Racism Can Be a Teaching Moment: The Barnes and Noble Incident
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Posted By: E. Joyce Moore on March 03, 2009 Barnes and Noblesbookstore, Coral Gables, Florida I received several e-mails about the above picture, along with a call for the boycotting of the Barnes and Nobles stores. Knowing a little bit about retail, I decided to contact the Barnes and Noble corporate offices to find out what they had to say and how they responded to the outrage over this display. I was also provided with the e-mail below that was sent to anyone who called and inquired: Hello Joyce Moore, Thank you for contacting us about the book display which included President Obama in our Coral Gables store. Barnes & Noble would like to publicly apologize for an incident in our Coral Gables, Florida store. We believe that a customer played a cruel joke and placed an inappropriate title in the front window of our store, where we were featuring books written by or about President Obama. We want to assure our customers that the book placed by someone other than any of our booksellers was never intended to be included in our display and was removed as soon as we became aware of the situation. We are looking into it and taking the steps necessary so that it does not happen again. From time to time customers will move titles from one area of the store to another. In this particular case, we do not condone whatever message may have been intended with the placement of this title in our Presidential display. It certainly was not part of our merchandising and we regret that we didn't see the placement of this title immediately. Sincerely, [name deleted] Customer Service Representative Barnes and Noble Customer Service customerservice@bn.com Mary Keating, spokesperson for Barnes and Noble, sent me the statement below, along with responses to my questions: The photograph being circulated on the Internet was taken by a customer in one of our stores, who maliciously placed an inappropriate title in the center of a display honoring President Obama.The store immediately removed the title from the display. Barnes & Noble finds this malicious act to be despicable.” Mary Ellen Keating Spokesperson Barnes & Noble, Inc. In response to a series of questions I posed she said: " We follow a specific blueprint for the displays in each of our stores. The display was set up in January and the incident took place two weeks ago." "This particular store in Coral Gables has a window display that is accessible to the public," stated Keating. . "Most of our stores are 25000 square feet and have thousands of titles in each store. Unfortunately, every bookseller has to deal with customers moving titles from one area of a store to another, but they do an excellent job of making sure titles are in order." ...we view this as a malicious act and agree that it is an isolated incident." I know that I am personally tired of these behaviors, although in this case I think that Barnes and Noble is a victim, as well, of a malicious prank. If it was done by the persons taking the picture, apparently they were not aware of the fact that their images are reflected in the window (there are two people in the reflection, at least one is a white male). I want to turn this incident into a teaching moment. When the now infamous New York Post cartoon crawled out from under its journalistic rock, Marc Clarke wrote on why this matters so much to African Americans. His Blog was quoted on CNN, and Marc's article was the source of their explanation of its history. “The Negro: What Is His Ethnological Status?” was published in 1867 under the pseudonym “Ariel.” ... the author was a Southern clergyman, the Rev. Buckner H. Payne of Nashville, Tenn. Rev. Payne argued that Negroes weren’t descended from Adam and Eve. “... Adam and Eve being white, ... they could never be the father or mother of the kinky-headed, low forehead, flat nose, thick lip and black-skinned negro...” The minister continued: “[I]t follows, beyond all the reasonings of men on earth to controvert, that [the negro] was created before Adam, that, like all beasts and cattle, they have no souls.” Rev. Payne then broke it down scientifically: “[W]e take up the monkey, and trace him ... through his upward and advancing orders – baboon, ourang-outang and gorilla, up to the negro, another noble animal, the noblest of the beast creation. The difference between these higher orders of the monkey and the negro is very slight, and consists mainly in this one thing: the negro can utter sounds that can be imitated; hence he could talk with Adam and Eve, for they could imitate his sounds.” “... Adam and Eve being white, ... they could never be the father or mother of the kinky-headed, low forehead, flat nose, thick lip and black-skinned negro...” Payne continued: “[I]t follows, beyond all the reasonings of men on earth to controvert, that [the negro] was created before Adam, that, like all beasts and cattle, they have no souls.” Rev. Payne then broke it down scientifically: “[W]e take up the monkey, and trace him ... through his upward and advancing orders – baboon, ourang-outang and gorilla, up to the negro, another noble animal, the noblest of the beast creation. The difference between these higher orders of the monkey and the negro is very slight, and consists mainly in this one thing: the negro can utter sounds that can be imitated; hence he could talk with Adam and Eve, for they could imitate his sounds.” You can download the full 48-page text of Buckner Payne’s “The Negro” as a PDF file, courtesy of Google, by following this link . Read more of Mark Clarke's full commentary by visiting his Blog. Many like to minimize these covert acts of racism, calling them "jokes", such as the watermelon on the White House lawn e-mail sent by Republican Los Alamitos mayor Dean Grose to colleagues and friends. Grose, who resigned as mayor -- although that means little,unless he resigns from the council, since the council takes turns filling the position -- claims that he "didn't know that it was offensive to African Americans." Personally, I don't buy his explanation, or his apology. If he did not know of the stereotypical myth that Blacks/African Americans have often been portrayed as a" lazy race of people who just sit around eating fried chicken and watermelon". then exactly what was the "joke"? The truth is that watermelon is native to Africa, especially near the Kalahari desert. Watermelon, as the name suggests has a high water content, more so than other fruits, in fact. They are also really high in nutrients and vitamins. Slaves working in the fields were at risk for dehydration since it was intense labor and it's hot in the south. (today's water bottles hadn't been invented yet), so they would eat slices of watermelon to hydrate and refresh themselves from working in the fields. Chicken, watermelon, okra, chitterlings (pig intestines), black eyed peas.... and many other foods that are labeled soul food today, was once considered food not fit for the master's table. Basically, Black slaves ate whatever the slave master gave them...they ate the scraps (pig-intestines fat-back, pig feet, pigtail, etc) and what was cheap or easy to grow. Poor Whites -- mostly Irish, who were slaves for a time themselves -- ate the same. Even after slavery, Blacks still enjoyed these food because it was what they could afford. Today, that which was the soul of the African American sustenance is now a part of many a fine restaurant's menu. Acts of overt and covert racism have been dredged up and forward throughout our history. In this century alone, corporations such as AT&T had their corporate hand slapped because they used an image of a monkey to depict the people of Africa in an internal publication. In 2001,Toyota -- because of a modern day "blackface" postcard developed by their ad agency , Saatchi & Saatchi -- pledged millions for diversity development, training and minority supplier inclusion. With the Presidential campaign and subsequent election, consciousness of the issue of race increased. Paradigms began to crack, perceptions started to erode and suddenly the invisible become very visible. As those who have the long held belief in their power and assumption of privilege witnessed how quickly their perceived power evaporated as quickly as the clothes of the emperor they have become fearful and angry. Thus, the only moves left are to continue to instigate fear based upon untruths and resurrect ancient stereotypes and pre-1950s myths to distract, divide and distance those who are beginning to move past race as an issue. We cannot allow our emotions to evoke hair-trigger reactions to the misbehavior of a few. To demand a boycott of Barnes and Noble without verifying the facts is not how we should engage this heightened level of racism. When we hear the venomous diatribe of hysterical radio talk show hosts and attention-hungry cable news personnel, we don't preach to the choir or call the networks who gave them license to spew their vitriol , we contact their advertisers instead. Because at the end of the day, it is all about the bottom line. I am not certain that Rupert Murdoch would have personally apologized on behalf of the N Y Post, had calls not been made to Kraft Foods, AT&T along with other advertisers. There isn't a single institution in this economic crisis who can afford to have their finances affected by foolishness. Perhaps we all need to learn how to play chess. I understand that it is a game of patience and strategy, where each move is a response not a reaction. It is also rumored that President Obama plays chess in 3D. Perhaps it is time to take a page from his playbook and stop reacting to every move and instead begin to respond in a manner that will yield the outcome we are looking for. Otherwise, the next few years will be spent fighting battles of distractions rather than making the strategic moves to win the war. And I'm already tired. If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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E. Joyce Moore
From Indianapolis, IN Member Since May 2006 |
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