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Watsons Malaysia under fire for 'blackface' Hari Raya ad
- Thread starter Saya
- Start date
WrenchNinja
Member
Fuck off
Chuck Norris
Banned
Holy shit
KO Traveling Hobo
Member
Hoo boy.
Antiwhippy
the holder of the trombone
Malaysia has a problem with race?
You don't say.
You don't say.
lucebuce12
Member
I always find it amazing how no one with any authority or say actually says anything about the ad in it's entire development process.
From conception to pitching it to development to post to release. No one thought "Huh, maybe we shouldn't run this?"
From conception to pitching it to development to post to release. No one thought "Huh, maybe we shouldn't run this?"
Chuckie
Member
No I don't think so. But that is not really the problem here. The problem is the idea (that is unfortunately very common in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia) that a dark/black skin is uglier than a lighter/white skin. It has been that way for centuries (hence that legend) but that is not an excuse to perpetuate the idea in this day.
They should start making commercials over there that celebrate the diversity in skin color instead of that shit for whitener creams for instance.
Obviously not intended to be blackface or anything, but the optics are bad for sure.
I mean, you look at a ton of cultures out there and blackness is associated with darkness and evil. The night is black, the night is scary, so black is scary. That sort of thing developed in cultures that were monoethnic so it's tough to call them racist.
Unfortunately that's trickled down into cultures favoring lighter skin over darker (even in societies we'd consider "black").
I mean, you look at a ton of cultures out there and blackness is associated with darkness and evil. The night is black, the night is scary, so black is scary. That sort of thing developed in cultures that were monoethnic so it's tough to call them racist.
Unfortunately that's trickled down into cultures favoring lighter skin over darker (even in societies we'd consider "black").
sturgboski
Member
Yes there are many things wrong with this. The biggest part being that in the commercial she washes the black away and then is declared beautiful. Not only does the commercial feature a racist legend, but the commercial completely fucks up the one possible redeeming quality of it, inner beauty.
G, I wonder
Machine
Member
It really is shocking that a small Southeast Asian country would have racist tendencies.
Scarecrow
Member
Oh I agree with you, and point out that blackface is still a hurtful problem even in Europe (is it the Danes who dress up in blackface for some Christmas-related charatcer?). I was just asking about this particular character. Because if it was supposed to be a black person, I was like, why not just hire a black person and avoid an obvious PR nightmare.
Like you wouldn't believe.
Our ruling party's entire political platform is racism - ensuring the economy and political superiority of a specific ethnic group.
Yeah. Just really poor on every level.
Chuckie
Member
No it is us...the Dutch. :/
Also I understand what you mean, but I don't think it would have made this a lot better. So you hire a black person, and then everybody in the commercial is scared and disgusted how ugly that person is and then you transform them to a lighter person (another actor?)
No matter how you play this. It is racist af.
SolicitorPirate
Member
The average Malaysian has no conception of blackface. While Malaysia is a pretty overtly racist country, I can buy the idea they genuinely didn't realise this would be offensive
Women with fairer skin tones are generally considered more beautiful. Men with darker skin however tend not to have as much of an issue.
That said, racism in Malaysia manifests a bit differently. Racism is outright legislated, with the two major minority groups, the Chinese and Indians, having fewer rights than the Malay majority. Given how Chinese and Indians are generally fairer and darker than Malays respectively, racism is more based on your ethnic group than on your skin tone
Finaika
Member
I heard they love white people.
Kite
Member
It is associated with tanned skin = manual labor working in the fields and pale skin = rich and staying inside.
KoopaTheCasual
Junior Member
Colorism is ubiquitous across most/all cultures and it fucking sucks.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
FTFY
crisdecuba
Member
This has been my experience as well. Among Cubans there's a huge range, depending on your background, from dark skinned with tightly curled hair to blonde with straight hair and blue eyes. And even though we are more in the middle of that spectrum, she thinks blonde blue eyed kids are the absolute prettiest...