Subtle slurs still shock, humiliate targets; federal officials see increase in complaints

By Dahleen Glanton

Tomeika Broussard thought it was so absurd when she overheard her supervisor refer to her as a "reggin" that she just laughed. Then she realized it was the n-word spelled backward.

The only African-American in the small medical clinic in Los Gatos, Calif., Broussard said she was subjected to racial slurs almost daily. They were not the overt ones that most people would immediately recognize, but rather subtle, surreptitious code words that sometimes take a while to figure out.

"When 'reggin' came up, I'd never heard that word but I knew it was negative. So I had this kind of nervous, shocked laugh," said Broussard, 31, who was awarded $44,000 in damages last year in a racial harassment lawsuit filed after she was fired from her job as a file clerk. "I didn't know whether it was illegal, but I knew it was not OK. It was humiliating."

Federal officials say they have seen an increase in harassment complaints involving coded words and images in the workplace. Whether it is geared toward racial groups, religious affiliations, sex or sexual orientation, code words have proliferated in recent years through the Internet, where Web sites provide forums for creating, discussing and spreading new words promoting intolerance.

With Democratic Sen. Barack Obama as the first African-American to head a major-party ticket, political analysts predict race will become a central issue in the presidential election. Negative messages about race used in the campaigns and in the media could spill over into the general public, the analysts said, conjuring old stereotypes and stirring fears that create racial tension.

"Historically, when a political party is identified with African-Americans, the opposing party uses race as a way to peel off white support," said Michael Dawson, a political scientist at the University of Chicago. "You can't do that by invoking the Civil War anymore, so what we have seen is this way to tap into racial resentments of some white Americans by talking about issues that are perfectly acceptable but have, in some minds, linkage to blacks and Latinos."

Terms such as "welfare queens" and "crime-ridden neighborhoods" have long been used to refer to African-Americans, Dawson said. In recent years, other analysts said, discussions about patriotism have increasingly become coded with phrases such as "full-blooded Americans" used to exclude certain ethnic groups, particularly Latino immigrants.

During the Democratic primary season, Sen. Hillary Clinton was accused of using racial code when she said that Obama's support among "hardworking Americans, white Americans," was weakening. The inference, critics said, is that only white Americans work hard.

The media played a role in promoting that concept, said Steve Rendall, senior analyst at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a liberal media watchdog group. The biggest coded message, he said, was when pundits turned "working-class voters," into "white working-class voters."



Reading the subtleties
"We hear code words all the time in talk radio. It's a constant drumbeat," said Rendall, who also co-hosts FAIR's national radio show, "CounterSpin." "Code word bigotry is a secret code, a secret handshake between the listening audience and the host.

"Either conscious or unconscious, there is sometimes a mispronunciation of [Obama's] name or dwelling on his middle name [Hussein], suggesting that he is some covert Muslim. It is not overt racism but it is xenophobic."

Since the first racial code word lawsuit in 1996, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has seen an influx of cases involving racially coded messages. In the earlier case, the federal appeals court in Philadelphia overturned a lower court ruling and found in favor of a credit manager who sued Cort Furniture Rental. Carol Aman said she and other black employees were referred to as "you people" and "that one in there."

"People are smart and know they cannot use blatant terms, so they get the message across in other ways," said Sanya Hill Maxion, an EEOC lawyer in San Francisco who represented Broussard. "We are seeing different things trickle out."

As the country becomes more diverse, cases also have resulted from culture clashes between African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians, according to the EEOC.

For example, an assembly technician in San Jose, Calif., sued the company he worked for last year, claiming he was harassed by a Vietnamese co-worker who repeatedly played loud rap music with anti-black racial epithets. The lawsuit charged the co-worker also sang the lyrics within earshot of him.

In another case, a black employee was repeatedly called "Cornelius" in a reference to the ape character from the movie "Planet of the Apes." Another case involved a man of Chinese and Italian ancestry who was taunted daily by his foreman, who referred to him as " Bruce Lee."

Coded messages also have long been seen in political campaigns. During the presidential campaign 20 years ago, supporters of George H.W. Bush were accused of using code to ignite racial furor among white voters against Michael Dukakis by running an ad featuring the case of Willie Horton, a black man convicted of raping a white woman in Massachusetts. Two years ago during a tight Senate race, Tennessee Republicans featured a television ad that portrayed a white woman saying she had met Rep. Harold Ford, who is African-American, at a Playboy party. Ford lost the election.

Recently, Fox News Channel identified Michelle Obama as "Obama's baby mama," a term used to describe unwed mothers. Fox officials said that a producer "exercised poor judgment" during the segment.


Complaints overblown?
Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, said the topic of code words has been overplayed.

"Any criticism of Obama is translated as a coded racial attack because he is black," said Bozell. "Conservatives have a language to their fellow conservatives. Liberals have a language to fellow liberals. African-Americans have a language to African-Americans. I don't see anything wrong with that.

But the University of Chicago's Dawson said code words can do damage even when their speakers say they were just joking or that they made an innocent mistake by using them.

"They're invoking harmful stereotypes," Dawson said.

Earlier this month, Maurica Grant, 32, who was fired from her job as a technical inspector with NASCAR, filed a lawsuit claiming that she was repeatedly harassed. Grant, who is black, said co-workers called her "Nappy Headed Mo" and "Queen Sheba." According to Grant, they also said she worked on "colored people time," meaning she often was late.

EEOC officials said they also have seen cases of code words used to identify ethnic groups in job applications.

"Racial harassment is alive and well and manifesting itself in so many forms, especially with advances in technology allowing programs that screen out certain addresses and names associated with certain groups," said Paula Bruner, appellate attorney for the EEOC in Washington. "It is a lot more pervasive than people appreciate."

According to Bruner, code words also show up on age and gender cases.

"An employer might use terms 'youthful' or 'enthusiastic' to describe the person that they want. Or they might say, 'We want someone who is more progressive.' That's like saying you can't teach an old dog new tricks," she said.

Meanwhile, Broussard, who was 26 when she filed the lawsuit, has tried to move on. But the memories are still painful, she said.

"I can't believe I put up with that kind of racism. It was 2004, and I thought that was unheard of," she said.

Four years later, new words crop up every day, fueled by the Internet.

Contributors to the online Urban Dictionary offer several uses for "reggin." Among them: "Used to trick black people."

Another Web site, the Racial Slur Database, defines 2,649 slurs. According to the site, its mission is "helping to make the world a better place."

Labels: African Americans, racism, Stereotyping

Latino Efforts Need to Include More Dark-Skinned People

Posted by Rudy Duthil

I am honored to have the opportunity to write for the Big Tent blog and also get the opportunity to share some of the opinions from the "Jay-Z Generation" about the advertising industry as well. I know some of you may not know what the Jay-Z Generation is, but it is nothing more than those of us who grew up listening to rap artists (like Jay-Z) tell us (young urban youth) that we can do anything that we have ever dreamed of doing as long as we were focused on our goals and passionate about what we do.

For starters, my parents named me Rodolfo, but my mother and all my friends call me Rudy. I'd like to consider those of you reading my entry my new friends, so you can call me Rudy, too! I'm the West Coast manager of experiential marketing for Zoom Media & Marketing.

Another thing that I would like you to know about me is that I am Latino. Yes, I know, kind of shocking huh? My mother is of Dominican descent and my father of Cuban descent. My mother falls into the "Brown Latino" category, as would Eva Longoria, and my father falls into the "Black Latino" category, as would Sammy Sosa. I only mention this because although I grew up in a Latino family where some members look like me (and some don't) and have traveled to different Latino countries where I've seen many dark skinned Latinos, I've yet to see them represented in any of the ads or campaigns that I've come across since entering the marketing/advertising industry in 2004 after graduating from college. This is actually one of the main reasons why I decided to pursue a career in marketing and advertising.

I understand that most clients who work on Hispanic accounts and who aren't of Latino backgrounds (and some who are) may say that an image of someone like me appearing in any ad directed towards Latinos may confuse the Latino consumers. However, Hispanic ad agencies should educate their clients as to why images of dark-skinned Latinos like myself should be given a fair shot when it comes to appearing in a campaign's creative and not rely only on the old generic, stereotypical images of Latinos who look Caucasian for these campaigns. According to a study by the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute, about 90% of the contemporary Dominican population has African ancestry or African roots. So why wouldn't you use a dark skinned Latino in an ad targeting this group of Latinos?

Let's think about a general market ad for a second. Take for example, 50 Cent's G-Unit Clothing's ad campaign as an example of the point I am trying to make here. The better percentage of G-Unit Clothing's ads use images of the members of the G-Unit rap group (50 Cent, Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks, and Young Buck) in their creative and they are all dark-skinned African Americans. However, a good portion of their clothing is bought by young suburban white kids, as well as young urban Latinos.

Although they are darker-skinned Americans, they still manage to get the "young and fresh" message of the brand across and it connects with all American consumers who believe in that message despite their color, resulting in the targeted consumers going out and buying the product. The white kids, in other words, aren't turned off.

And it should work the same in the Latino market. If your brand messaging is clear, the color of the Latino person in the ad should be irrelevant. Your product will sell to the overall Latino market you're targeting because they know it's made for them regardless of color. And it may pick up more consumers among dark-skinned Latinos who've felt left out of such messaging before. We should all, as an industry, aspire to make innovations with regard to this matter, and not be afraid to change the landscape of Hispanic-targeted advertising by adding more "color" to it.

The next time, for example, an agency is making a creative campaign targeting Mexicans, I ask them to create at least one concept where the main character reflects someone of the Mestizo population (a person of mixed Spanish/Amerindian blood) of Mexico, which accounts for the greater portion of the Mexican population. It has been a longstanding Latino tradition to believe that being fair skinned with blonde hair is the only standard of beauty and sophistication there is. Obviously, they've crossed the hair-color line, but skin color and other physical characteristics in ads are still pretty much the same. But isn't it about time we break this tradition?

I need not remind us of the once popular brown paper-bag test for social acceptance in certain sectors of the African American community or of historical Hollywood color consciousness. Though color bias is arguably still prevalent today with regard to black women, particularly when it comes to casting leading roles in cinema and music videos, extreme color consciousness with regard to African Americans in media and advertising has mostly been broken. I'm hoping we can collectively do the same with Hispanic advertising, and I will make sure I do everything in my power to speed up the process.

Labels: advertisement, African Americans, Latino Americans, Stereotyping

Marketing to the masses tends to miss many
Radio host has pointers for reaching black audience
By Del Jones, USA TODAY

Those who assume that African Americans who are both middle age and middle class watch pretty much the same movies and TV programs and read the same newspapers and magazines as do their white counterparts do so at their own peril. Try this experiment: Go around the workplace and say the name "Tom Joyner." When USA TODAY corporate management reporter Del Jones did that, white colleagues gave him an unknowing stare, while black colleagues lit up in recognition. Joyner reaches 8 million nationwide on 115 radio stations. His listeners average 40 years in age and have an average household income of $48,500. As the African-American market closes in on $1 trillion a year in spending power, Joyner warns that many companies have yet to figure out how to capture it.

Q: What is the biggest single mistake companies make with African-American consumers?

A: They think they can reach them through mainstream advertising. That's a huge mistake.

Q: I'm white. Am I really so different than my African-American colleagues that advertisers can't reach us both with the same commercials on the same programs?

A: They can, and it works up to a point. But they could have so much more if they specifically and unashamedly direct their efforts to an African-American audience. This strategy goes back 50 years when Ebony magazine convinced advertisers to use black models in their print ads. To this day there are generations of black people who are loyal to some of those brands. As a people, that's the way we are, and we've got a whole lot of money. Black people fly and love to fly cheap. Southwest Airlines advertised unashamedly on my show and with my endorsement and did things like recognize Black History Month at their gates. They went right after us.

Q: Are advertisers that have in the past targeted only upscale white consumers starting to target the upscale African American market?

A: Yeah, we've done a cruise for six years. The average price is like $3,500 a person not including airfare, and we sell out. Seventy-five percent of the people on the ship haven't cruised before. Why not? Are they afraid of water? No. No one's asked. Royal Caribbean understands that now. They use a black agency to advertise to the African-American consumer, and they get a lot of black people on their ships.

Q: Do companies have a right to target only white consumers, or should you expose them on your program?

A: Expose them as stupid? We can't do that, we can't really go after and expose companies, not and remain a media company. A look at the man behind 'Tom Joyner Morning Show'

*Grew up in Tuskegee, Ala. Father was a Tuskegee Airman, mother was a secretary for the military. Married fitness expert Donna Richardson five years ago. Two sons from previous marriage.

*Sociology degree from Tuskegee Institute (1970). Started broadcasting in 1969 at AM radio station WRMA in Montgomery, Ala.

*Vegetarian. Keeps his age a secret. Biographical sources peg him at 55.

*Earned the nickname "The Fly Jock" when he flew between a morning job in Dallas and an afternoon job in Chicago from 1986 to 1993. His show went into syndication in 1994; he broadcasts it from Dallas.

*Founded Reach Media in 2003, which includes the Tom Joyner Morning Show and website BlackAmericaWeb.com. In April, sold 51% of Reach Media to Radio One for $56 million.

*Among those who have been on his show: President Clinton, Sinbad, Spike Lee, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, Patti LaBelle, Steve Harvey, Dick Clark, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Magic Johnson, Tyler Perry, Smokey Robinson, Beyonce, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Maya Angelou, Al Greene, Vanessa Williams, Sen. John Kerry, Jesse Jackson, The Rock, James Brown (The Godfather of Soul) and James Brown (the Fox TV sportscaster).

*Does he consider himself a celebrity? "No. A celebrity is somebody who sleeps late. I'm well known, but I get up too early to be a celebrity."

Lessons in advertising

*Don't try to catch African-American consumers with a broad net. Target them unashamedly.

*Upscale African-Americans also respond to targeted advertising.

*Remember the strategy Ebony magazine succeeded with decades ago: Use black actors and models.

*Don't assume everything offends. Sassy black women and black men saying "Whassup" is not the same as Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben.

*Hip-hop is no longer a black thing. It's pop culture, and it's international.



Q: I was listening to your show on the Washington, D.C., affiliate and a local car dealership commercial promised to waive credit checks for car buyers. That's a pitch that I have not heard on the stations I listen to, and it seemed to make the assumption that African Americans have lousy credit. Aren't they offended?

A: No. We do have bad credit. That ad is good business. They're inviting the African-American audience to do business with them.

Q: I'm not understanding this. The car dealership is assuming your listeners do not pay their bills, and that's OK?

A: You can have bad credit by having a certain ZIP code. We need some credit.

Q: I'm starting to see. Your listeners take no offense because African Americans see bad credit to be discrimination. The dealership is not being offensive, but rather positioning itself as fixing the inequity?

A: We face redlining and profiling. You need a car and you ain't got no credit. What's wrong with a guy inviting someone to buy a car and he's going to waive the credit check? No one else will.

Q: It seems that African-American women are portrayed in advertising as sassy. In a Budweiser campaign African-American men greeted each other with "Whassup?" Aren't these stereotypical portrayals the modern-day equivalent of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben?

A: No. Not in an ad. The Whassup ad was not directed at the African American, but at the mainstream audience. What you call sassy is nothing more than going after that hip-hop generation, an attitude which crosses all ethnic lines. It's not black people who are keeping hip-hop alive.

It's not the same as Aunt Jemima ads when you had Hambone and "Yessir, boss, try my biscuits." It's not the same. This is just pop culture.

Q: You don't seem to find any advertising directed at the African-American market offensive.

A: Hmmmm. The Psychic Friends Network went after broke people who have problems.

Q: What about McDonald's? They made news when young African-American actors said, "I'd hit it," which suggested in hip-hop slang that they'd like to make love to a double cheeseburger.

A: Again, that's not directed at an African-American market. It's pop culture. Hip-hop is worldwide. There were probably a lot of sensible black people who thought it was offensive, but it wasn't as bad as the president of Mexico saying that Mexican people take the jobs that black people don't want.

Q: African-American ad agencies are complaining that too much of the diversity dollar is redirected to the Hispanic market. Are companies making a mistake?

A: No. That's very smart, and I understand. They have to specifically reach out to the Hispanic market. They don't always understand the same is true for us. Look at all the black advertising agencies that have folded in the last couple of years because they are targeting us through mainstream agencies. I don't see anything racial in it. They are just being stupid and making a huge mistake.

Q: Other than Southwest Airlines, what companies have figured out how to advertise to the African-American market, and what do they do right?

A: Did you get a list of our advertisers? McDonald's is one. They know how to do it. They sponsor things on my show like our black history fact. They show an interest in our culture and our community. It's not enough to light up the arches and open up the door.

Q: Some magazines publish lists like The Best Companies for African Americans. Those magazines are fat with advertising from the companies on the list. The perception is that companies that advertise make the list. Corporate diversity officers call this "pay to play." Shouldn't such lists be for those who hire and promote African Americans?

A: It's not a shakedown. If you are going to be one of the best companies for African Americans, you should advertise to African Americans.

Q: Momentum in advertising is shifting toward the Internet. Are companies making any big mistakes in how they market to African Americans online?

A: We're making money on BlackAmericaWeb. Yeah. I think that everyone who comes to BlackAmericaWeb, or our competition BlackVoices and BlackPlanet, are very smart. We are on the Internet. We're making money. Don't let anyone fool you that black folks aren't on the Internet. Oh, yes we are. ... And it's paying off.

Labels: African Americans, Media, Stereotyping