# No, you ignoramuses, this \*isn't\* racist (or, "Here we go again..") **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 6, 2010, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886 "2010-01-06T11:09:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/81 "2010-01-06T15:40:59Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > No, but when you look at the ad without a Cricket background and see a white guy pissed off at being surrounded by black people and then placating them with fried chicken, can you really pretend that it can’t possibly be seen as racist? At all? It _can be seen_ as racist, yes. I agree with that. But that doesn’t \*make \*it racist, actually. It only makes the ones doing the seeing in that videoclip ignoramuses who don’t do a minimum of fact-checking or familiarization before accusing or commenting. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/82 "2010-01-06T15:42:17Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I don’t see how you can tell, since both teams wear green and gold. Oh, Hastur, nobody tell **FI** about South Africa and the Pakistanis…his brains might explode. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/83 "2010-01-06T15:44:05Z")
Should all US media sources that jokingly talk about fannies stop because most of the rest of the english speaking world think Americans are talking about vaginas and not the arse? Should every ad in the western world that has sexualised females in them be stopped because they offend a lot of people in the middle east? Should the rest of the world call black people African Americans? All very silly. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/84 "2010-01-06T15:46:19Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Oh, Hastur, nobody tell **FI** about South Africa and the Pakistanis…his brains might explode. And don’t even start on England and India both wearing blue. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/85 "2010-01-06T15:47:05Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Every so often there’s a thread where the responses blow my tiny little mind. > > **Fear Itself** , you have GOT to be fucking kidding me. > > That is clearly an Aussie supporter finding himiself uncomfortably in the West Indies stand in the cricket ground, making friends with the opposing side via the product. It’s blatantly fucking obvious. > > Not. Fucking. Racist. Perhaps you should visit [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=546298). > [@](#): > > Good God, the Young Turks are ethnocentric\* eejits as well. Rowdy due to their race? You need to see how _any_ of the cricket supporters behave at matches. African Americans? Jeez. > > There isn’t even a stereotype of fried chicken being preferred by people from the Caribbean. (If it were jerk chicken or goat curry, maybe someone would have a point, but even then it wouldn’t be considered offensive.) > > Context, people, context. Pull your heads out of your arses. > > \*Used in its cultural meaning here. They kept calling them “African Americans,” so it’s clear these Turk kids don’t get this “context” thing to which you refer. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/86 "2010-01-06T15:49:27Z")
Seeing this thread makes me wonder: does the US actually compete in any major way against other countries or do they just invent their own sports and call the national championship the “world series” to feel better? 'Cause it looks like you guys have never seen this kind of ad before. Hell, you should see the kind of ads we get over here when the Netherlands is playing Germany for the European Cup. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/87 "2010-01-06T15:53:18Z")
Olympics aside, the two major sports the US competes in on a national level with the rest of the world are football and basketball. Football is still a minority interest sport in the US, and with basketball the domestic league is still considered way more of interest than any international competition. Also starting up is international competition in baseball, but it is more of a sideshow right now. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/88 "2010-01-06T16:01:35Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I don’t see how you can tell, since both teams wear green and gold. I believe I see what you’re doing here, and if I’m right, it’s pretty daft. In case anyone hasn’t worked out the reason for the seemingly deliberate obtuseness, I believe he’s questioning the colors worn because he’s implying “if the ad wasn’t racist, then why are all the Windies supporters black?” Which is pure muppetry (if I’m not creating a straw man - and I hope **Fear Itself** will tell me if I am), since the overwhelming majority of West Indies supporters are, in fact, black - and have been since [this pic](http://www.cricinfo.com/england/content/image/380603.html) was taken in England in 1950. It’s not unthinkable, therefore, that the supporters of the West Indies cricket team at a match in Australia might also be black. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/89 "2010-01-06T16:17:07Z")
Speaking only as an American, I found the ad to be hilarious. A single white guy finds himself in a group of boisterous black people and is clearly uncomfortable for reasons that are not obvious to me, unless it is because of the races involved(?.) Then he solves the problem by giving the black people fried chicken … If David Chappelle showed this ad straight, with no comment, people would be rolling on the floor. Racists - no. Clear in its message - no. Its like text from a foreign language that was translated so poorly as to be hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/90 "2010-01-06T16:22:38Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > No, but when you look at the ad without a Cricket background and see a white guy pissed off at being surrounded by black people and then placating them with fried chicken, can you really pretend that it can’t possibly be seen as racist? At all? …my dad was born in Apia, Western Samoa. My mum is Nga Puhi, born in Ahipara New Zealand. You ask me could this be seen as racist? I have seen racism in many forms. I have been called a “plastic Samoan” by other Samoans. I have had clients talk only to my assistant, and not to me. I’ve been in conversations where people have said" Oh, we are not talking about you: only those other bad Maori." So I understand what racism means to me. But that filter is from the perspective of a 35 year old Samoan/Maori living in a majority Pakeha country. That will differ from a white New Zealanders viewpoint, and to a Black American. I also understand where, out of context, this advertisement could upset and offend. In my opinion the Jackson Jive sketch was undoubtedly racist in a modern context. But this ad was about cricket. It wasn’t spoofing an African American or American culture. It was about two teams and their supporters and fried chicken and cricket. And those two teams were undeniably recognizable to anyone who has watched cricket to any degree. And almost anyone in the commonwealth would understand the ad and I would hazard a guess that very few would be offended. So if you are from the United States and have never seen a game of cricket and don’t understand how cricket tours work or international competition: then you will of course naturally struggle to understand this advertisement. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/91 "2010-01-06T16:26:07Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > Speaking only as an American, I found the ad to be hilarious. A single white guy finds himself in a group of boisterous black people and is clearly uncomfortable for reasons that are not obvious to me, unless it is because of the races involved(?.) Then he solves the problem by giving the black people fried chicken … If David Chappelle showed this ad straight, with no comment, people would be rolling on the floor. Racists - no. Clear in its message - no. Its like text from a foreign language that was translated so poorly as to be hilarious. Conciliatorily, I am reminded of when GWB used the word “Pakis” to refer to people from Pakistan. In the UK, the word “Paki” is horribly offensive, an epithet applied by racists derogatorily for severeal generations to all people from south Asia - but GWB didn’t know that. (Personally I think his advisors should have let him know that, since it was a speech with an international audience, this word is offensive to most people who live in one of his chief allied countries - but it wasn’t his fault for not knowing that.) ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/92 "2010-01-06T16:31:10Z")
> [@villa](#): > > Not necessarily, but red, gold & green are a pretty common color combination in the West Indies. Even Boy George knew that. …but I didn’t. And I never knew what the hell he was talking about before\* and this was new to me. Thanks! 🙂 \*In point of fact, I still don’t–if Karma Chameleon has a message/meaning, it isn’t really all that…um…coherent. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/93 "2010-01-06T16:40:13Z")
Red, gold and green, being the colors of the flag of Ethiopia are closely associated with Rastafarianism. ---
**Author:** ![enomaj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@enomaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enomaj)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/94 "2010-01-06T16:43:11Z")
I admit that this commercial has little wtf value but you can’t just label people ignoramuses because they do see racism in this ad. IIRC there were people in the jackson skit thread who tried to claim that blackface had no historical connotation of racism in Australia but others called them on it with cites. So why should this be any different. At the very least since KFC is an American company, they should be sensitive to this kind of thing. Even in America KFC produces [ads](http://www.racialicious.com/2009/06/04/that-dumbass-kfc-grilled-commercial/) that cause POCs to rolleyes. Full disclosure: As a black man, I’ve contributed mightily to KFC’s bottom line. Also a famous McDonald’s commercial called Calvin got the side eye and the Dave Chappelle treatment because even though it showed an industrious, hard working black teen McDonald’s employee, a lot of people misconstrued it as saying this is all you black people can aspire to be. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/95 "2010-01-06T16:53:48Z")
Yeah. I’m not getting the defensiveness of the people who like the ad. Why act as though seeing an ad which most Americans would view with a “WTF?!” reaction makes you an ignoramus? I don’t see why we can’t have a conversation about this without eye rolling and insults. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/96 "2010-01-06T17:00:12Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > In case anyone hasn’t worked out the reason for the seemingly deliberate obtuseness, I believe he’s questioning the colors worn because he’s implying “if the ad wasn’t racist, then why are all the Windies supporters black?” Thank you for having the intelligence to recognize there might be a method to my madness, even if your conclusion was wrong. I am perfectly aware that many West Indian cricket fans are non-white. My point is, why can’t racial stereotypes be a factor in this commercial, even if I concede every point about two different teams and a lone Australian fan? Surely, no one is suggesting that there is no racial prejudice in Australia, and that the two team explanation is a convenient fig leaf to appeal to baser instincts, or that KFC would never be so crass as to exploit them? ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/97 "2010-01-06T17:02:10Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Yeah. I’m not getting the defensiveness of the people who like the ad. Why act as though seeing an ad which most Americans would view with a “WTF?!” reaction makes you an ignoramus? I don’t see why we can’t have a conversation about this without eye rolling and insults. I think the reaction is more about them not even to attempt to put it into context. African Americans, not seeming to realise that he was part of a different supporters group. If the video was onolng the lines of “Initially to our eyes this lokks a bit racist but what is actually going on here?” Instead it just seems to be ethnocentric lazy thinking with no thought whatsoever put into it. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/98 "2010-01-06T17:07:54Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Yeah. I’m not getting the defensiveness of the people who like the ad. Why act as though seeing an ad which most Americans would view with a “WTF?!” reaction makes you an ignoramus? I don’t see why we can’t have a conversation about this without eye rolling and insults. Because the ad was not meant for Americans. So Americans going “WTF?” at seeing the ad doesn’t mean shit. You are the one taking the ad out of context and viewing it through your racially colored glasses. Like **Capt. Ridley’s Shooting Party** said not everything in the world is made to be filtered through Americans view point and I’m saying that as a USAian. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/99 "2010-01-06T17:11:20Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > My point is, why can’t racial stereotypes be a factor in this commercial, The point everyone is trying to make is that **there are no (Australian) racial sterotypes used in this ad**. None whatsoever. The fried chicken thing wouldn’t even register in Australia except for some people knowing that it’s a thing in the US and they are black because the vast majority of Windies fans are black. The Windies fans are acting exactly the way the do in real life, they are not being rude or badly behaved. They are being Windie cricket fans nothing more. I’ve seen the Windies play against the Irish cricket team, it was a massacre but worth going to see one of the best teams in the world at their sport doing there thing. Every West Indian in Ireland seemed to be there are they were having a fine time exactly like the people in the ad. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886/100 "2010-01-06T17:14:29Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Why act as though seeing an ad which most Americans would view with a “WTF?!” reaction makes you an ignoramus? A “WTF” initial reaction from an American is perfectly understanable - black people, a white guy handing out fried chicken, I can see where the \*initial \*WTF! comes from. That is not our beef. To then go on a show and repeat the ad while labelling it racist, without the modicum of research or understanding of **context**? _That’s_ what makes one an ignoramus. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-ignoramuses-this-isnt-racist-or-here-we-go-again/523886.md?page=6)