We Don't Need No Stinkin .... Blacks?
Posted by Skrybe | Posted in Racial tension, the system is evil | Posted on 01:21
Turns out Microsoft is revving up the racism these days. Via Daily Math:
This is not some jokingly photoshopped image that's circulating the web; this is, unfortunately, a real advertisement created (and edited) by Microsoft. The top photo is for American advertisements. The bottom one is for Polish advertisements. Apparently Poland LOVES getting their racist on.
Now this brings forth the question of is this really racism in action? Or is this some form of racism by proxy? In the comments on Daily Math, many people seem to feel that the ad is no more racist than your average Mickey D's ad that tends to cater towards people of color these days. They say that Microsoft is just playing to their audience, utilizing the business approach, and that's how they do business in Poland. Quite interesting. I don't doubt that it's true, but it's very interesting for a business as big as Microsoft to feel the need to play along with it. What I see here is not blatant racism ("We're Microsoft and we hate Blacks"), but rather overt racism to make a dollar ("We're Microsoft and we celebrate diversity. Unless you don't. In which case, that's cool. Just buy our product."). And yep, from a business standpoint that makes perfect sense. Microsoft wasn't created to make the world a happy utopia; they're a business, and they're here to turn a profit. (Side note for those that swear by all Microsoft products - keep that in mind when you're checking out decent-to-better alternatives to Microsoft products)
I don't really have a big problem with the ad itself. As business ads usually go, it's pretty standard stuff, cheesy and somewhat robotic. However the idea behind the ad - that racism is business as usual, and is perfectly acceptable as long as a profit is made - is an idea that I assumed began slowly dying out for the world after the Nazi era. Apparently it's dying off more slowly than I had expected. Ah well. Just more incentive to continue moving away from Microsoft products. Carry on!
Here's that bonus!
This is not some jokingly photoshopped image that's circulating the web; this is, unfortunately, a real advertisement created (and edited) by Microsoft. The top photo is for American advertisements. The bottom one is for Polish advertisements. Apparently Poland LOVES getting their racist on.
Now this brings forth the question of is this really racism in action? Or is this some form of racism by proxy? In the comments on Daily Math, many people seem to feel that the ad is no more racist than your average Mickey D's ad that tends to cater towards people of color these days. They say that Microsoft is just playing to their audience, utilizing the business approach, and that's how they do business in Poland. Quite interesting. I don't doubt that it's true, but it's very interesting for a business as big as Microsoft to feel the need to play along with it. What I see here is not blatant racism ("We're Microsoft and we hate Blacks"), but rather overt racism to make a dollar ("We're Microsoft and we celebrate diversity. Unless you don't. In which case, that's cool. Just buy our product."). And yep, from a business standpoint that makes perfect sense. Microsoft wasn't created to make the world a happy utopia; they're a business, and they're here to turn a profit. (Side note for those that swear by all Microsoft products - keep that in mind when you're checking out decent-to-better alternatives to Microsoft products)
I don't really have a big problem with the ad itself. As business ads usually go, it's pretty standard stuff, cheesy and somewhat robotic. However the idea behind the ad - that racism is business as usual, and is perfectly acceptable as long as a profit is made - is an idea that I assumed began slowly dying out for the world after the Nazi era. Apparently it's dying off more slowly than I had expected. Ah well. Just more incentive to continue moving away from Microsoft products. Carry on!
Here's that bonus!
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