Buck: Racism Deniers And The Doritos Ad
Son Of Baldwin on Tuesday, Feb. 8th
The reason I did not initially cover the hoopla surrounding the homoerotic Doritos commercial is that I disliked it from the moment I saw it.
It seems, to me, to be filmed through a white supremacist lens, hearkening back to the demeaning stereotypes that regard the black man as the Black Buck–a hung, sexually insatiable savage whose libido could only be tamed through unjust rape laws designed to both castrate and lynch him.
However, in a recent interview with No More Down Low TV, the African American gentleman who participated in the commercial–George King, a personal trainer from Compton, CA–discusses the fact that he has been openly gay since he was 19 years old. That, to me, was worthy of coverage.
In his defense of the commercial (and he, of course, has to be an apologist for it; otherwise, he would be forced to realize himself as a pawn, sell-out, and a kind of traitor), King denies there being any racially offensive themes in the video. While he admits that the commercial’s creator was looking for someone who was “big, masculine and muscular,” he says that the role did not specifically call for a black man. Nevertheless, there was a black man cast, and the director, if he did not wish to evoke a long history of dehumanizing characterizations, could have either cast a white man in the role King played, or could have cast two black men. But that requires a consideration and thoughtfulness that racists rarely wish to engage in, mainly because they feel they should not have to. It is easier for them to do what they wish by attempting to silence the opposition.
See the video interview with actor George King at Son of Baldwin.
