{"id":31651,"date":"2013-06-11T21:23:08","date_gmt":"2013-06-11T21:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=31651"},"modified":"2015-11-01T17:24:34","modified_gmt":"2015-11-01T17:24:34","slug":"for-some-cheerios-commercial-crossed-a-line-by-depicting-mixed-race-family-as-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=31651","title":{"rendered":"For some, Cheerios commercial crossed a line by depicting mixed-race family as normal"},"content":{"rendered":"

For some, Cheerios commercial crossed a line by depicting mixed-race family as normal<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Daily Circuit<\/a>
\nMPR News
\nMinnesota Public Radio<\/a>
\n2013-06-11<\/p>\n

You might not think a cereal commercial would serve as a vehicle for a heartfelt conversation about race, but that seems to be what’s happening \u2014 both around the country and on The Daily Circuit.<\/p>\n

Not all of that conversation is respectful. Some of the reactions to the current Cheerios commercial<\/a> were so ugly, the company asked YouTube to turn off its comments function.<\/p>\n

What made some watchers angry was the racial mix of the family depicted by the commercial…<\/p>\n

…. But in some parts of the country, especially in rural America, such images still take some getting used to.<\/p>\n

“The presence of these couples is opening up a new conversation that hasn’t been there,” said Jenifer Bratter<\/a>, professor of sociology at Rice University. “In a space where there is almost no racial diversity, where it’s dominated by one group, it’s hard to really gauge what people think about race.<\/p>\n

“It’s that act of forming a family that I think is really still a powerful moment for people to deal with their own racial attitudes.” …<\/p>\n

… “We know that one of the most charged couplings is white women and black men, for many reasons,” said Marcia Alesan Dawkins<\/a>, a professor at the University of Southern California. “There’s a history of lynching black men for their perceived threats against white women. … A lot of people said in the comments, ‘It’s only white women who can have white babies, so if they start having babies or keep having babies with African-Americans and Asian-Americans, etc., etc., what’s going to happen as white people become not the majority race in the United States?'”<\/p>\n

In a different context, Dawkins said, the race of the little girl in the commercial would not have attracted attention…<\/p>\n