Racism on TV

Many of my friends know that I refuse to eat at Jimmy John's, and perhaps now I can enlighten others as to why. To begin with, here is an interesting website that came up on Digg the other day: http://flumesday.com/102906racist.html . Which is your favorite one?

Some of these commercials exploit viewers' xenophobic tendencies and amplify them to emotional effect. Others use a character's ethnic differences as a means to simulate comedy, as if being different is funny in itself. All of the commercials are racist.

I was particularly shocked to see the National Vanguard commerical. At first it seemed like a small piece of white supremacist attitudes that existed in the past. A quick visit to Wikipedia soon revealed that the organization was founded only two years ago. We may be living in the 21st century, but one cannot deny that racism still exists in our society.

Which brings me to the topic of Jimmy John's. This commercial aired on TV a few months ago, and may still be airing for all I know. My jaw literally dropped when I saw it for the first time. The implication that Hispanic families have a large number of children, that Hispanic parents cannot control their kids, and the commercial's use of the Spanish language and accent are all reprehensible. Before anyone disputes this argument, consider this: would the commercial have run if the actors were from any other ethnic group?

Let's cut to another commercial. Here, we have an image of Japanese culture as anime-centric, overly disciplined, and deferential. On top of that, the use of the gong and the accented 'r' are pretty heavily reminiscent of the Charlie Chan yellowface stereotype of those of Asian descent. And while I'm on the topic, can anyone link me to the racist radio commercial that Jimmy John's ran a few years ago? I can't find details about the situation online, but I do remember that it angered the Asian-American community enough that it called a boycott of the franchise.

When such instances of misrepresentation as seen in these commercials are encountered without being addressed, we lose an opportunity to learn and let society dictate what we should be thinking and feeling. For my part, I will continue to avoid Jimmy John's as much as I can, and I encourage everybody that recognizes these problems to do the same.