» They just don`t get it do they?

Junk mail tends to get skipped over around here pretty quickly, but I guess advertisers have finally figured this out, and will do anything to get people’s attention.

They certainly did with the copy of “Auto Selector” that arrived here the other day. Right on the front page, ignoring the large black GMC SUV covering most of it, is a picture of some black guy dressed up in some caricature of American Indian regalia, complete with obligatory mini-skirted-and-high-heeled girl beside him.

Underneath the picture however reads the text “Spotlight on Chief Zee” with a page.

Oh dear.

It’s hard to describe the page people are directed to, so here’s a scanned copy of the top half of it (click for the full sized image).

This is all for a large car dealership in Maryland and Virginia, who also bought the entire back page for their map, which gives a URL. Their website is even worse, if that even be possible. They have a series of videos there, and if the full page advertisement above made me ill, one video in particular makes me downright sick to my stomach¹.

YouTube direct - Eastern Motors Video

Now, not so long ago, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Julie Myers, managed to get into seriously hot water for awarding a prize for “Most original costume” to an employee who showed up wearing striped clothing, fake dreadlocks, and in blackface. The employee was placed on administrative leave, questions were asked in Congress, Ms Myers had to apologize profusely to people for how offensive the costume had been, and for her lack of judgment in awarding it a prize.

So I’m curious. I’m pretty sure (as are others) that Zema Williams (AKA “Chief Zee”) would be rightfully offended (as would everyone else) if I showed up dressed in blackface, with fake dreadlocks, at a football game and jumped up and down shouting “Go niggers, go!”. If the head of the second most powerful law enforcement agency in the country has to eat humble pie because one of the 16,000 employees under her command showed up in a “racially insensitive” costume, why is it that still, in the Capital of the United States, a black man can wander around, make commercials, dressed up as a “Native American”, be used as a sales tool, make stupid videos, have a day named after him, and there’s nary a peep from these “racial minority” groups?

The cynic in me wants to think that the reason for the silence is selective racism - African-Americans have gotten to the stage where they have “clout” enough to jump on racism, but as long as they’re OK, they don’t care about (and indeed participate in) racism directed at Native Americans. Somehow, racism is alright, as long as it’s not directed at them? Marion Barry, also an African-American, was the Mayor of Washington DC, and he named a day after “Chief Zee” - I guess he didn’t mind the that he was honouring a racist caricature of American Indians. After all, it wasn’t his race that was being stereotyped, right?

If the advertisement is to be believed, Zema Williams tries to do good work throughout the area - but every single appearance he makes dressed like that, whether it be for charity, senior citizens, kids, or anything else, is poisoned. He is effectively promoting that same racial bigotry that he would be up in arms about if, for example, someone went to a senior citizens event dressed in blackface. I bet he was pretty steamed when he heard about the ICE halloween party, but his appearances are just as bad, just as bigoted, just as racist, as that incident.

Robertson’s, a manufacturer of preserves, had a well known brand image called a “Golliwog”, and it had to stop using it as it was deemed “racially insensitive”. The Golliwog dolls, likewise, have fallen out of fashion, as being “racially insensitive” and no more do performers on stage don blackface - all of these things are the result of changing perceptions of race. What was once perfectly acceptable has been gradually weeded out as people have grown to understand that racism is unacceptable and divisive.

Yet Zema Williams seems perfectly happy to do exactly what his forefathers spent decades, even centuries, fighting against, and the nation’s capital cheers every weekend for a football team whose name screams out memories of genocidal policies and acts of brutality. In one hundred years time, people will look back on pictures of Zema Williams, and the football team, and all they will see, all they will know, is that all they stood for was a legacy of racism. It won’t matter if Zema Williams did charity work, helped people who needed it - all people will see is a man dressing up as a warped parody of an American Indian.

The NFL permits the football team to have a “racially insensitive” name because it’s all about the money - and who cares, it’s only a bunch of Indians, right? The NFL seems to believe it can can take that stance because the general population has come to that prejudiced point of view themselves - blacks, hispanics, asians all. Somehow, it even managed to permeate the halls of “Justice”, so one lone judge felt perfectly confident in arbitrarily overturning the decision of three copyright judges, seemingly placing money over racial equality. Worse is the attempts by a new style of Holocaust Deniers to brush the past under the carpet, things which, if were done with respect towards any other minority in the US, would result in massive media coverage, demonstrations and boycotts.

The car dealership in question, Eastern Motors, will never admit it’s promoting racial stereotypes - but I bet they won’t ever hire someone to do pseudo-voodoo dances in their promotional videos, or dress up in blackface with fake dreadlocks and appear in their print advertisements.

Racism is resurgent in the United States in recent years - all the noose incidents garner international attention, and the authorities rightfully jump on such things fast - Is it really any wonder why racism is still so prevalent though, when those who complain about it turn around and do it themselves? Letting one instance of racism pass as somehow being acceptable opens the doors to others, and racists aren’t selective - they hate anything “different”. When you celebrate racism, you can only expect racism to be aimed right back at you.

It’s very hard to be sympathetic towards African-Americans facing the sordid memories nooses bring back, of unenlightened times when racism was rampant and they were considered something less than human - when a large number of them practice those self same racist beliefs on a weekly basis. Only this week, I commented in my blog about the bigotry some had aimed towards the victims of the illegal street race in Accokeek and how despicable it was - then I see things like this.

Zema Williams may be the unofficial mascot of the local football team, but in his “costume”, he’s a mascot of racism too. The football team’s name enshrines one of the darkest periods in US history², and his dress trivializes and mocks the victims of those times, as well as the traditions and cultures which have survived even so.

I guess they just don’t get it.

1. [Edit February 26th 2008] I discovered that the dealership in question actually has a YouTube account showing many of their commercials - this isn’t the only one there featuring Zema Williams, but the end of it is pretty representative of some disgusting racial mockery [back]
2. “Back not so long ago, when there was a bounty on the heads of the Indian people… the trappers would bring in Indian scalps along with the other skins that they had managed to trap or shoot,” says Holder, whose arguments were included in a recent court filing in support of Harjo’s claim. “Trappers and hunters began using the term ‘redskin’ …they would tell the owner that they had bearskin, deerskins…and ‘redskins.’ The term came from the bloody mess that one saw when looking at the scalp …thus the term ‘red’…skin… So, you see when we see or hear that term…we don’t see a football team… we don’t see a game being played…we don’t see any ‘honor’…we see the bloody pieces of scalps that were hacked off of our men, women and even our children… we hear the screams as our people were killed…and ‘skinned’ just like animals. So, yes, …you can safely say that the term is considered extremely offensive.”

   - Tina Holder, Source: New America Media [back]

Tags: amerindians, car dealerships, chief zee, discrimination, eastern motors, First Nations, marion barry, native americans, prejudice, racism, redskins, zema williams