Black images matter
I was the only African-American in my swim class. Like many black people, my parents don’t know how to swim. They didn’t have pools in their neighborhoods growing up in Mississippi.
When I first saw the Red Cross poster and the different colors of children around the pool, I thought: Yes.
But as it made the rounds of social media, I looked closer.
The poster is meant to demonstrate what to do and not to do at the pool — which is important for saving lives. It’s part of the Red Cross’ Centennial Campaign, launched in 2014, in which the organization aims to reduce the drowning rate in “high-risk” communities by teaching 50,000 kids and adults to swim.
But only children of color are pointed out as “Not Cool.”
Margaret Sawyer, who saw it in Colorado, was outraged and posted a photo of it on the internet.
When I took a second look, I was angry, too. I wondered: How many people at Red Cross saw this poster before it was chosen as the one to be used online, on their swim app, and at pools across the country?
William Fortune of the Red Cross told a Colorado news station that when the organization produces materials, they “undergo several layers of scrutiny before production.”
Several layers? I’m still trying to understand.
Ebony Rosemond, founder of Black Kids Swim, asked the question I thought when I saw the
‘We are real people, the heroes of our own stories’
poster.
“It makes me really question who is sitting at the table at the executive levels at the Red Cross? What is the representation like? What is the diversity like in the people who really get to say ‘yes or no?” Rosemond said.
How could an organization known for its humanitarian efforts produce a poster so blatantly discriminatory?
Two years later, after a social-media storm, the group realizes its mistake. Red Cross issued a statement in June saying that all posters would be removed from online, the swim app and pools across the country. But the damage is done.
Maybe, though, our country isn’t ready for a poster that shows African-American and white children swimming and playing at the pool.
It certainly wasn’t ready for a 2013 Honey Nut Cheerios commercial showing an interracial couple and their daughter. The commercial drew backlash, receiving 500 dislikes on YouTube. The comments section on YouTube had to be closed. All over Cheerios.
Earlier this year, an Old Navy ad showing an African-American woman and a white man with a black son caused outrage. A Twitter user called the photo “absolutely disgusting,” and another said that Old Navy was supportive of “the genocide of the white race.” Old Navy defended the photo, stating it was a company that championed diversity.
Good for you, Old Navy.
But still, maybe we aren’t all ready.
“Just because we’re magic, doesn’t mean we’re not real,” “Grey’s Anatomy” star Jesse Williams said in a moving speech at the BET Awards last month in Los Angeles.
Williams was referring to #BlackGirlMagic, a celebratory campaign to promote positivity among African-American women. Since 2013, the hashtag has exploded: It’s been on magazine covers and used by celebrities.
But African-American magic isn’t necessarily positive. Williams also may have been referring to the “Magical Negro” trope, in which, time after time, an African-American supporting character comes to the aid of the white main character. The hero is always white; the Magical Negro exists only to help the white hero.
Williams’ assertion — we’re real — keeps ringing in my head. We are real people, the heroes of our own stories, who don’t want to be depicted as the bad kids in a pool safety poster. We may fall in love with someone of another race and eat Honey Nut Cheerios with them in the morning. We may wear Old Navy. Get over it. Williams’ impassioned speech is relevant because of Red Cross posters, Old Navy ads and Honey Nut Cheerios commercials. It’s relevant because the recent killings of unarmed black men by police. It’s relevant because some people are calling Black Lives Matter a terror group.
Kudos to the woman who saw the Red Cross poster, spoke out and made a difference. Kudos to Old Navy and Cheerios for standing behind its decision to show what interracial families look like. Kudos to Williams for saying what’s on everyone’s minds. We are here. We are real.