There is a Mountain Dew Commercial that was the most racist commercial that I have ever witnessed. However, the commercial does not make a lot of sense to me. It was supposedly about Mountain Dew, but what I saw did not relate to the company or their products at all. What was the problem with the commercial?
The issue stems form the nature of the industry. For the most part white people control the media, and they also control the institution. I would go so far as to say that white people in our society stand over almost everything; they control mostly everything (Shaw/ Lee). For example, think of a business or a popular television show or the majority of religious groups in the United States. This Western society and these institutions are dominated by white people. Mountain Dew is not exception.
I think the color of skin prompts the strongest racism in the United States. However, we must get rid of the color bias, because this kind of racism destroys the society. There are some ideologies that support the inequality system and involve prejudices (Shaw/ Lee 55). Many white people have little contact with people of color (Shaw/ Lee 56), which only contributes to racism in our society. The Mountain Dew commercial is a great example of individual oppression. Individual oppression means that when you create racism because of your gender, color or religion (Shaw/ Lee 63).
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"Mountain Dew Commercial".
The word oppression is very strong and endangers the one who uses it (Shaw/ Lee 67). A system of oppression can be defined as system that discriminates some and privileges others based on perceived or real differences among people (Shaw/ Lee 45). The Mountain Dew commercial shows that there is a difference between black people and other people. Some black people feel that they are of a lower class because of their skin color.
What I saw in the ad I hope I do not see again anywhere, because it is something quite shameful. I think the ad idea was not by accident, rather it was something intentional. In response, we must boycott the whole company. Media plays very big role in our society, and it can play an important role in stopping racism. In the end, we all must work together to get rid of these racist views. Our text book explains some ides that we can use to avoid racism: 1) differences in power and privilege; 2) coalitions for common causes; 3) building empathy. Through difference in power and privilege we must know that our differing experiences with oppression create problems among us. We must all have a good and intimate contact with each other. With coalitions around a common cause we must build strong relationships with each other and we must think in order to improve our society. We should be a united group exempt of racists. We do not see or know the same thing all the time, but we must support each other. Building empathy means that our relationships should be strong and we all should care about each other (Shaw/ Lee 64, 65). We all must think and act to change our society for the better and destroy racism.
