"It's just an ad. Why do they make everything about race?"
"I don't see what the issue is honestly, people just want to be mad."
"Want to stop racism? How about we stop race baiting?"
These are just a few of the responses to the outrage about a recent Pepsi advertisement that surfaced and made a mockery of the struggles that people of color face on a daily basis. The ad was quickly (and rightfully) removed after backlash on twitter, however, some people are still weirdly confused as to why this ad was problematic, to begin with, so I'll just break it down piece by piece for those who don't seem to understand.
It is not just an ad, it is an ad that trivializes a very real problem in the United States just for the purpose of selling a drink. This depiction of police brutality in this advertisement implicitly suggest that victims of police brutality are at fault for the unfair treatment that they receive. Contrary to what is an oddly popular belief, being abused by the police is never the fault of the victim. In most of these cases, people of color are killed for simply looking or moving the wrong way, and even in the rare case where the victim was the aggressor, murder and violence should not be the response. Since officers are somehow magically able to restrain those who look like them without violence and aggression, these same "magical powers" should be applied to situations with people of color, but that is a different story for a different day. The point is, the advertisement dismisses the responsibility of the officers who took an oath to abide by it and displaces the blame on those being abused. Furthermore, if the simple fact that people of color are humans is not enough for their lives to matter, please explain how a Pepsi will make a difference, I'm sure many of use would love to know.
Aside from the implicit suggestion that the advertisement makes, the other issue with the advertisement is the person used in it. The fact that a woman who is privileged in every sense of the word is used makes a mockery out of the oppression the was forced onto people of color from the moment we were forced into this country. This oppression is still felt today and still has a major impact. People like Kendall Jenner will never understand our struggles and should not be used to give suggestions on how to endure them. To make matters worse, the Kardashians/Jenners are known to appropriate black culture. Apparently, they understand our culture and our struggles better than we ever will, despite the fact that our culture has been a part of us since birth and these struggles are faced every single day.
Instead of telling people of color to stop "race baiting" every time discontent with their oppression is publicly expressed, let's ask the dominant culture to stop oppressing us, killing us, stealing our culture, making a mockery of our struggles, dismissing us, treating us like we're invisible and so on (this list can really continue forever). If you truly do not understand the frustration, do your research or ask someone before just assuming that people of color are always angry and offended for no reason.
