By Drew Grant 1/31 9:25am

super bowl ads

Video

Is this man guilty of 'blackface with voice'? (YouTube)

Maybe This VW Super Bowl Ad Isn’t Racist; Maybe You’re Racist

By now, you’ve probably written your heated HuffPost post about how horrible those Nazis at Volkswagen are for coming up with such a racist commercial for the Super Bowl. (Actually, HuffPost already found a new racist Super Bowl ad; they have moved on.) The spot, which was leaked early–because who cares, they already paid their bazillions, so why not release it on YouTube days before the actual event? It will only generate more buzz that way!–features a Caucasian man with a Jamaican patois accent running around his office like Michael Scott in that one episode where he comes back from Sandals.

And it did generate “buzz,” so there’s that. Unfortunately, it was the kind of buzz that comes from a dozen angry blogger/Sean Paul bees flying towards your face. Read More

By Drew Grant 5/04/12 3:41pm

Racist advertising

Ashton Kutcher in delightful, non-offensive PopChips video (YouTube.com)

‘Yo Is This Racist?’ Tumblr Declares Ashton Kutcher Racist (Finally!)

Phew. That’s a weight off our shoulders. While we were really not sure how to feel about Ashton Kutcher’s PopChips ad, released on YouTube earlier this week and featuring Mr. Kutcher playing a lot of different characters in a dating video like he was Tracey Ullman or something, we were pretty sure it was unfunny. But was it racist? Especially if one of the characters was Indian and Mr. Kutcher dressed in “brown face”? Read More

By Drew Grant 4/07/12 9:51pm

Media and Race

'National Review' shocked that one of their writers is politically incorrect

National Review ‘Parted Ways’ with John Derbyshire for Being Racist in a Publication Other Than Its Own

We hope Taki’s Magazine pays as much money as print publications. John Derbyshire, the British journalist and author who recently wrote an article entitled “The Talk: Nonblack Version” for Taki Theodoracopulos‘ “webzine,” is out of his day job. The conservative National Review “parted ways” with Mr. Derbyshire following The Observer‘s discovery of his piece for niche website which included tips like:

“(10c) If planning a trip to a beach or amusement park at some date, find out whether it is likely to be swamped with blacks on that date (neglect of that one got me the closest I have ever gotten to death by gunshot).

Gawker and other publications soon caught wind of the story, and in less that 48 hours he was relieved of his position for being so blatantly politically incorrect in someone else’s publication, instead of just subtly implying that African-Americans are destroying this country (as is the in-house style of the Review). Read More