In response to Condoleeza Rice’s comments that contemporary racial relations reflect an American “birth defect,” Lou Dobbs offered a dismissive monologue in which he tried to deny that there is really any problem to talk about. In a truly beautiful moment of irony, he accidentally lets slip a good part of the slur “cotton-pickin’” in reference to Black leaders.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y0W19-N3Ik[/youtube]

* Title stole from Jessica’s post over at feministing.

Also awesomely ironic: Dr. Watson is more black than most.

This is a tough one, but there is something about this image advertising the Metropolitan Museum of Art that just screams privilege. Is it the perfect blonde hair? The perfect white teeth? The neat upper-class masculinity? The turtleneck? I can’t quite put my finger on it!

Thanks Jason!

These images came to us from Dianne who saw this on BoingBoing and dug deeper to find all these great examples!

Illustrating the way in which whiteness is taken-for-granted and others are always, well, other, Plan Toys sells these doll sets labelled “Ethnic Family,” “AsianFamily,” and, “Doll Family.”

They also sell a “farmer” and a “farmer’s wife.” Dianne notes: “Women don’t farm, apparently, they just marry men who do.”

They also sell this generic “Native American set” of which they write:

“Children can create imaginary stories with the Indian figures, camp, teepee and authentic accessories. They can learn about the traditional American tribe and their lifestye.”

Notice how American Indian tribal difference is erased with the phrase “the traditional American tribe.” Diane pointed out that the set actually combines teepees and totem poles which were traditions of tribes in the plains and on the west coast respectively.

In the “How to Play” section, it says:

“Children can imagine and tell stories about Red Indians, helping to stimulate their imagination and expanding their horizon.”

Yes they really do say “Red Indians.”

Diane notices that, just like the doll family is obviously white, “here again, apparently the default child is white, who can ‘imagine… stories about Red Indians.'”

Ironically, the company claims that they are “socially & environmentally responsible” and promote “good values.”

Thanks so much Diane!

NEW: Kirsten D. sent us this link to a series of Playmobil toys.  All of the non-white characters are given racial designations, but the white characters are not.  I included some examples below.

African/African American Family:

Asian family:

Grandparents:

Medical Team and Patients:

Prince and Princess:

Also in the neutral and the marked: men are people and women are women and from pale to pumped with racial stereotypes.

This famous Life Magazine cover from 1971 trumpeted the feminist movement:

Six years later, in 1977, Time Magazine reminded us that gender difference (and inequality?) was genetic and, thus, out of our control:

And don’t miss the famous 1978 Hustler cover that appeared the very next year!

These three ads for yogurt ran in Brazil. They are supposed to inspire revulsion. Their tagline is:

“Forget about it. Men’s preference will never change. Fit Light Yogurt.”

Many have commented that these women look hot, not repulsive. So the images might be useful for inspiring a discussion about polysemy and the fact that advertisers can’t control how their images are perceived.

Alternatively, they might work differently in Brazil than the U.S. Any thoughts?

These two images were part of the campaign to raise awareness about breast cancer at my college this year. I think it is fascinating that, even when spreading a message about women’s health, the images include sexualization and objectification (on the right) and a woman posed to look insecure, vulnerable, and maybe slightly scared (on the left).

This image is from a New York Times article on how different ways of measuring graduation rates produce very different results and turn out to be, no surprise, political.

The article discusses some of the varying measures and it, along with the image, could make for a great example in a Methods or Statistics class.

Kimberlee M. sent us these stills from a Winsor Pilates video and an explanation. She writes:

The Winsor Pilates series is something you might be familiar with since it is advertised on TV and is endorsed by many celebs. I recently bought a bunch of second hand Winsor Pilates DVDs and found that one particular DVD was incredibly racist.

Though Mari Winsor uses mainly white fitness models (and I have seen 8 of her dvds), in her dance fat burning workout, suddenly she has several black models in the foreground dancing with her. And the music? Some live drumming which is being played by black people.

A few particularly offensive moments:

At 29:55 minutes Mari Winsor exclaims “shake that booty” just before the scene fast cuts to a shot of the black woman’s behind:

Around 33 minutes Mari says to the drummers, “Boys, my loves, ya mon! Cool it down for me, you gonna cool it down for me? Let’s go back to the island mon!” One can hardly ignore the dramatic change in her ennunciation and diction when she talks to them, (gonna, mon etc) and her patronising, “boys, my loves”.

What is worse, not representing black people? Or only representing them in stereotypical demeaning roles?

…this workout dvd is CURRENT and is for sale on the front page of their website.

 

You might pair this post with these images that fetishize Black women’s behinds.