No President Biden, interracial couples on TV make America no less racist

OPINION: What Biden and many white Americans do not understand or refuse to understand is that these new ‘diverse’ ads are by no means a sign of racial progress.

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden held a city hall on CNN where he shared many of these thoughts on how to save America from impending doom. With a typical Biden charm, meaning passionate answers interspersed between the confusing word salad, he tackled everything from COVID-19 to climate change, reminding Americans of what capable leadership looks like.

Read more: Biden: ‘I’m tired of talking about Trump’

However, it was Biden’s answer on how to address police brutality that emphasized how aloof he, and many white people like him, are from the realities of black life in 2021. No President Biden means more interracial couples on television America does not. become less racist.

I’m sure you’re wondering how Joe Biden on earth finally talked about interracial relationships when he was supposed to talk about police brutality. An audience member asked Biden how he would address community and police relations.

HORLES: How can we be sure that we are not giving police officers too much legislation so that they can do their job to protect the law-abiding citizens who live in these neighborhoods with great crime, and yet train officers with compassion for the police? ?

By the time they went through ‘high crime’ and ‘obedience to the law’ and ‘legislation’, the question had more dog whistles than an Omega party hosted by Too short. However, I am not surprised that Biden did not push back the idea that police officers are too legal, as it is clear that the police act relatively impunity when it comes to black lives. What really surprised me was what he saw as a sign of improving race relations in America.

‘I’m going to say something that’s going to get me in trouble … think about it, if you want to know where the American public is, then look at the money spent on advertising. Did you think five years ago that every second or third ad would be from five or six biracial couples? ”- Biden

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There’s more to unpacking in this sense than in a stream of 24-hour unboxing videos, and like a Russian nesting doll wanting to awaken white ignorance, every surprise is more disappointing than the previous one.

First a little background. A colleague and I have been working on a research project on the growth of interracial couples on television and commercials for the past five years. Our work is coming up, but we have some preliminary data on what drives this trend, and it is not optimistic about race relations.

The last time blacks actually thought race relations were improving in America was that mystical honeymoon period between Barack Obama knock John McCain in November 2008 and the summer of 2009, when he was blamed for everything from the oil spill in the Gulf, to not resolving racism in one afternoon during the Beer Summit.

By the end of Obama’s presidency, about 40% of Black Americans thought race relations had worsened. In 2019, after two full years of Donald Trump more than 71% of African Americans thought race relations were getting worse. I do not know who Joe Biden is talking to, but I do not know a single black person in America who sees the Proud Boys breaking down Black Lives Matter signs in Washington, DC and thinks things are getting better just because a Humira ad appears . a white father and his double daughter getting ice cream.

What Biden and many white Americans do not understand or refuse to understand is that these new ‘diverse’ ads are not aimed at black people and are in no way a sign of racial progress. Most interracial ads on TV are produced to give white Americans a sense of comfort that, despite changing power structures and demographics, they will still dominate the racial pick order. How do we know that? Because the ads are based on white fantasy, they are not the demographic changes Biden suggests.

Read more: Racist website targeted at interracial couples, declaring white women traitors

More than 70% of the ads offered over the past four years, featuring a black-and-white interracial couple, had a white man and a black woman. In fact, for certain high end products like luxury cars, you are more likely to see a white man and his black wife than you are a black couple. These ads apparently do not reflect the demographics of America, where 70% of black / white interracial couples have a black man and a white woman.

However, this reflects the fact that although white couples prefer couples of the same race in advertisements, they do not like to see black men with white women. In a time of racial unrest for white America, images of interracial relationships are a proponent of racial progress, as long as race and gender dynamics do not interrupt whiteness. Or rough, awake, white America wants to believe it can fuck out of racism in any way, as long as the penis is white.

The uniquely white American, Hollywood and Madison Avenue idea about the transforming nature of sex and interracial marriage is as old as the plantation and twice as ugly. White people gave Halle Berry An Oscar for Monster’s ball because they believed that the fraudulent cop, played by Billy Bob Thornton, was cured of his racism after having sex with her (do not forget that he killed her husband).

Republican Fitz Grant, who literally suppressed votes to win the presidency, can not be a great man, because he can not get enough of it Olivia Pous on Scandal. While Netflix Bridgerton may the sexy Simon Bassett bedding contain pure white Daphne, remember the only reason a whole world is possible between the races is because a black woman became married to a white man and became queen.

There’s a reason there were two Black Bachelorettes before there was a Black Bachelor, and everyone made it pretty clear with the jump that they were not interested in black matches. The interracial ads of today just cut out the rose ceremony and go straight to the reward.

According to Infiniti, Nissan Rogue and Hyundai ads, if you are a white man with your low APR financing and prepayment, you can show your friends and family how awake you are with your brightly colored but still black enough. woman.

Now I know that there will be reactions on the knee: What’s so bad about diversity in advertising? You just want to see more black men with white women! Or you just hate to see black women happy with white men! Not at all. It’s not a critique of how someone finds love in their real lives, it’s a critique of a billion dollar marketing trend that distorts what’s really happening in America.

After seeing most of my life wiping black people out of ads, I could see nothing but straight, weird, and trans-black love in ads for the next 30 years, and that would not be enough. What’s problematic about these ads is that they give white people like Joe Biden and others a false sense of progress, without them having to do the ugly tough work of their own prejudices and disorder.

When a white man sees these ads, he reminds himself that, even in a Black Lives Matter world, he can gain access to a luxury car, winter resorts and a black woman without ever having to worry about race . When a white woman sees these ads, she thinks she has an automated girlfriend; a suburban black woman who is not angry because she has already been ‘selected’ by a white man.

These ads are not intended for black Americans, but we are still used as props so that white Americans can work out their racial attachments during commercial breaks on It’s us.

Candace Owens has a white man. Proud Son Member John Kinsman has a black wife. Another Proud Boys member Nicholas Ochs also has a black wife. Racist troll Milo Yiannopoulos has a black man. White guys with black women, whether it’s in real life, movies or selling insurance, say nothing about American race relations, except that disorder and sex go hand in hand as always.

Black America knows what real progress looks like, so a black family dancing to Tag Team in the kitchen sells far more Geico insurance than another inter-couple couple centering an awake white fantasy.

Dr. Jason Johnson is a professor of politics and journalism at Morgan State University, a political contributor to MSNBC and SIRIUS XM Satellite Radio. Infamous cartoon and sportsman with dual Wakandan and Zamundan citizenship.

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