Comment response

The Fitness Diva left a comment on my last post but it's a no-reply email address so I can't reply to her directly, so I'll reply here.

I did not say fried chicken was a black thing. I was stating what the McDonald's commercial showed and the stereotype it perpetrated. As for rap, same thing, I never said it was a black thing. Please do not put words in my mouth. Stereotypes are rash generalizations made about a specific group of people. I did not start the stereotype and if you think that McDonald's is not perpetrating it that's just ridiculous. I think McDonald's is doing a horrible thing with their current collection of ads, that means I agree with you. In all the recent commercials I've seen for McDonald's, I've only seen one white person involved in rap. Now I know for a fact that's not the way it is in real life so McDonald's is exploiting a stereotype. If you would read what I was trying to say and not get so caught up in your own anger you would see that we are on the same side. You have a right to be angry, but at McDonald's not me. I didn't make the commercials.

And yes, after 50 years on the planet I know people. I think it's rather racist to say I don't know black people. Are you just a human or some special life form that needs special consideration? I've been reading your blog for a while now and I honestly did not know until your comment that you were black, nor did I care. I don't care what color any one's skin is because deep down we are all just people. I also can see when something is just wrong and that's how I feel about those commercials.

I can honestly say I don't often deal with people who have knee-jerk reactions. Most of the people I deal with on a regular basis will strive to understand what is being said before reacting to it. So this reaction kind of surprises me. I guess because I noticed the stereotypes McDonald's was promoting, I'm a racist. I find that argument interesting. I think a racist would be someone who would see those commercials and not see anything wrong with them. Turning a blind eye to these things is a large part of the problem. By me seeing the problem and pointing it out, regardless of my skin color, goes much farther towards solving a problem. Back in the 70's and 80's, when a lot of these issues were being brought up, they used to say if you can't talk about it you can't fix it. I think they were talking about domestic abuse, but the same theory applies here. I think the McDonald's commercials are offensive. If I were to say nothing I'd indirectly be supporting them. But by speaking up I'm a racist. Jeez, I'm just not going to win this one, huh???

And, for my final totally unrelated point, the blog I got the initial observation that McDonald's was targeting black people in their current campaigns was the blog of a black woman who is trying to lose weight. Maybe she's racist too???? And sizest????