Offensive vs. Celebratory. This is the line that most brands have to dance when deciding how they will partake in Black History Month. Brands such as the NBA, The US Dept of Education, Coca Cola and others all threw their hat in the ring for 2017. In this post we’ll examine whether they managed to successfully celebrate the rich and vibrant Black culture.
Brand: National Basketball Association (NBA)
How They Chose to Celebrate: Themed Clothing and partnering with teams, influencers, artists and brands to bring the culture to life.
If you Google “NBA Black History Month” you’ll be met with a variety of ways the NBA has chosen to celebrate it’s largest demographic. From shoes, socks, and shirts with afro-centric designs to personal team highlight pages, the NBA recognizes the audience it serves, attracts and employs.
The Good: Every NBA team employs at least one Black athlete; a number of them are majority Black. The fact that the NBA goes out of its way to authentically participate in conversations and share Black history with its fans is refreshing. So many brands make a half-assed effort and it shows. Stars such as Stephen Curry, John Wall, LeBron James and James Harden have willingly stepped up and voiced their support of these initiatives. It helps when your big stars embrace what you do for the culture.
The Bad: The amount of support for brands like Jordan and Nike that make special BHM versions of shoes comes of capitalistic to some. I am all for support and representation, but should that come at the cost of $180 a pair?
The Ugly: Non-existent, as far as I can tell the NBA has been pretty authentic in its adoption of Black History Month. Little known fact, but Ray Allen championed this effort with the league in his last years as a player, so thanks to Jesus Shuttlesworth for this one.
Sidenote: Although not directly NBA affiliated, noted Chicago artist Hebru Brantley has teamed with Bleacher Report to re-imagine all 30 NBA logos for BHM. Worth a look for sure: http://mag.bleacherreport.com/br-x-bhm/
Brand: The U.S. Department of Education
How They Chose to Celebrate: By embarrassing themselves
Let’s skip the niceties on this one. The new U.S. Dept. of Education under Betsy DeVos wasted no time in embarrassing themselves. They posted a quote by W.E.B. Du Bois and spelled his name wrong. *facepalm*
You’d think under the immense scrutiny with which she entered the office, Ms. DeVos would take that and channel it into making sure her ship is buttoned up top to bottom. I guess not.
What does this mean for Black History? Let’s dive a little deeper; people like Betsy DeVos have a history of misrepresenting the facts. Take this below political cartoon by a DeVos supporter. On the surface it may seem harmless, but this is egregious when you realize where the inspiration comes from.
Below is Norman Rockwell’s, ‘The Problem We All Live With’ which depicts national hero Ruby Bridges who bravely desegregated schools at only 6 years old. What Ruby and Betsy stand for are complete opposites.
All this rolls up into how brands and people treat Black History Month as a time to pander to Black people and bend our history to their agenda. Major fail to the U.S. Dept. of Ed this February, let’s hope they learn and move on from these mistakes.
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