Black Tokyo's eMobile Post on CNN
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I would like to say ARIGATO for the emails and posts submitted by the various bloggers from around the world (thank goodness for Google Translate). Needless to say, I was happy to see that CNN ran the story on my post questioning whether eMobile's CM was considered racist: "Obama is a Monkey in Japan?" It would have been nice for the CNN Japan reporter to acknowledge the website though. Speaking of acknowledgments, I would like to give a big shout out to Ms. Vaughn for voicing her concern on Metropolis Magazine's MetPod. Also, kudos to the concerned citizens that appeared in the CNN Tokyo interview.Here is a rehash on what I posted:"Obama is a Monkey in Japan[?] (Notice the question mark) Well it SEEMS like the ugly head of racism has reared its big head again on Japanese television. E Mobile’s new cell phone commercial SEEMS to depict a presidential campaign with “red” supporters (red is E Mobile’s corporate color and not representative of the Democratic Party (blue) in this case) in the background holding signs the say “Change.” While change is good, having the CANDIDATE depicted as a monkey is not!" I posed the question:"Am I crazy to think that the monkey is supposed to represent Barack Obama?"Then a statement:"Given the track record for COMPANIES in Japan that used monkeys and blacks or monkeys as blacks in advertisements…maybe not!"Now the responses from the blogosphere were very interesting, if not sometimes ignorant. Ignorant because some bloggers found it funny to correlate monkeys to Blacks while others felt that the Japanese would not understand the "Western" concept of things related to race and racist imagery. Many bloggers believe that my remarks stemmed from cultural baggage, whatever the hell that means.The most telltale sign that some people were micturating in atmospheric equations of motion stemmed from the numerous claims of Blacks "screaming" of racism. I would like to believe that the voice on Black Tokyo has been reasonable, measured, and raised in a consciousness that reflects the spirit of those that do not need others to validate or approve of what is deemed racist in depiction or culturally insensitive. The worst part of all of this is that my question as to whether eMobile's CM was racist in its parody of Senator Barack Obama's campaign for CHANGE was taken to another level by others when they accused the Japanese as being racist. That is not what Black Tokyo questioned, stated, or believes.One Japan-related site posted:"American news network CNN has picked up the story of the eMobile commercial that angered non-Japanese bloggers by having eMobile’s official mascot run a campaign similar to Barack Obama’s."The report is heavily biased towards the view that the commercial was bad and needed to be pulled, but it does admit these two truths:
- None of the Japanese people shown the commercial by CNN saw any link to Obama.
- eMobile has received no complaints from Japanese customers."
The other website also stated:"Sometimes a monkey is just a monkey. To the Japanese people that made the commercial and the Japanese viewers watching it, the commercial was just about eMobile’s cute Japanese monkey mascot running a campaign of change. The monkey is not “portraying” Barack Obama, he’s just using Obama’s campaigning style to draw people to eMobile’s products. The commercial has nothing do to with race.It’s sad that some groups and the international media are focusing so much attention on a commercial that has nothing to do with race when there are actual issues of discrimination and racism in Japan that they could be focusing on instead."The problem with the above post is that it still failed to address the fact the CM was developed by an American advertising agency (as stated by the CEO of eMobile), was based on Senator Barack Obama's campaign for CHANGE (as admitted by the President of eMobile, Eric Gan) and not the Japanese drama Change starring KimuTaku, and slipped the purview of a former-head of the Federal Communication Commission (International Division) that happens to be an American professor at a top university in the United States. When the elephant is in the room it is not too hard to miss it! Then again, how many of you missed the obachan (elderly woman) carrying the eMobile uchiwa (fan) at the end of the report.Be sure to check out the new Commentary section for additional voices and opinion!Related stories:
- eMobile Pulls Ad
- Black Tokyo Report 1
- What Obama Drama? Stop Monkeying Around!
- Black Scholars - Asian Specialists
- When is it not Racism?
- My Response to Obama is a Monkey in Japan?
- Obama is a Monkey in Japan? (this is what started it all)
