I heard about and read some commentary concerning a recent ad campaign I thought I should share with you.
From
Mixed Media Watch – tracking media representations of mixed people
I was surprised to learn that supermodel Iman is behind those “I Am African” ads fetauring Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker and other, mostly white, celebs in faux tribal makeup. As Global Ambassador for Keep A Child Alive, an organization that provides medication to African children with HIV/AIDS, she created the campaign to call attention to the plight of those who cannot afford lifesaving drugs. She states on keepachildalive.org that “each and everyone of us contains DNA that can be traced back to our African ancestors.” So this is why we should care about the issue? What aboout compassion, empathy and commitment to social justice?
Ummm….Strange (and interesting) campaign.
I have to agree with you, Ariah. We seem to have lost the ability to care; we are so desensitized as a society to the plights of those around us, that we are no longer acting as compassionate beings. Seems as if the media feels a need to “sell” it to us in some way now in order to get us to act.
So sad…
A gross perversion of an already warped identity politics. If richard and Gwynteh and Sarah Jessica are claiming African heritage they should do much more than have their pictures taken. They should be on the ground doing the real work. But even if such an impossibiltity were to occur, the ‘I Am African’ campaign is–I would imagine–deeply offensive to those who are actually suffering horrors we can scarcely imagine.
The point of the campain is to show everyones joint humanity. The campain shows we ALL share african DNA. Regardless of your skin color, each living human person has african roots. It’s the thing that makes us all esentially the same. Wether you like the campain or not the phrase “I Am African” has a meaning. Not only does it have meaning but it is essentially true. I know most caucasions hate the idea, sadly. But wether you like it or not…it is where life started and we are all AFRICAN. The only thing that makes us cosmetically different is environmental evolution.