The red cross had to pull this ad because some said it was racist

People saying it's racist have never been to a public pool.

there are two cool arrows at white people and while one not cool arrow is pointed at a white girl, the problem seems to be that the black girl behind her is pushing her into the pool. among the others, there is a not cool white guy carrying a bottle by the pool, two not cool boys running by the pool, one white, one black, and near the center of the image, two not cool arrows pointing to black boys. One lifeguard is black, one white. So, on balance, there is a focus on not cool black kids and there are no cool black kids, as labeled, but there are almost as many not cool white people>>it is pretty balanced overall, maybe a little on the negative toward black kids, but you cannot perfectly balance by population in every single poster.

I saw this online earlier and was surprised no one mentioned the African American kid who can't swim.

lets have common sense wrote:

They had to pull this poster because of criticism that it was racist. This is ridiculous.

http://www.today.com/video/racist-pool-safety-poster-spurs-apology-from-red-cross-713517635817

What's ridiculous about the criticism is how they beat around the bush. I guess people suck at getting to the heart of the matter quickly. The poster is ridiculous because pretty much only black kids are the ones breaking the pool rules (rough housing, safety, etc.) and white folk are following the rules. It's so racist I can't believe nobody took stock of it. People are either distracted dumb@sses that phone it in to their job duties every day (while caring, really only about money and getting laid) or secretly despise black people and let it slide.

Now, as for your point that the criticism is invalid, what's the basis? Is this an extension of your anti-liberal, political-correctness destroying efforts elsewhere (i.e. let's stop being politically correct, facts say blacks are responsible for higher proportionate percentages of crime and violent crime)? Is there some reality of wandering, fatherless home black youth creating trouble at local pools around the country?

No, the Red Cross poster is just pure doucherry,

Professional umbrage takers whining about "racism."

Color me shocked.

All I see is a State Farm commercial.

They have a point. Out of 8 dark-skinned kids, 4 are called out for bad behavior and none for good, although one is a lifeguard at least. That's 50%.

Out of 8 light-skinned people plus 1 baby, 2 are called out for being "not cool". And two are designated cool, which balances it out. I think there is some kind of subconscious bias going on here.

larrk wrote:

They have a point. Out of 8 dark-skinned kids, 4 are called out for bad behavior and none for good, although one is a lifeguard at least. That's 50%.

Out of 8 light-skinned people plus 1 baby, 2 are called out for being "not cool". And two are designated cool, which balances it out. I think there is some kind of subconscious bias going on here.

What's wild about this is that you're a racist if you DON'T immediately break down this cartoon by skin color and start analyzing how many people of which skin color are doing bad things. Like it's completely racist to just say "oh a little cartoon about pool safety by the Red Cross, okay."

I get why people are upset, but stuff like this makes you realize how far we really are from a postracial society. Race colors everything, I guess.

asdfadsfadsf wrote:

larrk wrote:

They have a point. Out of 8 dark-skinned kids, 4 are called out for bad behavior and none for good, although one is a lifeguard at least. That's 50%.

Out of 8 light-skinned people plus 1 baby, 2 are called out for being "not cool". And two are designated cool, which balances it out. I think there is some kind of subconscious bias going on here.

What's wild about this is that you're a racist if you DON'T immediately break down this cartoon by skin color and start analyzing how many people of which skin color are doing bad things. Like it's completely racist to just say "oh a little cartoon about pool safety by the Red Cross, okay."

I get why people are upset, but stuff like this makes you realize how far we really are from a postracial society. Race colors everything, I guess.

Good point. Think of the mentality of the person who initially called this poster out as being "racist". Rather than just walk by the poster they had to analyze it and take the time to report it/complain to somebody. Some people go out of their way to get offended by everything.

The poster is a bit unbalanced, but does that mean it's "racist"? I say it doesn't.

That said, it's possible the person who created it was racist and purposely made the black kids "not cool". Or it was someone who didn't bother to analyze the race ratios. We don't know.

Either way, the poster is kind of dumb.

Would anyone have noticed if there was a slightly greater number of white kids singled out? Do we always have to have the white person in the negative position or else risk being accused of being racist?

This is amazingly silly.

I don't see black or white, just children.some following the rules, some not.

The real racists are the people that take the time to divide a population into races in the first place.

If you spend your life taking the inventory of others, you'll no doubt find something wrong.

I guess it depends on what kind of life you want to live, and how miserable you want to be.

I am a conservative, but I found this to be a little ridiculous myself. I mean, it seems like anyone who took a look at it should have noticed and made a few quick adjustments.

Not something to make the major news outlets like it did, but they ought to recall it and make a new one. They botched this one, but I don't think it was intentional. My guess is that someone just filled in some blanks with stock "illustrated" kids and happened to make the bad ones dark-skinned.

The only two that maybe seem intentional are the black kids who cannot swim and the black girl pushing the other girl.

I will say, though, the guy with the bottle looks Asian and so does the girl being pushed into the pool. And there is a white kid running, too, but the arrow is a tad bit closer to his black friend.

Pull it and make another. Easy.

They should pull it simply based on the fact they omitted an 'uncool' picture of a scrawny jamin-like character harassing uninterested women.

Seems about right to me. Is something inaccurate?

Post-racism wrote:

I don't see black or white, just children.some following the rules, some not.

The real racists are the people that take the time to divide a population into races in the first place.

You mean like the illustrator who made the good kids white and bad kids minorities? You can debate how much was intentional (guy decide to make all bad kids black) or latent (white == good, black == back) but it doesn't change the fact how racist it is.

Greased up watermelon wrote:

People saying it's racist have never been to a public pool.

Exactly. It isn't racist if it is the truth.

Remember the recent Gap ad with the little white girl leaning on the little black girl and everyone went batsh!t crazy? Then it was discovered that Gap had previously posted a very similar ad with a little black girl leaning on a little white girl and apparently no one went ballistic over that.

Best pic I can find with the two ads together.

https://twitter.com/MatthewACherry/status/716753585552302080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Would anyone have b!tched if the ratios were reversed? What if the ad was one race entirely?

public pool pee er wrote:

Greased up watermelon wrote:

People saying it's racist have never been to a public pool.

Exactly. It isn't racist if it is the truth.

My point exactly. What would people say if it was a black person that made the ad? I bet everything would be just peachy.