I’ll back up just a little in case you mixed (pun intended) this controversy last week.
A new Cheerios ad featuring an interracial couple and their daughter bunched the underwear of some Reddit and YouTube users last week.
The commercial awoke the ignorant from both sides of the stupid spectrum and they rallied from behind the seats of computers.
But look on the bright side, the racists found common ground when it came to writing about so-called race mixing.
There were racist black people who thought the video was an example of how the ‘system’ is trying to destroy the black race.
There were racist white people who thought the video was an example of how the ‘system’ is trying to destroy the white race.
If you believe the chatter, the system can’t make its mind up of which race to destroy first.
I encourage you not to believe the chatter, as it is clear the system, represented in this case by an iconic cereal brand that just wants to sell stuff and in turn, make money.
Cheerios, a General Mills brand, removed nasty comments posted by some on the video, but said it is not backing down.
"Consumers have responded positively to our new Cheerios ad. At Cheerios, we know there are many kinds of families, and we celebrate them all," Camille Gibson, the brand's vice president of marketing, said, according to ADWeek.com.
It is not surprising that a vocal minority got all fired up by the sight of an interracial family interacting with a box of supposedly heart-smart cereal (spoiler alert: the kid in the commercial does something adorable).
It is the sort of response that disappoints, but fits the vocal minority’s M.O.
All the time they miss the fact that the country isn’t as ‘black’ or ‘white’ as it used to be and most think race is a non-factor when it comes to love.
Interracial or interethnic opposite-sex married couple households grew by 28 percent over the decade from 7 percent in 2000 to 10 percent in 2010, according to the The U.S. Census Bureau.
One in 12 married couples in the U.S. were interracial in 2010, according to the Pew Research Center.
That said, I am sure I am opening myself up to the haters by saying I am half of an interracial marriage.
Cheerios is in the cereal-selling business. It would be foolish not to try to sell to the market, particular since most members of the silent majority find nothing sickening about interracial couples or its off spring.
A few months ago, the nation re-elected a biracial president.
Ninety-six percent of blacks and 84 percent of whites approved of interracial marriage in 2011, the year I was married, according to a Gallup poll.
Only 4 percent of Americans approved of interracial marriage in 1958, the first year Gallup asked the question.
Cheerios isn’t the only company featuring relationships once deemed taboo by some.
Several new commercials released in recent months have featured same-sex couples. The commercial for Kindle Paperwhite features an attractive woman and an attractive man on the beach discussing the product as their husbands order them drinks.
Read the photo captions for more examples.
What do you think? Let use know below.
Contact this blogger at arobinson@DaytonDailyNews.com or Twitter.com/DDNSmartMouth
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