Volkswagen has finally agreed with the obvious fact that their advertisement was racist. They previously attempted to defend their advertisement as racist.
Volkswagen video posted to its German Instagram and Facebook FB, +1.52% accounts showed a pair of oversized white hands appearing to push and pull a black man away from a yellow VW Golf 8 car packed on a street. The Volkswagen VWAGY, -0.49% advert was supposed to mimic popular social media videos that show one person appearing to be controlled by another like a puppet, but something was definitely lost in translation.
What’s more, one of the white hands then flicked the black man into a cafe called “Petit Colon,” which translates into “Little Settler” from French to English, or “Little Colonist” from German to English, the BBC reported.
German television also noted that the letters that start appearing on the screen afterward first spell out “neger” — which can be used as the German equivalent of the n-word — before merging into the slogan “Der Neue Golf,” or “The New Golf.”
Germans are well known for their racism and racist behavior toward Africans. Many corporations in the Era of Trumpism are responding to the new trend of blatant racism. Will African-Americans and other Africans (Blacks) worldwide continue to overlook this blatant corporate racism? Will these corporations continue to receive boost and support from racist organizations?
The debate of how Black’s purchasing power is exercise and who gains from Black dollars remains an academic debate. There are now emerging organizations like www.greenbookreviews.com that are creating an active medium to holding these racist corporations accountable.
