Friday, January 21, 2011
The Human Network (At The Center Of Which Is A Breakdancing Black Kid)
We are all "interconnected," sure--but there is a fine line between connectivity and psychic colonization, and Cisco has crossed that line.
A hundred or even ten years ago, Tibetan Monks could focus on their meditations. But now, with Cisco, all attentions get distracted by the dancing black kid. No more will we have a moment's peace. Every household will get invaded by his insistent, mindless, pointless gyrations. Every person will drop what they are doing and re-prioritize, and at the top of their mental to-do list will be, well: pay attention to the dancing black kid. Why? Because Cisco has brought you to this crisis in which what is going on around you is irrelevant. It is only the black kid and your instant access to his dance that matters. If you don't have black-kid access, well, you're just so last century.
And then...then the heartbreaking moment, that crucial second at :27 (the most important point in a 30 second ad, as we have mentioned previously) when the white kid looks up with that face that says "The world would pay attention to me if I were that dancing black kid." His look betokens envy, admiration, loneliness and loss. It only lasts a second, but it is immediately followed by and contrasted with the dancing black kid, looking smug, dancing over Times Square(!)
A voiceover condescendingly reassures "Anyone can be famous," implying that even shy white kids, more cerebral perhaps, might be able to indulge the ego-trip fantasy of being a dancing black kid with the help of Cisco.
Boycott: Cisco
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How can you tell whether the world really exists anymore?
ReplyDeleteThere is something very spirit-crushing about this ad, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteI've always found it interesting that Marconi, whose innovations in wireless radio communications were what first facilitated the creation of this liberal "world conciousness" was himself a member of Mussolini's Fascist Grand Council.
ReplyDeleteHi AWM : Again I come to you for advice, I hope you don't mind.
ReplyDeleteIf I knew where to write to you directly, I would.
But I figure you read your blog's comments.
Anywho, the question I have for you is: how does it work to go from a blogspot to a .com?
I know that you recently went from AWM.blogspot.com to AWM.com, and I salute you for making this important change.
Is it as simple as signing up with Go Daddy and paying the fee? Is the content of your blog automatically switched to the durable .com version? Or is it more complicated than that?
Please let me know.
Thanks,
crimesofthetimes.blogspot.com
Artur,
ReplyDeleteI am sure there are many ways to go about doing this. But in my case I just registered a new domain at nettica.com and then used my current blogspot address to point to the nettica-registered domain name. So every time someone writes antiwhitemedia.blogspot.com it gets routed to the antiwhitemedia.com domain. The content and layout are still blogger/blogspot based. The process isn't too complicated. Like I said, I am sure there are many more ways than one to go about doing this. And I am sure if you type in "changing blogger to custom domain" in youtube or something there would be lots of instructional vids. I am no expert on this stuff, or I would give more in depth advice.
As far as writing me directly, I still don't give out a personal email, though I might start giving out a pseudonymic one soon, to make submissions easier for people. Thanks for your interest and continued good work at crimesofthetimes.
Wow, a dancing black kid is the main character. Therefore whites should be offended? Why? Should the Indians, Chinese, etc. (also depicted in the ad but not as the main character) be offended too? And if so, shouldn't the Indians, Chinese, etc. STILL be offended if you replaced the black kid with a white kid? Have we degraded to the level of becoming offended whenever someone else gets to be the center of attention?
ReplyDeleteSurely the point of the ad is that ethnic distinctions shouldn't even matter as we become increasingly interconnected?
"Surely the point of the ad is that ethnic distinctions shouldn't even matter as we become increasingly interconnected?"
ReplyDeleteNo. That isn't the point, you moron. It's the dancing black kid. That's the point.
anon: it was never going to be a dancing white kid with an admiring, wide-eyed black kid at :27, was it? that's why the point isn't just "we're all connected."
ReplyDeleteAs I said, if you replaced the dancing black kid with a dancing white kid, should black people now be offended by the ad? If not, then why should white people be offended by the ad the way it is?
ReplyDeleteIf there is only room for one dancing kid, that one kid will be of a certain ethnic background. It it idiotic for every other ethnic background to be offended just because the dancing kid was not from their group. In the same way, the dancing kid is a boy, so should all girls be offended by the ad?
But answer the question, anon... what was the likelihood that the creators of the ad were EVER going to pick a white kid as the star?
ReplyDelete"what was the likelihood that the creators of the ad were EVER going to pick a white kid as the star?"
ReplyDeleteHigher than the likelihood that the creators of the ad would pick say an Asian kid as the star. But do the Asians complain?
Higher than the likelihood that the creators of the ad would pick say an Asian kid as the star.
ReplyDeleteAh, so you admit there's an agenda at work.
You're making progress, well done. *pats you on the head*
"But do the Asians complain? "
ReplyDeleteActually, yeah, they do complain all the time. How racist of you not to know that.
Anyway, this site is about advocating for whites, not asians. You're obviously on the wrong site if you're looking for asian criticism of the media.
"Ah, so you admit there's an agenda at work."
ReplyDeleteI didn't say that. Picking certain people for certain roles more often does not imply an agenda. For example, most Hollywood action heroes are male. Does that imply that Hollywood has an anti-female agenda?
Indeed, you still haven't answered my question. The dancing kid in this very ad is male. Does that imply this ad has an anti-female agenda? How stupid would a woman have to be to start a blog called "Anti-Female Media" and put this ad on it? How is this blog different?
"Actually, yeah, they do complain all the time."
No, do they complain about THIS AD? Find me, if you can, a single Asian anywhere on the entire internet complaining that the dancing kid in THIS AD is not Asian, and therefore the ad is "anti-Asian". I doubt you will succeed.
Picking certain people for certain roles more often does not imply an agenda.
ReplyDeleteSo why was the black boy chosen and not a white boy or an Asian boy? You reject the reason given on this blog. So what's yours? And please include in your explanation why a white kid couldn't have been cast in the role.
No, do they complain about THIS AD?
I don't know. You're the one claiming they don't, so go do a search and see if anyone is complaining about it. It's not particularly interesting to me since I'm not that interested in Asian-American criticism of the media.
I do know from a little bit of research that there are plenty of Asian-Americans critical of how they are represented in the media, with websites where they discuss the issue. You seem a bit unaware of this, which tells me that you probably don't spend time on their sites telling them that the racism they perceive is all in their heads. And yet you come back over and over to do it here. Why is that? Why hassle white people who are critical of how they are represented in the media, and not Asians? Why the hostility towards white people?
"So why was the black boy chosen and not a white boy or an Asian boy?"
ReplyDeleteSo why are most Hollywood action heroes not female?
"You reject the reason given on this blog. So what's yours?"
Maybe the kid they chose was actually better at dancing?
"And please include in your explanation why a white kid couldn't have been cast in the role."
Maybe the white kids who showed up at the audition did not dance as well?
"there are plenty of Asian-Americans critical of how they are represented in the media"
Oh I know about those guys. They mainly complain about how on-screen interracial couples mostly involve Asian females and rarely Asian males. But they are not against interracial couples as a whole, they are asking for MORE interracial couples involving Asian males. Therefore they are cool in my book.