rape? What about Ted Kennedy getting away with murder? There are many cases of rich Whites getting away with murder, and multiple murders, without persecution after their trials simply because they could afford the defense or could buy their way out of it. The anger of the nation has not followed them for years afterward, waiting to pounce on them. It just doesn’t happen.

There is no analog I can think of that matches this. There is no jury I can imagine that won’t convict him. And it has nothing to do with any charge against him. America, most of it, just wants to see him die in jail. This is just a means to get this to happen. So much for a fair legal system.

Yes OJ has not been very helpful with his own actions. The book and several minor incidents, all well documented and followed by the media, have kept him in the eye of the news. Still that has nothing to do with the constant reference to OJ Simpson in virtually every murder cases since he was proven innocent in a court of law. It is not the reason why such glee fills the major news media and cable television networks. It is not why people are shouting to OJ,

“There’s no Johnny this time! You are going to jail, there’s no Johnny this time!”

Already there are questions being brought up on this case as well. A co-conspirator has come forward with an audio tape of the incident. Its legal validity is questionable, not unlike the Monica Lewinsky tapes, as their was no permission given or knowledge of the taping known. I must ask, why would anyone tape such an event? Who walks around with an audio recording device in their pocket? Have you ever seen someone go to a wedding, and just tape the audio? Seems odd to me.

But the real issue behind all this is the anger that an African American was not punished by the law in regard to an alleged crime against Whites. The fact that he was found innocent does not matter. A Black man can’t be accused of a crime against Whites and not be punished, that is the persistent and obvious facts of this. But Whites don’t get this same treatment.

I’ve written about the whisper of news given to Jonathan Riches. This White man killed 2 Black men, over 40 years ago; people including the local police knew it and he just was convicted at the end of his life. The major news media couldn’t honor the slain men with coverage of this news of delayed justice.

I wrote about Megan Williams, atrociously abused mentally, sexually, and physically for days by 6 Whites in West Virginia. If you have heard about the case, which most any person I have spoken to has not, you are in the minority. Thankfully I am aware of several blogs that have covered this. Yet the major news media, with far more resources than any individual blogger, and the ability to discuss this on a national level, seem incapable of following the story. And the federal government seems unwilling to use the hate crime laws instituted just for cases like this.

But OJ is the story. Not that a man who can’t eat in a restaurant a decade after his innocence was found by a jury, that included Whites, probably can’t get a fair trial anywhere in the nation. Not that this has become a matter of money for most involved. The major news media and the families of Goldman and Brown. That “despicable” book that both families initially claimed should ‘never be published’ is now the #1 on Amazon (as I understand). Not that an inadmissible audio tape, that has not been confirmed as OJ’s voice, is being played to the nation and prejudicing any potential jury pool. Not that this is again the most covered news story, beyond ANYTHING else happening in the world today.

Imagine for a moment that you are an African American (if you are not). Imagine what this says to you. If you are accused of a crime against a White you are screwed. Especially if it is as serious as murder. You will be considered guilty, regardless of the circumstances from day one. The media will delve into every aspect of your life and publicize every negative you’ve ever done or been accused of. If you lose your trial, you will face the harshest of penalties. If you win, you are still guilty and will be pursued until something else can be found to convict you on. Any time you spend free will be filled with suspicion and anger. You will be a greater target than ever before.

Does that feeling fill you with a love of the legal system? Do you feel that Justice is equal in this nation? Do you get the impression that you can be tried fairly?

Add to that feeling that some Whites in this nation have gotten away with murder. Not just the famous ones, but just regular people. As long as they killed African Americans. Free without question or attention for 4 decades or more. And those that are caught doing the most heinous of crimes, against Blacks, are barely mentioned. Whether they are cops in shootings that make no sense (Sean Bell and Amidou Diallo), or inflicting violent attacks (Rodney King among many others), or a group of Whites in West Virginia and other places (Abner Louima).

As you, the person of color in America, go through a mall and followed by security, or are shunned in an elevator, or questioned at the pharmacy, or have state troopers pull you over – guns drawn – for speeding 5 miles over the limit in the middle of the day as cars were passing you 10 miles an hour or more faster, you have to wonder how safe you really are.

American has an issue with color. Justice is hardly colorblind. The truth of this is disturbing. Maybe not to Average Joe, in the Middle of America where there are 2% population of Blacks, and spending 3% of your income trying to get a darker (temporary) color to your skin. Average Joe doesn’t worry about being shot by police while going home or in your car. Officers don’t pull their guns as a normal course of their duties, to White Average Joe. But have some color that doesn’t fade in a couple of days. Then you realize you can never be Average Joe, and that you aren’t safe, the legal system is broken, and the media is definitely not fair or your friend.

Imagine having to live with all that on your back. And this is the good life. This is after decades of struggles for equality. This is after centuries of persecution. And this is as good as it gets. How do you feel, hearing that OJ is arrested, and knowing that his trial will inevitably lead to a life imprisonment. Would you be happy?

This is what I think, what do you think?

500th post shows the faces of evil in West Virginia - 9.14.2007.5

This is the day of my 500th post on Black Entertainment USA. I've spoken about a lot of different topics throughout these posts, from video games, to cable network television shows, movies, rappers, celebrities, entertainers, commercials, news media and crime coverage. That's a huge list.

I was hoping I could have a more positive comment about hitting 500, but given the nature of the news out today (or more accurately what is being focused on today) and the far more important news that was recently ignored by major news media I think I will just focus on that.

For my 500th+ post I will simply provide the faces of evil. Here are the 6 people responsible for the vicious sexual, mental and physical abuse and toture of Megan Williams in West Virginia. Sometimes there are happy fluffy things to discuss on this site, but not today. Sometimes you just need to be serious.