Chinese firm behind 'racist' detergent ad says foreign critics are 'too sensitive'
225 replies, posted
I'm genuinely curious, of all the people here blaming the ad for being insensitive/racist/of poor taste/problematic, is a single of them black ? I don't mean deep tan "my grand mother had an aunt in an interracial relationship so I'm like 5% African-American" black , I mean genuinely dark complexion.
[QUOTE=Ganerumo;50412962]I'm genuinely curious, of all the people here blaming the ad for being insensitive/racist/of poor taste/problematic, is a single of them black ? I don't mean deep tan "my grand mother had an aunt in an interracial relationship so I'm like 5% African-American" black , I mean genuinely dark complexion.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=axelord157;50410762]No.
I'm just making fun of the godawful trend of white people (such as yourself here) trying to tell me shit that is offensive isn't offensive and I'm just looking outrage.
I'll let you in on a little secret, I thought the add was a bit funny the first time I saw it, but overall, it was in shit taste. If you were black and said your previous statements, you'd come off as a huge try-hard.
[B]I'm not going to let some random Serbian dude tell me as a black male in America what I should and should not be fuckin offended by, ok?[/B][/QUOTE]
So out of the five pages of critics, there's only one black guy who actually complained about the ad and from what I've seen he's more racist than anyone else on this thread.
[QUOTE=maniacykt;50412750]Welcome to 21st century, when everything you do is racist, sexist, oppressive or a combination.
Oh and don't forget about first world problems: when life is too good you bound to create problems out of thin air just because.[/QUOTE]
Is this what America is like
[QUOTE=WhySoSeriouz;50413075]Is this what America is like[/QUOTE]
No
[QUOTE=WhySoSeriouz;50413075]Is this what America is like[/QUOTE]
A small part of the internet is not representative of an entire country.
I tried combing the thread but couldn't find anyone who mentioned this[QUOTE]
The spokesman said a shorter version was broadcast in China, which did not feature the black actor, and he had no idea how the full-length clip ended up online.[/QUOTE]
I wonder why it was shortened, that's a pretty big omission.
Tbh I wonder how it was shortened, I cant see any way to shorten it that would drastically affect the commercial to improve it to presentable standards
[QUOTE=Raidyr;50413121]I tried combing the thread but couldn't find anyone who mentioned this
I wonder why it was shortened, that's a pretty big omission.[/QUOTE]
Good to see that people are reading the article.
[QUOTE=wauterboi;50412674]I don't know why people are surprised it's being called racist when they're describing black skin color as filth. I wonder if they've ever heard of ethnic cleansing?
Again, if they want to say they're not racist, that's fine, but then they're just painfully stupid. Either or works for me.[/QUOTE]
That's a reasonable argument. Could be referring to bleaching rather than cleaning but advertisements shouldn't be ambiguous about things that can have very uncomfortable connotations to some people.
I don't think there's racist mindsets behind the ad, but it's the kind of touchy subject that I'd discourage using that skit.
[QUOTE=Ganerumo;50412987]So out of the five pages of critics, there's only one black guy who actually complained about the ad and from what I've seen he's more racist than anyone else on this thread.[/QUOTE]
So... the only guy whose opinion might be more valid than everyone else's and you dismiss it because you don't like what he's saying?
[QUOTE=Dzonintz;50410668]Am I seriously the only one who doesn't give a shit about stuff like this? It honestly seems to me [B]people are pretty much faking outrage just to have something going on in their lives[/B].[/QUOTE]Very nice, discrediting people by accusing them of being bored so that they think "oh, perhaps he's right, better shut up now", with that single statement you could discredit all posts on this forum. In all serious though, why bother complaining, it's like you're rolling your eyes at people because you're sick of something? If you really didn't give a shit, you wouldn't have posted.
If people are upset by something address that, rather than suggest that they don't have a thick skin.
[QUOTE=Headhumpy;50413197]So... the only guy whose opinion might be more valid than everyone else's and you dismiss it because you don't like what he's saying?[/QUOTE]
His point that the ad is of bad taste and racist is pretty moot when the guy repeatedly shows that he's also being racist.
According to ABC, the detergent company apologized whilst blaming the media.
[url]http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/chinese-detergent-maker-harm-racist-ad-39459355[/url]
[quote]"We express regret that the ad should have caused a controversy," the statement issued late Saturday read. "But we will not shun responsibility for controversial content."
"We express our apology for the harm caused to the African people because of the spread of the ad and the over-amplification by the media," the company said. "We sincerely hope the public and the media will not over-read it."[/quote]
Reads really weirdly, probably due to translation and the shot at the media.
[QUOTE=Ganerumo;50412962]I'm genuinely curious, of all the people here blaming the ad for being insensitive/racist/of poor taste/problematic, is a single of them black ? I don't mean deep tan "my grand mother had an aunt in an interracial relationship so I'm like 5% African-American" black , I mean genuinely dark complexion.[/QUOTE]
I hope you unintentionally ignored all the non-black people saying that this isn't racist and that black people shouldn't be offended.
I also hope you unintentionally ignored all the black people on social media who were actually offended by this joke.
[QUOTE=Ganerumo;50413278]His point that the ad is of bad taste and racist is pretty moot when the guy repeatedly shows that he's also being racist.[/QUOTE]
First of all, they (sort of) apologized for it:
[QUOTE=axelord157;50411130]I'll give you that one. My wording was a bit implicit. Its just that I find it hard to see an average Serbian person knowing or caring about racist media that makes a black dude the ass end of a joke. Something I'm finding easier and easier to belive as this thread goes on.[/QUOTE]
Secondly, they were being racially insensitive rather than deliberately racist. Axelord had a genuine point they were trying to make (that I disagree with but w/e) about whether a presumably white Serbian person had much experience with a case of Chinese people who may or may not have made a racist commercial about black people. It's still a genuine argument even if I think it's incorrect, but the way they communicated it came accross as offensive to Serbian people.
[editline]29th May 2016[/editline]
[QUOTE=ROFLBURGER;50413288]According to ABC, the detergent company apologized whilst blaming the media.
[url]http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/chinese-detergent-maker-harm-racist-ad-39459355[/url]
Reads really weirdly, probably due to translation and the shot at the media.
I hope you unintentionally ignored all the non-black people saying that this isn't racist and that black people shouldn't be offended.
I also hope you unintentionally ignored all the black people on social media who were actually offended by this joke.[/QUOTE]
There's probably also black people who think the commercial isn't racist.
And non-black people who were offended by this joke.
It's almost as if you can't generalise every single person's beliefs based on their skin colour.
[QUOTE=ROFLBURGER;50413288]I also hope you unintentionally ignored all the black people on social media who were actually offended by this joke.[/QUOTE]
CAre to give any examples of all those black people?
The article itself only list 3 white people, and looking up the name of the detergent on Twitter shows mostly white people.
[QUOTE=Zyler;50412956]About the whole black man versus white man saying 'nigger' thing, what relation does that have to the intention of the people behind this commercial. First of all, they never say 'nigger'. Secondly, the people who made this commercial aren't white, they're presumably Asian. And thirdly, as you yourself state the use of the word 'nigger' is either racist or not depending on how it is used and not just who says it. Finally, there's nothing transformative about the use of the word 'nigger' by itself- it's a word used to describe somebody. It can be used in a transformative context, but it doesn't have anything to do with the set up or pay off of the commercial in question.[/QUOTE]
I brought up the N word because it's a fair analogy. You were saying, "Well, why does the italian get to turn into a black person", and it's because of context - An italian making fun of himself by turning into a black person provides a context that makes the entire situation look ridiculous and potentially funny - it's self-deprecating humor. On the flipside, an Asian turning a black person into an Asian is really shitty because of the global context for black people. They deal with a lot of discrimination in China with people legitimately thinking shitty things, like thinking they look ugly, or perpetuating dumb stereotypes, etc. Also, throughout global history, black people [I]were[/I] seen as gross sub-human people unfit for society, so globally and nationally this commercial should be seen as offensive.
Black people can use the N word because people generally understand that they're probably not going to use it in the derogatory way that white people have historically used it, and a lot of them are trying to own the word and transform it into something more positive. White people shouldn't be saying the N word because it's hard to do that while suggesting your intentions are good, because historically white people have only used it for the purpose of racism. You end up with the same situation where if you're going to make a commercial like that or you're not black and you're going to say the N word you're going to have a hard time winning by saying, "Oh, well there's no racist connotations here. We're not making any statements about black people here." If it's not racist like I said, it's just straight up stupid. Fire the marketing team.
[QUOTE=Zyler;50412956]To your second point, I don't know how you managed to respond to a point I hadn't made prior to your previous comment, but to the idea of Chinese racism- it has no bearing on whether the specific people who made this specific commercial are in any way racist. Unless you believe that these examples you've cited demonstrate that all Chinese people are racist.[/quote]
I'm not going to say that all Chinese people are racist, but to say that China hasn't had any historical problems with black people, you're dead wrong. Racism in China is definitely a thing, which provides the context I mentioned earlier that makes a commercial like this very easy to interpret badly. It's bad marketing and bad situational awareness.
[QUOTE=Zyler;50412956]When you talk about the social context of the West versus East Asia, have you considered that the reason people are anxious about the perceived animosity between white people and black people in the West (and mainly in America, not so much in Europe) it's due to historical grievances such as slavery and apartheid and not just being a minority versus being a majority. Asian-Americans in the West for example do not normally receive the same sensitivity despite being even more of a minority. In places like South Africa, there's perceived animosity between white people and black people despite black people being the majority. Perhaps in China they don't have the same cultural associations between black people and oppression. Note, I'm not arguing whether they should or shouldn't.[/quote]
Sure, and it's not an excuse, because there's still racism there, slavery or not.
[QUOTE=Zyler;50412956]As a result of this, I can't say that the makers of the commercial were deliberately racist. They were, at most, racially insensitive- mostly to people coming from a western audience who can't understand Chinese cultural references.[/quote]
Racially insensitive is a fair way to describe it - I don't think that these people are necessarily against black people. It's just a shit racist joke from a bad marketing team, and something that might come from a darker societal problem of racism.
[QUOTE=Zyler;50412956]Your argument seems to be "there are racist Asian people so it's okay to substitute any and all Asian people for any and all white people in any context with regards to race and treat them as if they were white." [/quote]
I'm not saying that Asians should be treated the same as white people, but I do think they shouldn't be let off the hook because they weren't responsible for things like slavery or anything like that.
[QUOTE=Zyler;50412956]The situation of race relations in Asia is different from the situation of race relations in the West, so much so that it isn't really that easy to compare the two, much less substitute one for the other.[/QUOTE]
Sure, the cultures are complex and far different, but racism is still a thing over there which provides enough reason to not want to do shit like this.
[QUOTE=Headhumpy;50411711]boy it sure is easy telling people to dismiss racism as just good ol' ribbing and crude humour when you're not actually that race, isn't it? haha![/QUOTE]
I'd actually like it better if we could just not give a fuck and make fun of everybody. I honestly feel that this shit isn't worth giving a shit about because like it or not racial jokes will exist forever. And some of them will be funny.
[QUOTE=Ganerumo;50412987]So out of the five pages of critics, there's only one black guy who actually complained about the ad and from what I've seen he's more racist than anyone else on this thread.[/QUOTE]
Why is this relevant? Should I just spend my life keeping to myself? Would you rather me not speak on black or women's issues?
I'm not going to make myself out as the protector of black people, because me looking at this commercial and responding is definitely a selfish thing. I don't want to see terrible content like this.
[editline]29th May 2016[/editline]
[QUOTE=Cocacoladude;50413407]I'd actually like it better if we could just not give a fuck and make fun of everybody. I honestly feel that this shit isn't worth giving a shit about because like it or not racial jokes will exist forever. And some of them will be funny.[/QUOTE]
I'm pretty sure everyone wants to get to that point where we can make fun of each other, but the problem is making the distinction, and people failing to take their surroundings into account.
When you go up on stage to make [I]any[/I] kind of offensive joke, whether it be about 9/11, or race, or anything that's really touchy, you really have to make use of that opportunity. You have to go up there and really make that joke function the way you wanted it to, and that opportunity for laughs is just as big as the opportunity for people to get confused and associate you with what you're exactly fighting against. The best offensive jokes are the ones in which you understand that the person themselves don't have offensive personalities or stances or anything like that, and they're just having fun with parody. The ones that crash and burn are the ones that become ambiguous. If people in the audience are asking if they're actually racist chances are that comedian failed.
That's why I'm emphasizing more that this marketing team sucks. They don't really give the perception that being isn't bad. Everything in this commercial is negative towards black people, and while it's seen as "haha funny" for some, the ambiguity makes this commercial repulsive for people like me. And I feel pretty safe betting on the fact that they aren't racist, but they're stupid for not looking anticipating this negative backlash.
And for reference, I've heard both good and bad racist jokes. I like raunchy comedians.
[QUOTE=gokiyono;50413322]CAre to give any examples of all those black people?
The article itself only list 3 white people, and looking up the name of the detergent on Twitter shows mostly white people.[/QUOTE]
heres some black people i guess. most people don't even have their faces as their avatars so I can't tell who's black and who's white.
i've included racist comments towards chinese people because I don't like to cherrypick.
[media]https://twitter.com/EverettDavis14/status/736351931799478275[/media]
[media]https://twitter.com/dawitdawit/status/736215496857522176[/media]
[media]https://twitter.com/bayangiman/status/736112513427722240[/media]
[media]https://twitter.com/keren_dawit/status/736579561694089216[/media]
Most of these were from CNN's twitter. CNN is pretty white so I guess that's an achievement.
Also found out that twitter has this thing:
[url]https://twitter.com/i/moments/736176425041068033[/url]
I'm sure there's more on facebook but facebook is restricted to those who don't have a facebook. I could find hundreds of black people who were offended over this commercial, but I don't have the time and patience to prove that there is a sizable amount of black people who were offended over this.
[QUOTE=wauterboi;50413399]I brought up the N word because it's a fair analogy. You were saying, "Well, why does the italian get to turn into a black person", and it's because of context - An italian making fun of himself by turning into a black person provides a context that makes the entire situation look ridiculous and potentially funny - it's self-deprecating humor. On the flipside, an Asian turning a black person into an Asian is really shitty because of the global context for black people. They deal with a lot of discrimination in China with people legitimately thinking shitty things, like thinking they look ugly, or perpetuating dumb stereotypes, etc. Also, throughout global history, black people [I]were[/I] seen as gross sub-human people unfit for society, so globally and nationally this commercial should be seen as offensive.
Black people can use the N word because people generally understand that they're probably not going to use it in the derogatory way that white people have historically used it, and a lot of them are trying to own the word and transform it into something more positive. White people shouldn't be saying the N word because it's hard to do that while suggesting your intentions are good, because historically white people have only used it for the purpose of racism. You end up with the same situation where if you're going to make a commercial like that or you're not black and you're going to say the N word you're going to have a hard time winning by saying, "Oh, well there's no racist connotations here. We're not making any statements about black people here." If it's not racist like I said, it's just straight up stupid. Fire the marketing team.
I'm not going to say that all Chinese people are racist, but to say that China hasn't had any historical problems with black people, you're dead wrong. Racism in China is definitely a thing, which provides the context I mentioned earlier that makes a commercial like this very easy to interpret badly. It's bad marketing and bad situational awareness.
Sure, and it's not an excuse, because there's still racism there, slavery or not.
Racially insensitive is a fair way to describe it - I don't think that these people are necessarily against black people. It's just a shit racist joke from a bad marketing team, and something that might come from a darker societal problem of racism.
I'm not saying that Asians should be treated the same as white people, but I do think they shouldn't be let off the hook because they weren't responsible for things like slavery or anything like that.
Sure, the cultures are complex and far different, but racism is still a thing over there which provides enough reason to not want to do shit like this.[/QUOTE]
I understand the point you're making, I disagree because what you're saying, while applicable to wider societal trends (i.e. Sociology), is a massive generalisation when it comes to analysis of media texts for the main reason (and there are other reasons) that narrative forms carry their own 'language' and cultural references and symbols that when taken literally mean something different than to someone who is fluent in the 'language' of the media. That means that any prospective work can carry a wide arrange of meanings to different people and ultimately any text can be analysed deeply enough so that it is made to seem an allegory for some bigotted position or statement regardless of authorial intent (see the entire field of critical theory).
If taken literally, the entire concept of a woman stuffing someone into a washing machine is very violent and suggests that the woman in questions is some horrible human being to assault someone in that manner no matter which version of the commercial you watch. If read in his literal manner, the Italian commercial is essentially a story about a sadistic and pscyhopathic woman who stuffs her husband into a magical washing machine, killing him and replacing him with a black sex slave. Is it meant to be read that way though?
That, combined with the idea I mentioned earlier, that the definition of words such as 'racist' has slipped over time to mean less and less severe things as a result of overuse, makes me hesitant to claim any creative work is inherently racist (thereby making the implicit statement that the creator is therefore a racist).
What I think happened here is that the creator's of the commercial had a specific intent when creating it that was not racist or bigotted in any way, but due to incompetence, bad writing and/or bad design they created a commercial that was read as very racially insensitive by a western audience despite that not being their intention. They should have done a better job of considering how people would have read their work, but it was not their intent to be insensitive nor do I think that they are secretly racist due to Chinese culture (at least not just because of this commercial).
Essentially, if someone came out and said "I don't like black people", you could talk to them and point out where they're wrong in their thinking and why they are prejudiced against black people. If someone made a documentary, news article or blog post with discriminatory statements, generalisations and false statistics, you can analyze and take apart the piece and point out the bias and the lies. But when someone publishes a fictional piece, even something as banal as a television commercial, taking it apart like this isn't as obvious because fictional works exist in their own worlds with their own 'language' and complex symbolism.
There are people pointing out how ridiculous it is that there's a 6 page discussion over whether a commercial is racist, but I think it's quite illustrative of the fact that dissecting media texts in this manner is nigh impossible.
If unpacking a minute long commercial is this difficult, then imagine how hard it would be to analyze an hour and a half long movie or a 32 hour videogame. This is why I'm anxious about people who claim to comphrehensively understand what X film says about gender or what Y video game says about race. To me, with how complicated it seems, it shouldn't be possible for anybody to have a comprehensive understanding of the cultural impact of any film, video game, book or graphic novel. So, those people must either have a somewhat (reasonable) simplistic understanding of the text in question or they must be talking out of their arse.
[QUOTE=Turnips5;50410682]nah I just wanted to know thanks[/QUOTE]
umm have you tried being nonchalantly passive aggressive without punctuation might make you look cool
[QUOTE=Dzonintz;50410696]Then how did a white guy come out black in the Italian version?[/QUOTE]
It's probably not a detergent as much as it's a dye. The Chinese one most likely also contains bleach in some form, so it makes sense for them to exist as 'inverses' of each other. All that's missing is a 'mild detergent' commercial where a tan guy just comes back out (styled) as supermodel :v:
That said, both of these are definitely insensitive, so I actually don't have an issue with people complaining about the concept. To me they're both pretty funny, but then again to me skin colour is just skin colour, and I'm not easily offended, which isn't the case for everyone. It can definitely be argued that the ads both contain racist elements and/or shouldn't have been made out of respect for current cultural issues. Personally I think that being romantically attracted to someone based on their looks (including skin colour) isn't something that should be treated as harmful or otherwise bad though, and it's really not a stretch to see the Chinese one in that context. (The Italian probably goes a bit too far with the text at the end since it's a narrated judgement, but to be fair I can't tell what the Chinese one says there and otherwise they're almost exactly the same.) It would probably be harder to explain the normalisation of domestic violence against men in these commercials, since that's what technically happens here regardless of context.
What I take issue with is alleging one of the commercials is racist while the other isn't based on who turns into whom.
That seems to draw a pretty arbitrary line dividing people based solely on skin colour, which, at least to me, is pretty much textbook racism.
[QUOTE=Tamschi;50414029]It's probably not a detergent as much as it's a dye.[/QUOTE]
You're completely right, the Italian ad is not for detergent but for dye.
[QUOTE=axelord157;50411130]I'll give you that one. My wording was a bit implicit. Its just that I find it hard to see an average Serbian person knowing or caring about racist media that makes a black dude the ass end of a joke. Something I'm finding easier and easier to belive as this thread goes on.[/QUOTE]
There's a ton of racism over here in the EU too, unfortunately, so it makes sense people from over here would be very aware of it. (We also have more US media than the US has European media, which is another factor regarding awareness.)
Racism over here is also based on many factors other than skin colour though, so it's not surprising the 'average US American' wouldn't 'know' or 'care'. /s
(Seriously, this is a crappy line of argument. At least ask what someone's framework is instead of judging them purely by your assumptions. What you write here comes off as way more xenophobic than those ads could ever hope to.)
[QUOTE=Tamschi;50414029]It's probably not a detergent as much as it's a dye. The Chinese one most likely also contains bleach in some form, so it makes sense for them to exist as 'inverses' of each other. All that's missing is a 'mild detergent' commercial where a tan guy just comes back out (styled) as supermodel :v:
That said, both of these are definitely insensitive, so I actually don't have an issue with people complaining about the concept. To me they're both pretty funny, but then again to me skin colour is just skin colour, and I'm not easily offended, which isn't the case for everyone. It can definitely be argued that the ads both contain racist elements and/or shouldn't have been made out of respect for current cultural issues. Personally I think that being romantically attracted to someone based on their looks (including skin colour) isn't something that should be treated as harmful or otherwise bad though, and it's really not a stretch to see the Chinese one in that context. (The Italian probably goes a bit too far with the text at the end since it's a narrated judgement, but to be fair I can't tell what the Chinese one says there and otherwise they're almost exactly the same.) It would probably be harder to explain the normalisation of domestic violence against men in these commercials, since that's what technically happens here regardless of context.
What I take issue with is alleging one of the commercials is racist while the other isn't based on who turns into whom.
That seems to draw a pretty arbitrary line dividing people based solely on skin colour, which, at least to me, is pretty much textbook racism.[/QUOTE]
Would you say it's racist for people to accept black people using the N word a deny white people doing the same thing?
[QUOTE=wauterboi;50415728]Would you say it's racist for people to accept black people using the N word a deny white people doing the same thing?[/QUOTE]
If it's regardless of context? Yes. I don't subscribe to people being unable to be racist against themselves, so to me there isn't a good reason that isn't cultural and as such wouldn't have to be looked at in the individual case and in context first.
I think it's totally fine if people get offended over it though (or anything really), as long as they don't start attacking who said that personally without giving them a chance to explain themselves. It would be pretty crazy if I'd disagree with anyone making their opinion known (short of outright hate speech, but that word quite evidently doesn't always fall into that category).
I personally don't use it, but I prefer to use politically correct terms and a polite speech register as a general courtesy.
Okay listen, a lot of the times when this shit comes up, the main problem is that most people put a bit too much thought into being called "racist" (or not enough). Look, we all sometimes do racist shit, inevitably. It's not some 'on-or-off' kinda deal. Most people when they get called racist they start waving their arms around, trying to defend themselves to their last breath but that just has no fucking point. Saying or doing something racist is understandable and totally forgiveable [I]as long as[/I] you take the time to fully understand why what you said or did was shitty and apologize and remember not to do that shitty thing again because now you know why it's a shitty thing to do in the first place. It's like pre-school level shit, surely you can manage it. When someone calls you out, discuss the thing with them, and be at least a bit critical of yourself please. Scapegoating some "PC culture" is such a weak defense mechanism. Some of you like bitching about people getting offended too much but to me sometimes it seems you're the overly sensitive ones.
Stop worrying so much about whether you're racist or not. You're racist if you do racist shit and bounce off all criticism with your "fuck PC culture!" shield and don't take the time to even try to question yourself and stop to think "what if something im doing really is shitty?"
[QUOTE=Blind Weasel;50416480]Okay listen, a lot of the times when this shit comes up, the main problem is that most people put a bit too much thought into being called "racist" (or not enough). Look, we all sometimes do racist shit, inevitably. It's not some 'on-or-off' kinda deal. Most people when they get called racist they start waving their arms around, trying to defend themselves to their last breath but that just has no fucking point. Saying or doing something racist is understandable and totally forgiveable [I]as long as[/I] you take the time to fully understand why what you said or did was shitty and apologize and remember not to do that shitty thing again because now you know why it's a shitty thing to do in the first place. It's like pre-school level shit, surely you can manage it. When someone calls you out, discuss the thing with them, and be at least a bit critical of yourself please. Scapegoating some "PC culture" is such a weak defense mechanism. Some of you like bitching about people getting offended too much but to me sometimes it seems you're the overly sensitive ones.
Stop worrying so much about whether you're racist or not. You're racist if you do racist shit and bounce off all criticism with your "fuck PC culture!" shield and don't take the time to even try to question yourself and stop to think "what if something im doing really is shitty?"[/QUOTE]
see like
this is the problem I have with that less concrete definition of racism
The word gets its bad connotations from the "discriminating against other people based on their race" part, because that's an objectively horrible thing to do under any circumstances. But when you start accusing people of "doing something that might negatively impact people of a certain race somehow" by calling them racist, you're branding them with the negative connotations of the other usage of the word.
It'd be like if "hooligan" both meant "rude, disorderly person" and "child rapist". Of course people would get upset when you call them a hooligan. Being branded a hooligan in that instance would be just as bad as being branded a child rapist.
[QUOTE=Duck M.;50412488]I feel like if your first impressions dont comprise of "this is kinda racist" at least a little bit, then you might be trying to avoid a natural conclusion there
You guys keep saying "Its just a detergent commercial" but I genuinely dont see how that changes anything at all[/QUOTE]
Literally the only thing I took out of the ad is that the detergent is supposedly so effective that it'll whiten not only the clothes but also the skin of a person if someone were to put themselves in the washing machine
My first impression after watching it was the realization of [I]oh god, some people on the internet will probably look too deep into this and make it out to be some sort of anti-black propaganda[/I] and look at it now.
Looking at it from that criteria I'd say the Italian ad is the racist one by slapping "colored is better" right on your face
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