In the words of Nivea on a recent ad the German owned company ran in the September issue of Esquire Magazine. The ad pictures a clean shaven African American man about to toss a scruffy mask of himself with a Afro and not clean shaven. Of course this caused outrage in across the interweb in mass. In fact #Nivea was a trending topic only a few hours after the ad was run.
The company issued the standard we are sorry and didn’t intend to offend anyone with the ad and it’s being pulled…yada yada. The real question is was this really a racist ad? Honestly the way you look is a personal choice and clean shaven has always been a standard of for lack of a better way to say it looking like you give a damn. Now before you get all salty I know there’s a natural hair movement and people should be judged on their merit alone, but does anyone really believe that’s how it is?
I’ve heard more than once someone in a corporate setting state I’m surprised “they” would let him or her get away with wearing dreads or an un-rulely Afro in the workplace. I’ve only heard this from other African Americans. I’m not making any judgements in this situation but it makes me wonder what people are actually thinking. What do you view as clean cut? Does having dreads and Afro or even braids make you seem dirty or even less intelligent in the eyes of others?
So the question is what’s really offensive about the pictures below? Does the one with the white guy bother you? If not why not? What about the one with the black guy? Does it bother you? Is so why, or if not why not.
