Why Do Black African Racial Stereotypes Persist in India?

[Blue_Tires]

African-Indian bonhomie was all the rage in India's media last week, amid celebratory coverage of homegrown telecom company Airtel's $10.7 billion acquisition of Kuwaiti company Zain's African operations and TV images of Indian visitors blowing vuvuzelas at soccer's World Cup in South Africa. Amid all the backslapping, however, an African student in India who runs a news and current-affairs website from the city of Bhopal accused companies like Coca-Cola of airing racist commercials on Indian TV that portrayed Africans as primitive savages.

"Indian marketers have a field day in putting 'blacks' where they've always 'belonged,' at least in the average Indian mind-sets," wrote S.K.Y. Banji, a Ugandan who has lived in India for more than four years and runs the Reign Times. His comments were endorsed by fellow Africans who posted on the site, sharing their own experiences of racism in India, and soon Banji's concerns were being aired in segments of the mainstream media. Yet there was hardly any public outcry, and none of the companies have issued apologies.
(See why racist attitudes are so ingrained.)

One of the commercials in question, for Coca-Cola's Sprite — which a Coca-Cola spokesperson says was received "very positively" by a test audience in India — shows two young Indian men captured by savages in an African jungle. While one of them tries to win over the captors by doing a silly jig, the other simply offers them Sprite. "There is nothing offensive in this ad," says Martha Wariithi, a Kenyan by birth who is the director of knowledge and insights for Coca-Cola's India and South West Asia unit. "It's lighthearted ... It fits very well for the positioning for Sprite in the market."
(What's racist? The importance of a glance.)

The Indian lemon drink LMN, produced by the Parle Agro corporation, has a blatantly racist subtext in its TV spot that shows two Africans digging in the sand for water. When they spot a tap nearby, they wrench it off and start using it as a shovel. Parle Agro would not comment to TIME on the commercial.
(Comment on this story.)

Another spot, for BP's Castrol engine oil, shows two young Indian men being magically transported from place to place: a beach, a lion-infested jungle — and a cauldron being carried by smiling African cannibals. BP has not responded to TIME's queries despite indicating it would do so.



Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1997936,00.html#ixzz0rcaET0fS

[Karenina]

1. NOBODY wants to go there!

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

[AspenRose]

2. Well, on a personal level at least, I've never experienced any racist behavior

from my Indian in-laws.

On a more global scale, however, it doesn't surprise me that racism is exported via marketing and commercials. It's one reason why immigrants to this country are often hostile, suspicious and rude to native-born black americans (including quite a few from Africa). They had to learn that from somewhere.

[SemperEadem]

3. In my expeiences, an african will be loud and vocal if you dare call them "black"

they are quick to remind you that they are not.

it's quite amusing, really.