[sbaglio]

Ok, maybe I'm blind or oblivious, but I seriously did not see the alleged racism in this ad.

New Chamber Of Commerce Ad Has Racial Undertones, Union Alleges

People will see what they want, IMO. People are being laid off left, right and center nowadays, regardless of their race.

[Sleeplvr]

It's actually a swipe at affirmative action. Notice that the white female and black male are still working and they try to make it appear that the white male is getting laid off. The group that has benefited the most from affirmative action has been white females. So whoever put the ad together did their research.

This ad will hit it's target audience.

[MamaS]

You are right. If a black person were being fired while a white worker looked on, it would be "look the blacks are on the bottom again" and if a oriental worker were watching it would be "all the good jobs go to the Chinese" and if a Hispanic worker were watching it would be "illegal immigrants get jobs that citizens should have"
And if it were a CC woman watching a CC man -- well, we all know how she got to keep her job, right? Wink, wink! Just let it go -- there are real things worth worrying about!

[sugarandspice697]

I had to watch that video three times to "see" the racist undertone and quite frankly, I barely saw it!

If the Black man had gotten fired, then Americans would say the commercial is still racist because it implies that only CC people keep their jobs. If everyone in the commercial was a white male, people would complain that there was no diversity in the commercial.

I'm not trying to say that racism doesn't exist, but I do believe that some people consciously play the race card every time something doesn't go their way.

[loveajax]

It's so funny how people see things differently. for example, with the "monkey doll" controversy, I didn't see racism (maybe because I honestly believe the manufacturers were making dolls for all races that had monkeys as a prop). This one, though, I totally think was "vetted" and it was decided to "play" to a certain demographic....the white male worker who is peeved at women and blacks keeping "his" job because of affirmative action. Let's face it: in this economy, everyone's afraid of losing his/her job and I think this group is playing on the "white man's" fear. (But I could be wrong!! Just my perception.)

I used to intern for the US Chamber of Commerce (I thought I was a republican for one scary short time in my life!), and I really believe this was well thought out (I saw in the Huffington site it was an ad prepared by US COC and other "pro business" groups).