Showing posts tagged people

An OMG, We Do Exist! Experiment (#2): Target

In my local Target, there are hundreds of in-store advertisements. I wandered around my store, counting all of the ads that had people in them. (Ads with non-humans were not counted. Just to be specific.) I literally lost count after 150, but that’s because I was with my nieces at the time and children are distracting.

So, as previously stated, I didn’t want the employees to think that I was casing the joint. Let’s just use the number 150 for the purpose of this story, I plan to go back to Target later in the week anyway, and I’ll update this post then. 

These are my findings:

PROS

  • Out of “150” ads, 120 ads had POC in them.
  • Out of the 120 ads with POC, 90 of them were exclusively ads with POC.
  • The POC of African descent had natural hairstyles that were classy and well-done.
  • Many pictures of people who are South Asian and Afro-Asiatic.

CONS

  • In the Children’s departments, the majority of the ads were “integrated.” Unlike the rest of the store.
  • In the Girl’s Department, there were multiple ads with girls engaging in team work.
  • In the Boys Department, there were multiple ads with boys engaging in independent activities. 
  • In the toy department, there were very few dolls of “color.” Almost all of the POC dolls were either Disney “Princesses” or Dora and her (human) friends.

It is important that I mention that I live in the suburbs where the population is majority non-People of Color. (I’d say it’s 60-40.) However, it is very interesting how my local Target store can showcase such diversity. Unlike H&M, Target’s in-store ads show children that they do exist and that there are no “default” humans. 

Target—at least according to their in-store adverts and commercials—seems to get that they can still be a conglomerate whilst having positive PoC representation, without having to purposefully “diversify” their advertisements in order to appease their clientele.

NOTE: (1) I still plan to go back to my local store anyway, so I can finish my count then. (2)I don’t live that far from another Target store, so I think that I might look at their store as well to compare and contrast.

Thoughts?

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My biggest problem is that there is simply no creativity in movies with black casts at all. White people are 12 year old wizards, teens with crushes on vampires and werewolves, fighting blue people, talking fish and toys, and yet the best we get is a movie about the genteel south? Someone please make a movie about two black folks falling in love at a rock concert or a feature film about Storm from X-Men discovering her power, or something, ANYTHING, that goes beyond Black Pain (TM) / White Saviour (TM) movies. Sheesh.

A commenter on “Why I’m Just Saying No to ‘The Help’” (via atrapforfools)

The thing is, Hollywood wouldn’t keep producing films like this if there weren’t a demand for it. The Af. Am. cast went above and beyond to remind the audience that, contrary to popular belief, African Americans ARE human beings. African Americans DO have a culture. African Americans ARE more than colonized beings, and can read an write too. Don’t think that people didn’t hear some elders gasp when they found out that Abeeline could write well. (Really, this happened.)

(Reblogged from dearkidsshows)

Annebeeche and the World: ATTENTION NORTH AFRICANS

thisisnotafrica:

So we’ve noticed that we’ve had hardly any messages or submissions from North Africans (or questions regarding North Africa) and that when it comes to Africa blogs in general, North African countries are almost always left out.. which is a really big shame.

As a person of…

Not entirely relevant to POC in media, but still relevant.

(Reblogged from theslavbarbarian)
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The MPAA recently announced that Latinos make up 25 percent of moviegoers. In fact, the average Latino moviegoer sees 5.3 movies a year, compared to 3.7 movies per year for African Americans and 3.5 movies per year for white moviegoers. In other words, people of color go to the movies more than white people.

Alyssa Rosenberg writes:

I tend to end up pointing to the performance of movies with African American leads or diverse casts to point out that there’s an underserved market there, and I think that point remains true. But maybe an ancillary point is that African American moviegoers are, by a narrow margin, and Latino moviegoers are by a wide margin, more dedicated customers of Hollywood’s existing products than white audiences are, and their numbers are growing. You’d think Hollywood would want to hold on to those customers, and to recognize that the day is coming when those consumers’ preferences will be more important than the white consumers who no longer have either numerical superiority or proof that they’re more loyal customers. Nothing about the state of writers’ rooms and directors chairs suggest that movies or television are actively preparing for that eventuality.

To continue reading this article…………click this link to visit jezebel.com (via diversityinfilmtv)
(Reblogged from racebending)

Unsolid Ground: The Playbook - A Response to the Trayvon Martin Murder

counterftnoire:

My brother wrote this in response to the Trayvon Martin murder. We have a unique relationship in that we both recognize that I, as a light skinned black woman, am privileged. In turn, my brother recognized that our father made my brother the golden child and attempted to make all of his children responsible for his sense of black masculinity, particularly his daughters. To his credit, my brother has struggled against this and refused to engage with my sister and I under that paradigm. He’s a unique individual and I love him. It’s a delicate dance but it’s a dance…

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The Playbook We Still Need and Use 

            This story is not about Trayvon Martin’s murder.  It’s about the playbook that’s still in use.  It’s the playbook that almost all black parents of black boys must use when it comes to raising and teaching black boys how to survive in White America.  Hearing stories surrounding the death of Trayvon Martin, a light bulb came on for me and it gave light to some memories from my past.  If you are white and reading this you might feel upset because it might portray White America in a negative light.  And if you are black and reading this, you might be angry because I am revealing to the general public some insider information…”

(Reblogged from counterftnoire)