Remember that commercial that Acura apparently spent top dollars for to advertise for the new NSX for the Superbowl? It had Jerry Seinfeld wanting to be the first owner of ther new NSX, but a random guy beat him to it. Seinfeld then spends the whole commercial trying to sway said buyer with fairly ridiculous offers and in the end Jay Leno ended up getting the keys to the first NSX. What a brilliant premise.
The commercial was a pretty big hit and seemed to be fairly harmless and G rated, which earned Acura decent praise. Apparently behind the scenes though, this was not the case.
The company that Acura hired to cast for the commercial made a big no-no in the casting sheet. The company advertised for the salesman, who interacts with Seinfeld at the beggining, to be African-American. Nothing wrong with that, right? Well apparently they also stated that the actor was required to be “not too dark”.
According to TMZ, the ones who unearthed the casting sheet from an unamed source, the PR company that Acura hired put that caveat in there because it had to do with lighting and special effects, and nothing to do with being racist. Here’s the thing with that though:
It’s. Still. Racist.
What they are essentially suggesting is that dark skinned African-Americans can’t be on TV. Really? Due to lighting? That’s what you came up with? Then buy more lights. Buy more expensive equipment. Spend hours or days on the lighting if you have to to get it right. Don’t stunt the growth of a young African-American’s acting career for something he cannot help. The Cosby Show was able to get by just fine lighting dark-skinned actors, after all. Putting “not too dark” into a casting sheet is just going along with a larger issue that’s developing in TV today, which is perpetuating the stereotypical social issue that dark-skinned African-Americans aren’t to be trusted and that we should all tremble and clutch our valuables should we see a dark skinned male approaching. I wish I could say it’s becoming ridiculous, but unfortunately this sort of attitude has been around for a long time, especially when it comes to TV.
It should be pointed out that neither Jerry Seinfeld nor Acura had anything to do with this racist blunder so refrain from sending them your angry letters. In fact, Acura has issued an apology:
We apologize to anyone offended by the language on the casting sheet used in the selection of actors for one of our commercials.
We sought to cast an African-American in a prominent role in the commercial, and we made our selection based on the fact that he was the most talented actor.
The casting sheet was only now brought to our attention. We are taking appropriate measures to ensure that such language is not used again in association with any work performed on behalf of our brand.
If by “such language is not used again” you mean getting rid of that language altogether then that’s great, Honda. But if you mean you’ll simply word it differently next time around then that does nothing to fix the problem.
What do you think about the casting sheet?
[TMZ]
What is the problem here?
If for some acting role they need someone who is not below 1.7 meter or if they need an actor who is not too fat. Is that racism also?
For some kind of jobs you require some kind of people. Its like accusing an adult movie director for not casting actors with lack of size or whatsoever.
That’s a very black and white way of looking at it, and in an ideal world you may have a point. But unfortunately with black history and the racism behind it, this requirement was insensitive to the history of racism and promotes a social stigma that exists today.
And no, to answer your question, if stating that an actor be “not too short” or “not too fat” is not racism. That’s not the definition of racism because it has nothing to do with race.