Challenging the myth of black inferiority

[FifthColumn]

Chicago advertising legend Tom Burrell is making what may be the most important pitch of his life. He's trying to convince blacks that the daily consumption of negative images and stereotypes erodes self-esteem and keeps them feeling and acting like second-class citizens.

"The longest-running propaganda campaign is that of black inferiority," said Burrell, 71, the founder of the Chicago-based Burrell Communications, a multimillion-dollar ad agency specializing in the African-American market.

"We have to understand that images, symbols and words can be so powerful and so ubiquitous that they affect behavior without us knowing it."

In his popular book, "Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority," Burrell, who's African-American, said many individuals and institutions have been complicit in keeping the myth alive. Burrell takes to task the Founding Fathers; the mainstream media and advertisers; some churches and long-standing civil rights organizations; and blacks themselves who spew the N-word, link academic achievement to "acting white" or simply engage in self-destructive behavior.

Read more at:
Tom Burrell seeks to challenge myth of black inferiority - chicagotribune.com

Hmm? Why is it that when blacks "act right" they get accused of "acting white"? Isn't that why most blacks fall back to "acting ghetto"?

 

[mudwhistle]

Chicago advertising legend Tom Burrell is making what may be the most important pitch of his life. He's trying to convince blacks that the daily consumption of negative images and stereotypes erodes self-esteem and keeps them feeling and acting like second-class citizens.

"The longest-running propaganda campaign is that of black inferiority," said Burrell, 71, the founder of the Chicago-based Burrell Communications, a multimillion-dollar ad agency specializing in the African-American market.

"We have to understand that images, symbols and words can be so powerful and so ubiquitous that they affect behavior without us knowing it."

In his popular book, "Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority," Burrell, who's African-American, said many individuals and institutions have been complicit in keeping the myth alive. Burrell takes to task the Founding Fathers; the mainstream media and advertisers; some churches and long-standing civil rights organizations; and blacks themselves who spew the N-word, link academic achievement to "acting white" or simply engage in self-destructive behavior.

Read more at:
Tom Burrell seeks to challenge myth of black inferiority - chicagotribune.com

Hmm? Why is it that when blacks "act right" they get accused of "acting white"? Isn't that why most blacks fall back to "acting ghetto"?

The two factors that keep most blacks from succeeding is peer pressure and institutional racism.

Everyone makes fun of those who study hard and work toward a better future, and the fact that most blacks hate whites for no reason, and are supported by government programs in support of this belief is the primary reason they never can get ahead.

When a slick talker with silk suits comes along and becomes President they go ga-ga because that's the best they can expect.

He speaks their language even though they at one time felt he was an outsider. Obama was never up for the struggle.

He was just a spoiled only child raised by doting Grandparents who never saw fit to teach him right from wrong. He never had it tough. Now he's the black community's shining example.

 

[Intense]

Peer Pressure effects most of us.

 

[mudwhistle]

Peer Pressure effects most of us.

It effects most of us, but in the black community it controls them.

If you dare to step off the plantation you are deemed not black or an Oreo.

Clarance Thomas is as black as anyone but he's a traitor. Same with Condi Rice.

Because they both dared to work within the system and make their own mark outside of the stereotypical black norms, they are outcasts in the black community.

What would happen if ether of them went to a NAACP meeting?

Does this kind of institutional racism exist today in the White community?

 

[editec]

Chicago advertising legend Tom Burrell is making what may be the most important pitch of his life. He's trying to convince blacks that the daily consumption of negative images and stereotypes erodes self-esteem and keeps them feeling and acting like second-class citizens.

"The longest-running propaganda campaign is that of black inferiority," said Burrell, 71, the founder of the Chicago-based Burrell Communications, a multimillion-dollar ad agency specializing in the African-American market.

"We have to understand that images, symbols and words can be so powerful and so ubiquitous that they affect behavior without us knowing it."

In his popular book, "Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority," Burrell, who's African-American, said many individuals and institutions have been complicit in keeping the myth alive. Burrell takes to task the Founding Fathers; the mainstream media and advertisers; some churches and long-standing civil rights organizations; and blacks themselves who spew the N-word, link academic achievement to "acting white" or simply engage in self-destructive behavior.

Read more at:
Tom Burrell seeks to challenge myth of black inferiority - chicagotribune.com

Hmm? Why is it that when blacks "act right" they get accused of "acting white"? Isn't that why most blacks fall back to "acting ghetto"?

What do you really KNOW about what life is like in the Black community?

My guess is you don't know jackshit about it.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Peer Pressure effects most of us.

It effects most of us, but in the black community it controls them.

If you dare to step off the plantation you are deemed not black or an Oreo.

Clarance Thomas is as black as anyone but he's a traitor. Same with Condi Rice.

Because they both dared to work within the system and make their own mark outside of the stereotypical black norms, they are outcasts in the black community.

What would happen if ether of them went to a NAACP meeting?

Does this kind of institutional racism exist today in the White community?

Have you seen that Spike Lee movie "Get on the Bus"? It's about blacks going to the Million Man March and picking up "brothers" along the way. Naturally they get into discussions about black history and their place in America.
Along the way they pick up a self professed "Conservative" black and guess what ends up happening to him?

They kick him off the bus that's what. So the message is you can't be conservative and Black.

 

[mudwhistle]

In other words get with the program or get the fuick off

 

[Ravi]

He probably has a point...and how funny that the posters after the OP talked about blacks as if they are retarded.

 

[Tank]

The two factors that keep most blacks from succeeding is peer pressure and institutional racism.

I'm going with low IQ's and high testosterone levels.

If you think blacks do poorly in America, they do much worse in the rest of the world.

 

[syrenn]

Peer Pressure effects most of us.

It effects most of us, but in the black community it controls them.

If you dare to step off the plantation you are deemed not black or an Oreo.

Clarance Thomas is as black as anyone but he's a traitor. Same with Condi Rice.

Because they both dared to work within the system and make their own mark outside of the stereotypical black norms, they are outcasts in the black community.

What would happen if ether of them went to a NAACP meeting?

Does this kind of institutional racism exist today in the White community?

So what you are saying is that its blacks holding blacks back.


I agree.

 

[IanC]

The two factors that keep most blacks from succeeding is peer pressure and institutional racism.

I'm going with low IQ's and high testosterone levels.

If you think blacks do poorly in America, they do much worse in the rest of the world.

nature equals genetics
nurture equals environment
genetically influenced nurture equals culture
environmentally inflenced nature equals evolution

blacks are what they are. neither inferior nor superior. but if they live in white dominated society their attributes are not going to match up to white standards that are tailored to make the best out of white attributes.

 

[manifold]

If Burrell's book helps to make it more socially acceptable within the black community to 'act white' as he puts it, I can't imagine why anyone would view that as a bad thing.

 

[FifthColumn]

Chicago advertising legend Tom Burrell is making what may be the most important pitch of his life. He's trying to convince blacks that the daily consumption of negative images and stereotypes erodes self-esteem and keeps them feeling and acting like second-class citizens.

"The longest-running propaganda campaign is that of black inferiority," said Burrell, 71, the founder of the Chicago-based Burrell Communications, a multimillion-dollar ad agency specializing in the African-American market.

"We have to understand that images, symbols and words can be so powerful and so ubiquitous that they affect behavior without us knowing it."

In his popular book, "Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority," Burrell, who's African-American, said many individuals and institutions have been complicit in keeping the myth alive. Burrell takes to task the Founding Fathers; the mainstream media and advertisers; some churches and long-standing civil rights organizations; and blacks themselves who spew the N-word, link academic achievement to "acting white" or simply engage in self-destructive behavior.

Read more at:
Tom Burrell seeks to challenge myth of black inferiority - chicagotribune.com

Hmm? Why is it that when blacks "act right" they get accused of "acting white"? Isn't that why most blacks fall back to "acting ghetto"?

What do you really KNOW about what life is like in the Black community?

My guess is you don't know jackshit about it.

Is Jack Shit black?

 

[FifthColumn]

Peer Pressure effects most of us.

It effects most of us, but in the black community it controls them.

If you dare to step off the plantation you are deemed not black or an Oreo.

Clarance Thomas is as black as anyone but he's a traitor. Same with Condi Rice.

Because they both dared to work within the system and make their own mark outside of the stereotypical black norms, they are outcasts in the black community.

What would happen if ether of them went to a NAACP meeting?

Does this kind of institutional racism exist today in the White community?

So what you are saying is that its blacks holding blacks back.


I agree.

A few years ago, the inventor of the Segway was on "60 Minutes" talking about how many engineering jobs in the US go unfilled because black students have it in their minds that they will become famous sports figures. It is practically drilled into their heads. They spend so much time dribbling basketballs that their lives are wasted in a hopeless dream. He said the chances of winning a state run lottery were better than becoming a sports superstar.

 

[Tank]

If Burrell's book helps to make it more socially acceptable within the black community to 'act white' as he puts it, I can't imagine why anyone would view that as a bad thing.

If he really wants blacks to do better in school, he should tell blacks to act Asian.

 

[manifold]

If Burrell's book helps to make it more socially acceptable within the black community to 'act white' as he puts it, I can't imagine why anyone would view that as a bad thing.

If he really wants blacks to do better in school, he should tell blacks to act Asian.

I dunno. There are quite a few Asians that are trying to act black these day so if they follow their lead it could become a vicious cycle.

 

[mudwhistle]

The two factors that keep most blacks from succeeding is peer pressure and institutional racism.

I'm going with low IQ's and high testosterone levels.

If you think blacks do poorly in America, they do much worse in the rest of the world.

My brother has an IQ of over 150 but he never finished HS.

What's his excuse?

I doubt intelligence is a factor. It's simply not cool to be good at school.

 

[Grace]

Didn't Bill Cosby address some of these issues a few years ago? And he got a lot of flack about what he was saying.
There are double standards. One race cannot scream racism then do the exact act in racism. For example:

Can't say the N word, but blacks do it all the time in rap music.

There is no White Miss America. Nor Miss Asian Miss America. Nor Native American Miss America. But there is a Black Miss America.

If there were a NAAWP, shit would hit the fan.

It's all a case of do what I say, not what I do.

 

[syrenn]

Didn't Bill Cosby address some of these issues a few years ago? And he got a lot of flack about what he was saying.
There are double standards. One race cannot scream racism then do the exact act in racism. For example:

Can't say the N word, but blacks do it all the time in rap music.

There is no White Miss America. Nor Miss Asian Miss America. Nor Native American Miss America. But there is a Black Miss America.

If there were a NAAWP, shit would hit the fan.

It's all a case of do what I say, not what I do.

Its all a cop out. Period

 

[casper4020322]

Several years ago I had the same discussion with an older White woman co-worker. She told me in a very sarcastic way that Blacks have their own beauty pageant and I not so politley pointed out to her that as long as I have looked at any type of pageant on tv it has always been NOTHING BUT WHITE WOMEN! But in reality it never bothered me when I was growing up b/c there were nothing but White people on tv anyway: Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, Lassie, Leave it to Beaver, The Brady Bunch...you very rarely saw a Black person on those shows. But that was the sign of the times back in those days. Then everything changed and shows starring Black actors became very popular: Good Times (with JJ), The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, Cosby...weren't those the good 'ole days when comedies were fun! I even liked Archie Bunker...and I have some White friends who didn't.