Friday 3 August 2007

Round-up

Two ridiculous racism allegations today:

1. Religious newspaper claims 'Yemenites walk around with cloud of pungent odor' because of certain spices dominant in their cuisine. Two men of Yemenite descent demand apology and $11,500 in compensation.

"The characterization of the Yemenite sector through the smell of their sweat and the crass words used to describe that scent are outrageous and stain an entire, honorable community. The publication humiliated

the sector and made them the target of scorn and ridicule, it did so because of the color of their skin, their race and ethnicity and it has damaged their reputation," said the complainants.

Oh, come on! There is nothing in this article which either isn't true or isn't a simple statement of opinion: the writer didn't like the smell. To call it racist is beyond absurd, and so is the attempt to win money.

2.
The Yellow Pages says it can not believe someone has found its latest television commercial racist. The advert which shows black hands doing the walking has been labelled as racist by The Herald's Sideswipe column.

The columnist says having black hands doing tasks for white people to an African beat is racist and rainbow hands should have been used instead. Yellow Pages marketing director Blair Glubb says the Yellow Pages' logo has always included a black hand and there's nothing racist about it.

I have not seen the ad but I agree with Blair Glubb that the charge is ludicrous, especially in light of the fact that, as he points out, the Yellow Pages logo has a black hand in it, and always has. And what on earth are "tasks for white people"? Are black people really this desperate to put down whitey these days?

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