I ripped this from Blac(k)academic's site:

Sony Pulls Racially-Charged Billboards

Assemblyman Yee, NAACP, Sojourn Commend Corporation for Ending Ad Campaign

SACRAMENTO – A week after Assembly Speaker pro Tem Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/Daly City), the NAACP, and Sojourn to the Past – a youth civil rights education project, condemned Sony Corporation for a racially charged advertisement in the Netherlands, Sony has pulled the billboard campaign and apologized to those offended. Today, Yee and other civil rights leaders commended Sony for their latest action.

Sony said in a statement issued by Nick Sharples, Director of Corporate Communications in Europe: “We further recognize that people have a wide variety of perceptions about such imagery and we wish to apologize to those who perceived the advert differently to that intended. In future, we will apply greater sensitivity in our selection of campaign imagery, and will take due account of the increasingly global reach of such local adverts, and their potential impact in other countries.�

“I am pleased to see Sony taking responsibility for their racially-charged ad and appropriately pulling it from the marketplace,� said Yee. “Sony did the right thing by recognizing their insensitive mistake and apologizing for offending many of their customers.�

The ad, promoting the release of Sony’s new white-cased portable video game system (PSP), depicted a white woman angrily grabbing a black woman in the face with the text “Playstation Portable. White is coming.�

“Sony has done the honorable thing by owning up to the fact that communication and ads in today’s global market have a much further reach than in the past,� said Rick Callender, President of San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP. “Their attempt to contrast colors clearly created controversy and sparked painful feelings in the global community. Hopefully in the future, Sony will employ a better litmus test to their ad campaigns to determine if they will be sour to the taste of worldwide consumers. I commend them for their actions.�

“Working with young people, Sojourn to the Past teaches many lessons of the Civil Rights Movement including the capacity to change and forgiveness,� said Jeff Steinberg, Sojourn to the Past’s Executive Director. “By ending this ad campaign, Sony deserves credit for righting their wrong. We urge all corporations to no longer use such derogatory and racially-charged images to sell their products. These tactics only serve to divide us.�

“Unfortunately, this is not the first such racial incident the video game industry has faced,� said Yee, author of California’s law to prohibit sales of extremely violent video games to minors. “Many games, including Postal 2 and the Grand Theft Auto series, have faced similar criticism due to their racist images and themes.�

Postal 2 has received significant criticism from civil rights and women’s groups for its over the top depictions of a woman being assaulted and African American characters being dowsed with gasoline and lit on fire, followed by a dialogue that includes, “mmm, smells like chicken,� “now there’s welfare reform for you,� and “I guess it would have been more politically correct to kill the women and the minorities first.� Grand Theft Auto: Vice City garnered criticism from many in the Haitian community after its infamous “Kill all the Haitians� dialogue.

California’s violent video game law, which was scheduled to go into affect on January 1, 2006, has been delayed due to a federal lawsuit filed by the video game industry. A hearing took place in May with a decision expected shortly.

Adam J. Keigwin

Office of

Speaker pro Tem Leland Y. Yee, Ph.D.

California State Assembly, District 12

State Capitol, Room 3173

Sacramento, CA

(916) 319-2012

(916) 319-2112 – fax

I can safely say that out of all the sites that discussed this ad, Nubian's site had the most comments (111 at last visit). Sure, she had some Trolls, which lead me to ask this question: When analyzing what is deemed racist, why do some white people feel that they have the final say as to what is and what isn't? And no, it's not because when it comes to racism, they are (most likely) the perpetrators, it is because of their ingrained supremacist views - when a black person discusses race, it is dismissed as being a knee-jerk reaction, hinting at our inferiority in terms of conjuring up a rational and/ or objective analysis, based on lived experience. No, we are supposed to listen to those who have never experienced racism to tell us that we are playing the 'race card,' or leaning on the 'slavery' crutch. Wow, not that I have been privy to this information, I will now put up with covert, overt and systemic discrimination 'cause it's my fault, not yours. Thanks for clearing it up for me.

Toronto Star

As a writer and a daily reader, I have a love / hate relationship with the newspaper. I read it because it is the most liberal paper in the T-Dot, but hate it because I have pitched several ideas to them, many that focus on race, and gotten rejected several times - even though they did publish my article on black bloggers (my eldest brother remarked that it was only because it was because of Black History Month - still a bone of contention between us). I am a avid letter writer, too, but only one has been published in the several years I have submitted. But yesterday, a letter was published that I thought was interesting, as I thought it was indicative of what the general population likes to see.

It was in response to a previous letter to the editor written by this guy who had a biracial son (wife was Asian, he was white but said that his kid 'looked Caucasian'... Hip Hip Hooray!) who said, "I am immensely proud of the qualities of each of my own cultural components and instill in my son pride and value for all of his racial dimensions while, at the same time, recognizing the less-complimentary aspects and rejecting them." O.K.

The responder wrote the next day, "With no disrespect intended to any community, can we all just stop bringing up race as an issue? there is only one race to worry about - the human race. It is to this we all belong. Start recognizing how similar we all are in our hopes and dreams and the world will be a much better place."

In in a Utopian fantasy-world, the last writer is right. But that's not how the world works, honey. Plus, it it wasn't for race and class differences that benefit a few and discriminate against many, he wouldn't have he head shoved so far up his ass enough to write such dismissive bullshit. But this is what the Star likes, similar to many mainstream publications. To pretend that nothing is amiss, unless a black person starts shooting up white people or a Muslim person buys some fertilizer.

Between looking for employment, worrying about my finances and the everyday stress that causes me to suffer from not coming up with any coherent article pitches, I have decided that my focus - besides doing more music writing - is to write more about race. Shit is happening in our communities and I am not satisfied with the conclusions, the answers to the problems written in mainstream publications that should cater to everyone, not just the middle-class. There is a lack of ownership - a lack of people publicly addressing what is happening to people of colour that causes some to perpetrate violent acts, or to separate themselves from others. It has always interested me, was a focal point of my university studies, and since I am still paying that muthafucka off, I want to use it. It is a choice that will probably hurt me in some ways that it already has, and in ways that will be a surprise to me in the future, but it is a path that I choose and one I feel that is necessary.