Rioter W poses this question:
Check out this advertisement from the Tradies (similar language appears in their other advertising). Is there any way to interpret this other than as racist?
Good question W!
While the most obvious way to interpret this would be to assume that these ladies are looking for a club with only white people in it, there are ways to in which we can look at this ad where it does not appear quite so racist. Let’s have a look at them.
Sexist:
While the most obvious trait shared by most of the women in 90’s rap videos is the colour of their skin, one could look past then to some other obvious physical attributes. Perhaps the two ladies above are simply looking for a place where nobody has big butts and itty bitty waists? Perhaps these two fair women of discerning taste simply don’t like it when other women dress or dance provocatively. Imagine the two women in the above picture saying the lines in the intro to “Baby Got Back”, it works right?
This may not be racism, it may be simple sexist slut-shaming!
Classist:
Rap music thematically is often associated with low income! Maybe these two women of fine breeding simply want to find a place where they won’t have to deal with anyone from a lower economic or social class from themselves!
Why deal with some nasty girls from the ghetto when you can spend time with the quality refined ladies of the Dickson Tradies club?
Ageist:
Can’t Touch This came out in 1990. Assuming the women dancing in the film clip were 20 or older, those dancers are now in their 40’s, and who wants to go to a club with old people in it?
Not these girls, that’s not who. Only young booty shakers may party with them!
So short answer: YES!
Long answer: YES! But none of them are any better, probably it’s a combo of all these things!
I just feel bad for the poor models who have had their faces used for this.
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What’s Your opinion?
Ask RiotACT: Is the Tradies new advertising racist?
mabinogi said :
I want a place that isn’t filled with incoherently speaking, weapon toting, arm waving f@$&tards with an attitude problem.
HiddenDragon said :
For real, what about Ali G?
I think Borat and Bruno need to look into this.
Rap sucks, and so does the culture that embraces it.
The Beastie Boys were brilliant, but the kind of idiots who like rap are too dim to have understood that the joke was on them.
Maybe they are nervous about rap extras’ tendency to crowd into tight corners, elevators and so on. It could be a bit weird trying to make it to the toilet only to find a tight crowd in the hallway raising the roof.
Anything that pans rap is OK by me. There’s nothing racist about it – I’m told there are rappers from a wide range of skin colours.
Although I suppose you could rightfully say that no other…endeavour(?)…could provide the totally talentless and otherwise unemployable with the opportunity to become (legally) obscenely wealthy.
Well actually it is a tribute to Petula Clark. I Know A Place – highest position 9 on the 2UE Top 40 chart of 24 March 1965.
dtc said :
Then ignore all references to booty shaking.
The common view of rap video extras is not the dancing women, its guys in baggy pants, chains and baseball caps on backwards; or hoodies. Black, white or in between. You are thinking Jay-Z videos; they are thinking Eminem or Hilltop Hoods.
But while I can ‘understand’ the ad, its still stupid.
I much prefer 90’s rap to the crap that comes out these days!
Racist or not, one thing not in dispute is that those ads are crap.
I guess the real question is, What exactly _is_ the Tradies ad saying?
I can’t figure it out, so any of the above explanations seem just as likely to me….
The racism industry has a lot to answer for.
I just don’t understand wtf are they on about?
I could see the potential for someone to think of a racist connotation to it, but it would only be that to extremist idiots who think everything is racist.
You guys have a liquid lunch today