Black Women Need Not Apply

Apparently Sean Combs doesn't want Black Women for his Vodka Ads:

From Playahata

Diddy’s CIROC vodka sent out a cattle call looking for and I quote, “White, Hispanic and Light-skinned African American” women to represent his vodka.

We'll get into this later this weekend.

I've has a chance to digest this nonsense. Apparently other reports on the matter have Mr. Combs pushing back on this charge. Here are a couple of problems:

First we have the fact that Cirroc Vodka is fronted by Mr. Combs. The website has Combs on there at least 6 times. Therefore anyone working to adverstise Cirroc Vodka would have to be in tune with what Mr. Combs considers acceptable. So for example, if it were me, once such a draft had been made, someone would have said ' No way is Mr. Tunji going to accept that. Heads will roll." Why because I don't brook for the exclusion of black women. And when I say black I mean black like my Black MacBook. But apparently Mr. Combs does not have that kind of reputation. Perhaps that's a part of why he is where he is and I am, well in my living room typing this. Of course we have David Banner who apparently gets my drift

One thing I've always done is make sure that there are dark-skinned women in my videos because I believe they are always underrepresented.

Though to be honest I'm not a customer of Mr. Banner nor have I seen any of his videos so I can't verify that statement. Nor will I get into the discussion of women in music videos.

But there is of course the issue of the larger industry. It is readily apparent that in terms of beauty standards if you're black skinned, "nappy" headed (natural) and broad nosed, regardless of your dress size, you are not wanted. Don't think so? Ok check it, show me the "super" models that have the proportions of Alek Wek. You won't find much though in much of the black world Alek Wek (facial feature wise) is "normal." But of course the point is that the advertising is not meant for the "black world" is it? Of course not. The advertisement is meant for those who are wealthy and know "good liquor." The type that Kanye West thinks the world of.

These are the people that Combs and his marketing team want to convince to part with their money. And what do those people want. They like "exotic" women? What are exotic women? non-black hispanic women and non-black African-Americans. And let me emphasize that this was a direct attack on b.l.a.c.k. women since anyone with a clue knows full well that there are black hispanics and that the casting call excludes them as well.

While many were outraged at the directness of the casting call, I don't think too many are fooled and think that such exclusions don't exist where the advert isn't so direct. Many black models will tell you how little work they get. This is why I am so adamant about tossing the One Drop Rule. I have no doubt that the ad agency thought nothing about how offensive the call was to black women, because for them black women don't count. African-American women As we saw in the recent "doll test" African-American and interracial couples across the country are instilling in their children, particularly their girl children that blacks are mean, ugly and don't listen to directions. How can one be offended by something that is subconsciously regarded as true?

I pointed out in my post The Black That Matters:

Look at African American leadership in many large cities a large proportion of them are clearly "mixed." The current favorites, Obama, Patrick and Booker have to be the yellowest, "good hair" crew I've seen in my life (Cory Booker sports a baldie like I do so we can't be sure on the "good hair" thing in regards to him).

I won't even get into the leadership of the Urban League or the NAACP. I won't get into the hip hop artists who shamelessly slam black women both in song and in interviews. I said it before and I'll say it again, black folk need to speak up. Black folk need to stop supporting people and companies that exclude or mis-define us.