The B Word

OK, this is just silly. Recently, the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP has taken offense to a Hallmark card that, according to them, is racist. Now, when I first saw this article I was a little bit wary. I thought, "Alright, it seems unlikely that Hallmark (or anyone for that matter) would publish a blatantly racist and offensive greeting card (of all things), buy hey it's possible so I guess I'll suspend my disbelief." Well, it turns out it was pretty unbelievable.

According to NAACP, the card in question, a graduation card with a speaker that plays a dialogue between two cartoon rabbits, made reference, in its audio, to African American women as "black whores" with the warning that they better watch their backs.

This is ridiculous.

I listened to the audio of this card that was provided in the news video and I heard the following:

Stupid Cartoon #1: And you black holes, you're so ominous!

Stupid Cartoon #2: And you planets: watch your back.

Granted this is a stupid, poorly written card that no one should ever give to a self-respecting graduate, but it is definitely not racist.

Minnie Hatley of the Los Angeles NAACP asserts that she hears an "R" so that the card is saying "black whores" (which obviously doesn't make sense in context) instead of black holes. Never mind the fact that I clearly hear an "L" in there and not an "R", and never mind the fact that holes has a different vowel sound than whores, I want to know, if this card were actually racist, why Hallmark would ever allow a racial slur to slip in? Why this card? Why graduations? Why the solar system? Is this some cheap attempt at subliminal racist brainwashing?

The reason why I'm so concerned by this is not because I care about Hallmark and it's reputation. I don't think Hallmark is some poor victim being unjustly accused of racism. I don't really care. I'm more concerned with the image of the NAACP. Here I see them making fools of themselves by taking offense to and taking issue with something that I frankly don't think exists. I hear Leon Jenkins of the NAACP say, "That was very demeaning to African American women when they made reference to African American women as 'black whores' and at the end says, 'watch your back,'" and all I can think is, "This is stupid, this is stupid, there's nothing there, they're just talking about black holes."

This kind of pointless knee-jerk reaction to something so trivial as a greeting card results in nothing but a loss of credibility in my mind.