Erase Racism Carnival
July 31st, 2007 by Anindita Sengupta
The 15th Erase Racism Carnival is up at Racewire. A note of explanation for those who’re unfamiliar with this, the Racism Carnival is basically a monthly blogosphere event. Every month, a different blog gathers the best blog posts on racial injustice issues and presents them in one place. This month, they’ve looked at some important topics like Race and the Green Economy, Black-Brown Relations and — something that’s increasingly important in the global context — Immigration and Migration. There are a host of interesting posts under Race and Gender in Media, including this one on how French cosmetic brand L’Oreal was guilty of racism during a recent direct marketing campaign.
L’Oreal unit Garnier has been found guilty of excluding non-white women when it recruited people to hand out its samples of its shampoo and discuss styling with shoppers. The company had set out exactly what size it expected the women to be, and also specified that they needed to be “BBR”, the initials for bleu, blanc, rouge, the colors of the French flag. Anyone who has spent time in France knows that BBR is code used by the the far right. For employers, it’s code for whites only. Asians, North Africans and Africans needn’t apply.
Eric Stoller’s views on why he blogs, in the Whiteness Revisited section, are heartwarming.
Sometimes I think about shutting the whole thing down. Then I am reminded by an internal alarm that tells me that yes, as a white heterosexual man, I can walk away from this blog. I can go through my entire life on this planet and never have to think about my race, my gender, or my sexual orientation. It’s the combination of a set of unearned privileges. However, I am an anti-racist, feminist, ally. My dignity is linked to those who are oppressed because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. My dignity is maimed and suffers because of racism, sexism, homophobia, heterosexism, etc.
I don’t approach my blog posts as if this is a debate. This is personal for me.
Some fantastic stuff. Go read.