Blacks Distracted By Angry Black Woman Pepsi Max Ad While Black Unemployment Rate Almost Twice That Of Whites

The uproar over a Pepsi Max Super Bowl XLV commercial has caused a firestorm because it was thought to have promoted a stereotype about the angry black woman. For the record it could have been interpreted as hitting on other hot buttons in the black community, such as black men finding blond white women so irrestible that they would disrespect their wives to look at one. How about black people not being able to resist food that is bad for us. We are outraged about that when the January 2011 unemployment rate among African Americans was 15.7% compared to 8% for the same category of Whites according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is a true outrage. The jobless rates for Whites went from 8.5% to 8% while blacks went from 15.8% to 15.7% comparing December 2010 to January 2011.

Selective Outrage

A firestorm erupted after the commercial aired. Black bloggers, websites and even politicians weighed in on the issue with their outrage. An article titled “'Angry black woman' Super Bowl ad promotes stereotypes” by Ronda Racha Penrice February 7, 2011 and published on the Grio website go into the roots of the anger. We can may reasons to be outraged over or image being trampled by our own people given the movies and television shows that have been produced with angry black women and brutal black men made by black producers. Music videos promote other negative images of low morals among black men and women worshiping at the alter of sex, money and excess.

There are many things to be angry about when it comes to how our image is being promoted, yet we support the TV shows, movies and music just as much as we buy Pepsi Max soda. Was the real outrage that it was shown to 111 million people. Was the commercial wrong, yes it was, but let's use the outrage to clean all of the bad image promotion up. We should not get caught not get caught in the old we can say something among ourselves and cheer, but someone else can't show the same thing. We already have that problem with the use of a certain word.

Cheers will erupt in a movie theater when a black woman burns down her husband's car, throws hot grits on him or let's his luxury SUV go over a bridge. Areas are packed as a black entertainer describes how he has his way with women and throws them aside. Where is the outrage?

Do We Need A Black Unemployment Stereotype Ad

Do we need a commercial showing a consumer products company hiring white workers at a 2 to 1 rate over equally qualified black applicants with black women getting angry in the interviews and black men leering at the white blond receptionists. That would be something to become outraged about because we know that is not why the black unemployment rate is almost twice that of whites. Why aren't we expressing our outrage?

Do We Need A National Black Intervention

This not just another shower of negativity about African Americans, but with a 62% high school graduation rate, 4% of black men in prison and 15.4% unemployment rate, do we need a national black intervention?

It is said that we don’t manufacture anything in this country anymore, but I beg to differ. I feel we are manufacturing and assembly line of failure conditions for African Americans in general and for young blacks in particular.

Drop Out Rate

A Time magazine article by Andrew J. Rotherham on Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010 indicated that only 62% of African American students graduated high school in 2008. You can say this is the beginning of feeding the raw material into the assembly line. In a world where even a 4-year college degree does not guarantee someone the security of being employable, having less than a high school diploma is a recipe for constant struggle.

The lack of a high school diploma does not mean someone is automatically on the road to prison or unemployment, but the conditions that existed for someone in that situation to be successful have greatly diminished. An economy based upon an abundance of industrial, construction and agricultural jobs is a distant memory. The options are few for the unskilled and uneducated.

Prison The Human Warehouse

An article published on ABCnews.go.com by Pierre Thomas and Jason Ryan on

June 6, 2008 stated that, “Four percent of U.S. black males were in jail or prison last year, compared to 1.7 percent of Hispanic males and .7 percent of white males. In other words, black males were locked up at almost six times the rate of their white counterparts.”

Now some will say the prison rate and dropout rate can’t be necessarily connected, but the conditions for someone with limited options to become swept up in activity that may lead them to incarceration is logically higher. The inequity of drug sentencing laws are a factor, but being involved in activity for the laws to become a factor has more impact.

Joblessness

Next we have the issue of the unemployment rate in the black community. Being at 15.7% for the month of November 2010 compared to 8.4% for whites according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. That rate for black unemployment is 86% higher than whites and that is getting very close to double. An article by William Alden that was published on 09-30-10 in the Huffington Post indicated that those in prison don’t count in the unemployment rate. Can you imagine the unemployment rate if the African Americans in prison were counted in the statistics.

This seems to be a crisis by normal definitions and some other issues have not even been included here. The question is what can be done to stop the movement in these negative directions. There is not a group to march against, sit down to stage or organization to boycott. It is us. We need an intervention with ourselves. How do we do it, I’m open to suggestions.