The first kid says:
"I'm waiting for my last day in school, the children in Africa still for their first one."
second kid:
"in africa, many kids would be glad to worry about school"
third kid:
"in africa, kids don't come to school late, but not at all" (!)
fourth kid:
"some teachers suck. no teachers sucks even more."
This is precisely why educators must adopt a radical stance toward teaching race, ethnicity, and racial politics in our schools. The fact that an organization like UNICEF can honestly say that this type of advertisement shows "solidarity" with African children is not only erroneous but painfully symptomatic of our "race doesn't matter anymore" culture. Social responsibility, of course, starts with every individual. However, we must question what type of global culture we are in when cultural erasure happens to include the erasure of our collective memory of centuries of negative imagery and stereotypes. How convenient that the very imagery that has been used to oppress african people and other oppressed people is now being sold as tools for their liberation. I guess co-opting has taken on newer more insidious forms.
Perhaps what is most troubling is that this is the second blackface advertisement I have seen over the course of the last two days. American Apparel is currently running an ad of a woman (who's ethnicity is being debated) in black face with the caption "Sweeter than Candy, Better than Cake".
See it for yourself here:
http://www.racialicious.com/2007/08/17/american-apparel-trumpets-blackface-fashion-spread-in-i-d-magazine/
This summer I even had the displeasure of visiting the Jersey Shore and seeing two white teens walking down the boardwalk in makeup that immediately conjured up blackface for me.(their skin looked like they were wearing shoe polish on their faces) As a black woman I wonder when we handed out these permission slips, or if they are simply indicative of the fact that racial hegemony is alive, well, and in practice in ways both obvious and innocuous. Also peep this ad with Gwyneth Paltrow:
http://www.libertyfilmfestival.com/libertas/?p=2246.
Apparently the only people who can "save" Africans look nothing like them. Just know that in my classroom in Atlanta, GA these issues are being tackled, grappled with, and presented to a group of racially, culturally, socio-economically diverse girls who will leave that classroom with enough sense to say ENOUGH. And as Sweet Honey in the Rock sings "We will not bow down to your racism, we will not bow down to injustice...."
Peace....Go out and educate the hell out of somebody!
Yaisha
P.S. Images like this are exactly why Dave Chappelle quit his show. The more we let them laugh the more they think they have "permission" to use those images.
