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Dear Black People: Stop Embarassing Me Pt. 2 — Damn, Jim.

So, one of the icons of the Blaxploitation era is looking to carry on in modern times:

OG Nation's ads -- white people partying

Brown insists that his OG Nation is all about creating a climate of inclusion and diversity. Some of the ad copy found at the company’s site makes for entertaining reading. “”Lagers have been around for over 2,000 years, dating back to the days of the original gangster Egyptians.” The people pictured presumably enjoying Brown’s products on the site don’t look very “original gangster” to us.

Or very Egyptian, judging by the image on the left. Kinda obvious who his target audience is, huh? He didn’t even throw in a token black person for street cred. I’m not offended by the omission, though; I’m just bitterly amused at how openly Jim has acknowledged a core truth of the “gangsta” cultural prostitution sales engine. Black people have never been the primary audience for most of this ostensibly-black cultural material. It’s why I always get so annoyed/amused whenever people get up in arms about black rappers, etc., profiteering from this stuff — why do they never get up in arms about white teenagers, etc., snapping it up like candy?

That said, the profiteers do deserve some of the censure, so… damn, Jim. Just… damn. ::shakes head::

3 thoughts on “Dear Black People: Stop Embarassing Me Pt. 2 — Damn, Jim.”

  1. Kwame says:

    I found this link from blacknewsjunkie I love your site, and you should be angry about this crap. The people who trying to pimp black culture like this should be tared and feathered.

  2. Josh Jasper says:

    From a (well, my) white perspective, few things look stupider than a middle class white person trying to be hip by buying crap like this.

  3. Yvette says:

    Oh my! “Damn, Jim” is right. I have a post about commercials and advertising “pimping Black history month.” One thing I suspect is that for a lot of these efforts, too, the intended audience is not Blacks but Whites. I think this may be so even when the ads appear in/on media supposedly catering to Black audiences.

    Wonder if OG Nation has a Black history month spot/ad…

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