Everything Wrong with Today's Youth

Some people just love being offended. I hate people like that.

I bring this up because Volkswagen posted a commercial on Youtube which is slated to run during the 2013 Super Bowl. I learned of it while watching the news. While it should have been considered newsworthy on the merits of its humor and charm, that was not the reason it was being covered by the 24-hour news cycle clusterfuck. It was being covered because there are allegedly a lot of people out there who found it very racist.

It is not racist. But before I elaborate on why, you should watch the commercial for yourself. Provided you aren’t a frigid, self-important white person, it will leave you with positive and happy feelings. Without further ado:

Solid commercial, right? You’re probably wondering, upon viewing the commercial yourself, exactly how big an object one must have up their ass in order to perceive the delightful commercial above as racist? Answer: really big. And wide.

I want to make clear, my opinion is not that this Super Bowl commercial for Volkswagen is not racist. That is an observable fact, and only my opinion insofar as, “Everything Wrong with Today’s Youth is a blog,” is my opinion. It is fact, not opinion. It is not up for debate.

Yes, that the commercial doesn’t seem to include a single black American doesn’t help its case. It makes it easier for someone to decry it as, “verbal blackface,” which is the stupidest characterization of this commercial I’ve heard so far.

My opinion on the commercial, for what it’s worth, is that it’s funny. Cute, even. But to call it racist would mean anything that ever mentions or alludes to race – a commercial, a statement, an article, a TV show, etc… – in a humorous or lighthearted manner is racist. If the 2013 Volkswagen Super Bowl commercial is racist, then what isn’t?

The most intellectually defective argument for why this commercial is so racist is that it implicitly assumes all Jamaicans are happy. It doesn’t. At most (if we must get theoretical), it posits that there is at least one happy Jamaican, the persona of whom is co-opted by people as a result of driving a Volkswagen. That’s not racist. The condescending assertion that this commercial is racist because Jamaica, with all it’s social and cultural issues, does not house a single happy Jamaican, is racist.

The thing is, no one who really matters is calling it racist. Which, being a person who doesn’t matter, is why I feel qualified to opine on it.

Further Reading

• That Volkswagen Super Bowl Ad: Pretty Clever, Slightly Racist, Kind of Wrong
  from Forbes | by Jeff Bercovici
• Volkswagen’s Super Bowl Ad an Unfunny Slight to Culture
  from The Daily Beast | by Pia Glenn
• VW Jamaica-theme Super Bowl ad: Racist?
  from USA Today | by Bruce Horovitz
• Racist Super Bowl Ad: Jamaica Embraces Controversial Volkswagen Commercial
  from The Huffington Post | by David McFadden
• 2013 Super Bowl Ads: Commercials Released Online Before Big Game [Videos]
  from The Inquisitr | by Dan Evon
• Canadians search for Super Bowl ads more than anyone else on Earth
  from canada.com | by Misty Harris