Very informative post. Thanks for taking the time to share your view with us

longchamp outlet, longchamp outlet
Wed 24 April 2013, 4:45 am

Empress the film 'Get on the Bus' with the Lexus car dealer going to the million man march to network comes to mind. The likes of Adidas will always be able to say the product was rubber stamped by a black man. This will always be the case while tribalism and self hate divides us.

Sizzla,
Wed 27 June 2012, 1:58 am

Sizzla, have you seen the movie "Bamboozled"?

Diasporan Dawta,
Sun 24 June 2012, 2:02 pm

Oh yes indeed. The designing of these sneakers, in and of itself, says a lot, but what says the most was their "apology". Things such as "We apologize if anyone was offended" and "This had nothing to do with slavery" are just microcosms of the bigger picture of how racism operates here in the United States and in other parts of the world as well. Things can be a racist as they possibly can be yet the message to those from the source to those on the receiving end is "You're being overly-sensitive. Why are you making this a racial issue? It's all in your head. I pissed on your shoes and told you that it is raining and if you want to believe that piss is on your shoes then you are just stuck in the past. For the sooner that you acknowledge that it is indeed rain on your shoes, the sooner we'll get over this touchy racial stuff. Now that's progress. Where are those who are willing to say that the shoes are not filled with piss but rain? Ah, these are the ones that we will support in Media and fund to lead the black community in our post-racial era. This is progress." That the company allowed this type of shoe to be designed in its name was already a daringly bold step. That the company was actually allow this shoe to be released and had a Facebook page was daring bold with a kick. However, that the company allowed such slaps in the face disguised as "apologies" was the epitome of bold disrespect and it also tells a lot about how things are generally dealt with. Let us reason for a moment. Do you think that one, especially a company so big and profitable, could publish a bullcrap excuse/statement like that if such statements like these were not been acceptable? This incident is not even a big story here, my people (What does that alone tell you?) Yes there has been some resistance but to be honest, a lot of the resistance that you see in the media will be led by the ranks of those who have black faces yet are supported and financed by the same forces which make such a situation like this possible in the first place. Let me tell you what you are going to likely see. You are going to likely see today some voicing opposition to this in the media. Before too young, Adidas will have a "Save Face" campaign. This would have been a bit more obvious by now had it been closer to February, "Black History Month". Anyway, some of the same "leaders" you see speaking against this issue will have their organizations running Adidas ads before too long or have events sponsored by Adidas before too long. Big Business knows very well that the externally appointed leaders of the "minority" community have a price and it might not be too long before the message from the externally appointed (but, sadly, black community supported) leaders are saying that it's all good now. That will be uttered with a straight face much in the same way that the statement is "It's fine" passes the lips of an USDA spokesperson for "Pink Slime". However, my people, do you know the worst part about all of this? The worst, and I do mean worst, part of all of this is that the overwhelming majority will fall for it. Too many of our people just want to go along to get along and many would like nothing more than to invite Adidas to church, hug him, hold hands with him and sing "We shall overcome" followed by "The rain has come. For it is not piss and we are one". Exploited out of our very minds. That is the only reason that the designing of this shoe, the Facebook page, and the statement about it were ever even able to go through in the first place. On another note, I can't say that we would not have seen our people, all around this globe, rock these sneakers. If Adidas would have gotten the right celebrities to promote them, it is very possible that shackles on the street would have been the new "cool" thing, but then again shackles on the street is no "new" cool thing, because already prison culture is quite "cool" here and I see that this is the case around the globe whether those modeling prison culture even realize it or not. We Africans not only in America but we Africans worldwide must break this cycle of exploitation and it starts with seeing trickery for what it is. Only then can we stand together and call piss piss and not rain and we Africans must know when Africans are being pissed on, help our people to see it, and support each other no matter where on the globe we are. We reserve the right to call piss piss and we also reserve the right to stop allowing others to piss on us but equally important, we reserve the right to stop allowing the pissing on us to be systematically excused as rain.

Diasporan Dawta, Diasporan Dawta
Sun 24 June 2012, 2:01 pm

I'm sure this was another experiment to see which set of people would be the biggest takers and promoters of such a product. I guess equally another experiment to see which set of people would be the most outraged and protest the most. You wonder where these people get their ideas from, it's enough to make me consider throwing out my retro pairs of adidas Samba and Somoa's!

Sizzla,
Thu 21 June 2012, 7:20 pm