Red Stripe Commercial Quandary

I'd like you to watch this commercial if you have the time.



(If not, a quick description: The Jamaican Red Stripe promoter is dancing to reggae holding a beer. An obviously confused white guy can't seem to figure out what to do. The promoter gives the white guy the beer and now he can dance.)

Now, I'm a fan of Red Stripe beer commercials. The beer itself tastes more to me like a moldy Otis Spunkmeyer muffin (you can ask, if you must), but the commercials I enjoy. Even this one. However, couldn't I be offended by the content if I wanted to be offended?

The idea that a white man cannot dance unless aided by a beer is a bit stereotypical. Sure, most white men probably are less comfortable at dancing to reggae, and probably aren't very good at it either. I, as a white man, am okay with that. I prefer to dance to a good country song anyway, and I feel like I can do it just fine.

But what if the roles (and perhaps for the sake of argument, the product) in this commercial were altered? Now, I don't want to go into any specifics, but if this were to be a white man peddling a product that would improve a black man's ability to do something that black men are stereotypically regarded as being poor at, would this commercial fly? Or if this were a white man and an Arabic man? Or a Latino? Even if the subject of the inadequecy was somewhat lighthearted...nothing political or whatnot...I still feel this would never even make it off the runway in a brainstorming session.

Why is this? Is it because I simply could care less about being offended, and others would rather raise an objection and receive that offense? I don't think you can say it is because I've never been treated differently because of race, religion, gender, etc. because I have. When I was applying for collegiate scholarships I was flat-out told that "because I am a middle-class white male I will have a great deal of difficulty receiving any scholarships." And the person telling me this was correct. There was a scholarship specific to every person on earth I felt, except for myself. There was American Indian only, African American only, Latin American only...you name it. No caucasion American only, though.

When I played football for Texas A&M, I was merely a walk-on trying to live a dream. However, after my first season, the athletic department came to to the football coaches and told them that due to Title IX (equal opportunity legislation for female athletics---which has done a lot to advance women's athletics by the way---) the team had to stay at 120 players. It could not go above this because it would cause there to be an unequal ratio of men to women athletes.
S
o nine players had to be cut. Nine. On a freaking college football team. I obviously didn't make it. I am obviously disappointed. But at the same time a lot of good things that happened to me would not have happened had I kept playing football.

But the point is, I've been discriminated against. You've been discriminated against. We all have been. It's a part of life. If we were all the same color, people would still find a reason to congregate together in groups and other small minded people in different groups would make fun of those groups.

"Look it's the brown eyes!!! Ha, ha...losers have brown eyes!"

Or..."Tatooed people smell! Everyone with a tatoo smells like a week old kolache!!!"

Look at the new Jetta commercials, for example.

You get my drift. So, am I wrong for being okay with being made fun of for a stereotype in a commercial? Should I be pissed off and raise hell to Red Stripe in defense of my race?

Or should we all lighten up and realize that we're different and that's okay?We are all different, in and out of our races. No big deal.

Or is there some middle ground where a line is drawn, but good natured fun-poking is just part of life?

Maybe the answer is in building relationships with groups (racially based or not) that are different from us. I have a friend who is white. His best friend is a black guy. They both know that the other would step in front of a bullet for each other if only to preserve the other one's life for one more second. The white guy calls the black guy "Big Color." Someone may have just been offended. But not this particular black guy. He knows there's not a racist bone in his friend's body. His friend may not like you, but it has nothing to do with your race. He knows his friend and loves his nickname for him.

So maybe it is about relationships, maybe it is about defending when defending is called for and maybe it is about letting stuff go as lighthearted, non-malicious jocularity when necessary. Like I am doing with the Red Stripe commercial. Even though I think I'm a pretty awesome reggae dancer.