My Nikes

[Theresa Lee <tjoyce@mit.edu>]

JOzersky@aol.com wrote:

>>I actually hope Antoine switches to Nike soon.  His commercials seem to
>>be aimed at white people.<<<

Wrong. His commercials are aimed at people with money who also want to buy
sneakers and, quite possibly at people who are fans of Antoine's. It's
called advertising.

Let's see, I'm white and I wear Nike and my Chinese husband wears Nike too.
My assistant, who is Puerto Rican, wears Nike too. I guess we haven't
learned the rules about which sneakers we should buy. Is there a list of
companies with the preferred race that they are marketing to somewhere?  I
don't want to get it wrong next time. You should see my husband and I
trying to grocery shop...."no, honey, that's salsa...that's not for us.
Only I can buy Wonder Bread...they just won't sell it to you...well, ok,
you can have a slice when we get home, but don't tell anyone."

Who actually thinks this way?  Ignorance. Unfortunately, I see it everyday.

Here's one of my favorite. A friend of mine named Surehka Vajhalla worked
in Northern Maine for the summer. Someone asks her, "where are you from?"
She answers, "Maryland." They press, "NO, WHERE are you FROM?" She says,
"oh, from Boston. Well that's where I live now." Again, "Well, where are
your parents FROM?" She replies, "Maryland." Still frustrated, the Maine
guy says, "what ARE YOU?" And on and on and on. I've seen it happen to my
husband too.

Theresa (sorry, off topic)