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I ripped this from Blac(k)academic's site:
Sony Pulls Racially-Charged Billboards
Assemblyman Yee, NAACP, Sojourn Commend Corporation for Ending Ad Campaign
SACRAMENTO – A week after Assembly Speaker pro Tem Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/Daly City), the NAACP, and Sojourn to the Past – a youth civil rights education project, condemned Sony Corporation for a racially charged advertisement in the Netherlands, Sony has pulled the billboard campaign and apologized to those offended. Today, Yee and other civil rights leaders commended Sony for their latest action.
Sony said in a statement issued by Nick Sharples, Director of Corporate Communications in Europe: “We further recognize that people have a wide variety of perceptions about such imagery and we wish to apologize to those who perceived the advert differently to that intended. In future, we will apply greater sensitivity in our selection of campaign imagery, and will take due account of the increasingly global reach of such local adverts, and their potential impact in other countries.�
“I am pleased to see Sony taking responsibility for their racially-charged ad and appropriately pulling it from the marketplace,� said Yee. “Sony did the right thing by recognizing their insensitive mistake and apologizing for offending many of their customers.�
The ad, promoting the release of Sony’s new white-cased portable video game system (PSP), depicted a white woman angrily grabbing a black woman in the face with the text “Playstation Portable. White is coming.�
“Sony has done the honorable thing by owning up to the fact that communication and ads in today’s global market have a much further reach than in the past,� said Rick Callender, President of San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP. “Their attempt to contrast colors clearly created controversy and sparked painful feelings in the global community. Hopefully in the future, Sony will employ a better litmus test to their ad campaigns to determine if they will be sour to the taste of worldwide consumers. I commend them for their actions.�
“Working with young people, Sojourn to the Past teaches many lessons of the Civil Rights Movement including the capacity to change and forgiveness,� said Jeff Steinberg, Sojourn to the Past’s Executive Director. “By ending this ad campaign, Sony deserves credit for righting their wrong. We urge all corporations to no longer use such derogatory and racially-charged images to sell their products. These tactics only serve to divide us.�
“Unfortunately, this is not the first such racial incident the video game industry has faced,� said Yee, author of California’s law to prohibit sales of extremely violent video games to minors. “Many games, including Postal 2 and the Grand Theft Auto series, have faced similar criticism due to their racist images and themes.�
Postal 2 has received significant criticism from civil rights and women’s groups for its over the top depictions of a woman being assaulted and African American characters being dowsed with gasoline and lit on fire, followed by a dialogue that includes, “mmm, smells like chicken,� “now there’s welfare reform for you,� and “I guess it would have been more politically correct to kill the women and the minorities first.� Grand Theft Auto: Vice City garnered criticism from many in the Haitian community after its infamous “Kill all the Haitians� dialogue.
California’s violent video game law, which was scheduled to go into affect on January 1, 2006, has been delayed due to a federal lawsuit filed by the video game industry. A hearing took place in May with a decision expected shortly.
Adam J. Keigwin
Office of
Speaker pro Tem Leland Y. Yee, Ph.D.
California State Assembly, District 12
State Capitol, Room 3173
Sacramento, CA
(916) 319-2012
(916) 319-2112 – fax
I can safely say that out of all the sites that discussed this ad, Nubian's site had the most comments (111 at last visit). Sure, she had some Trolls, which lead me to ask this question: When analyzing what is deemed racist, why do some white people feel that they have the final say as to what is and what isn't? And no, it's not because when it comes to racism, they are (most likely) the perpetrators, it is because of their ingrained supremacist views - when a black person discusses race, it is dismissed as being a knee-jerk reaction, hinting at our inferiority in terms of conjuring up a rational and/ or objective analysis, based on lived experience. No, we are supposed to listen to those who have never experienced racism to tell us that we are playing the 'race card,' or leaning on the 'slavery' crutch.
