And Other Coonery...Doritos: Snack Strong, Lack Thought?

LONG OVERDUE. Let me start by saying this is an old paper I wrote for class and I should have posted it on the site awhile ago. I will start posting some of my essays and papers as blogs on theSUNK, because this is the Sh!t U Need 2 Know. but without futher ado. And Other Coonery...Doritos: Snack Strong Lack Thought? Feminizing and Homosexualizing the Black Male through Mass Media:

The most watched program of the year is the NFL Superbowl. Many families sit around that Sunday to see the two best football teams compete for a National Football Championship. Many also know and look forward to see some of the best and most creative commercials of the year as well. There is an understanding that the more publicity a show gets, the more viable a time slot for a company to advertise and show their product to millions in a “supposedly” clever and comedic way. Through the laughs and knee slaps many Americans fail to see the subliminal message mass media projects throughout our family living rooms. For the past two years one specific company in particular has portrayed the black male as hypersexual, feminine, and homosexual through the tool of mass media, Doritos.

In 2010 Doritos probably had one of the funniest commercial to many Americans. The commercial featured a black man, woman, and child. First, the black man walks into the house created by a single black mom for their first date. While she walks away the man stares at her behind and makes hypersexual gestures in front of her adolescent child. Infuriated, the child waits for the man to sit down (become defenseless) to smack (assault) and threaten him saying “Keep yo hands off my mama and keep yo hands off my Doritos”. To many that was cute, endearing, and hilarious, but it represented a much larger issue.

The entire scene in that 2010 Doritos’ Superbowl Commercial represented a much larger issue of the continuous negative portrayal of the black people throughout America; deriving from Jim Crowe to minstrel shows. The first scene of the single black mom represented the plight of the black family and her objectification not only by the black male in the scene but by America as a whole. Then the second scene of the black man and child relationship symbolized the fatherless child disrespecting his older self (black man) in a narcissist manner. The man child must defend his black mother because she has no one to defend her, while simultaneously deducing the black man with a slap to that(eye level once he sat down) of a child. By laughing Americans deemed this as acceptable and having truth, because we cannot laugh if we do not relate.

Recently this year, Doritos had another viral Superbowl Commercial in 2011. This commercial was a 30 seconds divided into two 15 second mini-commercials. The first one had a white and black man sitting at a desk during lunch, while the black man ate his bag of Doritos the white guy asked for some and the black guy said he had just finished the last. The white guy responded and says “no you didn’t”, and suddenly sucks the finger of the black guy for the remnants of the Doritos he had just eaten stating “Umm Cheese”; we are then left with a puzzled and uncomfortable look from the black man. The second featured a sloppy and overweight white guy eating his Doritos standing up and wiping his sticky Dorito fingers on his pants when he is suddenly approached by the same white guy in the first commercial. This guy then proceeds to rip his pants off and eat the crumbs off of them.

You are then left with the question, “Were both of these commercials sexual?” The answer is “no”.

Both commercials were not sexual and differed; the instance of the black and white guy sitting together and the snatching of the pants of the overweight white guy were different. The black/white scene at the table having had his finger licked and sucked by a white male represented a homosexual act; the black guy was homosexualized and harassed. We see this black guy with a wedding band on his finger, which symbolizes his belonging to a woman but overpowered by the white man he still belongs to him (white male/slavery). The taking of food or overpowering is a dominant act, thus making the black male who owned his own (Doritos chips) still submissive and under the rule of the younger, unmarried and plundering white male. This commercial represented the hierarchy of American society and the sexual objectification of the black male as well. When he snatched the pants off of the overweight white guy it was a ploy to American society as well, portraying obese people as comedic props and play things that do not deserve respect; this hierarchy is white one of strongest survives (appearance, weight, neatness). How the commercials differ is that black guy could have been the overweight white guy, if he had snatched the black male pants of him it would have revealed him- subliminally stating the unconscious thoughts of white American infatuation/obsession of the black male’s penis described by Dr. Frances Cress Welsing in The Isis Papers, however both commericals we’re still not sexual.

Throughout both commercials we witness a subliminal minstrel show containing degrading images of the black community, diluted by laughs and giggles. These Jim Crowe commercials are subliminal attacks and also statements of the current affairs of blacks in white America. We witness the hypersexual acts, feminizing of mature black men, and homosexualized themed motion pictures, which are capsulations of thoughts and feelings compiled onto film. Doritos commercials though on the surface found comedic are direct messages of the unequal hierarchy of America and its’ racist attitude towards the black people. Though I’m sure you won’t stop eating Doritos, at least Snack Strong not only on their cheesy tortilla chips, but on the messages they feed you via television.

Do you remember that commercial? Did you find it funny? Do you actually believe that there were subliminal messages? Do you find such a commercial exceptable? Should I Just Stick to Talking About Sex and Relationships?