Satirical PSA On Racism Shows Sexism Is Still A-Ok
11 September 2008, 4:30 PM. By Daniel Mauser
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. A man walks into an elevator… And a White woman clutches her purse a little closer, presumably because he’s Black and, therefore, feeds off the idea of change. While the concept of the video — breaking the third wall to address the audience about an oft-unnoticed, everyday example of racism — could be pretty effective, we’re too distracted and concerned by another form of hate farting in the corner of this elevator, hoping you don’t notice:
“Stupid White bitch.”
…Really? You’re going to address hatred of one group at the expense of another marginalized group and bolster a pervading stereotype in order to detract from your message for the sake of a cheap laugh? Man, no. Racism and sexism are too important to kick one aside for the other. And when women grows visibly uncomfortable when a man, of any race, enters into a small, isolated space with her, please recognize that this reaction is complicated. And that there may be a lot more going on than knee-jerk racism. Our bottom line is that there are myriad ways to address racism without resorting to calling women “stupid bitches.”
You had better believed that if anyone referred to us as a “stupid White bitch,” they should be expecting to enter into an elevator of pain.
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i thought she clutched it cuz she thought he might want to carry her purse as his own.
I have to say that dude scared the shit out of me. He was like going to pull my weave out or something. So much for enlightening me about black men.
And then she maced him!
I wish that instead of being the one who is slightly intimidated by being in an elevator alone with a strange man, I were the man who she was afraid of. I have to wonder why anybody even complains about that. If I saw people acting scared at my approach, it would make me smile inside, not whine like a bitch.
And then she maced him!
I wish that instead of being the one who is slightly intimidated by being in an elevator alone with a strange man, I were the man who she was afraid of. I have to wonder why anybody even complains about that. If I saw people acting scared at my approach, it would make me smile inside, not whine like a bitch.
And then she maced him!
I wish that instead of being the one who is slightly intimidated by being in an elevator alone with a strange man, I were the man who she was afraid of. I have to wonder why anybody even complains about that. If I saw people acting scared at my approach, it would make me smile inside, not whine like a bitch.
OKAY. WOW. That wasn’t anywhere near funny. That was actually pretty friggin damaging, thanks, thanks for that. As if I needed another reason to self medicate today.
I’m the first to admit I’m a bit extreme with some of my mostly very left views on all things socio-political, one of those things I’m very very vocal and a bit provocative about is racism, the other is disgusting male sexism, and the other is my belief that violence is never the answer. These are honestly the three core issues that concern me the most. I can get very excitable about racism and sexism, they bother me a lot for personal reasons, but no matter how extreme I might be about getting my point across, my pacifism tempers my anger. There are lines no one should cross, no matter the reasoning or justification, this stupidly evil psa crosses that line.
Racism concerns me so much because there is so much veiled and blatant racism out there being committed everyday, not just by whites against blacks or vice versa. Disgusting male sexism bothers me so much because its also friggin everywhere; most of my jobs over the past ten years have been in one construction trade or another, I’ve had to endure a lot of really heinously stupid, adolescent, good ol’ boy conversation over those years. I had a lot of racist shit thrown my way working around blue collar types, it was usually always couched in some shitty attempt at humor, but more than a few times it was stated outright, and harangued on day after day. How I dealt with that shit over the years is a friggin memoir in itself, so I’ll just shamelessly admit that one of those ways was to smoke a lot of weed. However horrible all that racist shit was, the worst vitriol spewed by the good ol’ boys was always saved for women, especially women of color, and especially especially fat women of color. Mind you the good ol’ boys weren’t exclusively white dudes with mullets from Jersey and Long Guyland who listen to Opie and Anthony religiously. More often than not crews I worked with were a majority black and hispanic, and whenever the conversation turned to grumbling about women, which it did very, very often, the angry white dudes weren’t the only ones to start the dogpile on the rabbit, they just happened to be the ones on top making the most money. Most of these dudes had wives and daughters at home, I cringe to think of what it must be like to be married to those assholes.
This horrible attempt at what I can only guess is supposed to be satire fails so miserably on so many levels. It does so much damage because it excuses one sin - sexism coupled with reverse racism, for the sake of another predetermined sin - past and future perceived racism. As if I didn’t have it bad enough being the short dark skinned guy in these kind of everyday situations, thanks for making things even more tense, thanks a lot.
Yeah, see, elevator was a bad choice. What woman hasn’t had something happen to her (or almost happen to her) in an elevator?
Also, racism (especially openly expressed racism) has a lot lot LOT to do with image and percieved class. A black man in a suit does not elicit the same (racist) response as a black man in baggy jeans and an XXL sweatshirt, for example.
I honestly think that it never occured to the creator(s) of the video that an elevator was a bad choice, or that there could be another explication for a woman’s response on a man entering into an empty elevator with her. Why do I think this? Because when our narrator shouts, the woman shoves her purse at him. That would never, ever be the actual response of a woman afriad of a man in an elevator, startled. Crouching on the ground, trying to make your body as un-vulnerable as possible, these are natural responses. But if it doesn’t occur to you that THAT is what an elevator signifies to (most) women, then the staging makes perfect sense.
Sing it, guanabee. Enough cannibalism.
The ad is hilarious and captures perfectly the dynamic we see every f’ing day in our lives. Gringos are indeed that prejudiced and black people are angry about it. Vicious cycle, feeds into itself, blah, blah, blah. It’s an old story.