Breaking news: Black Father Makes Gravy
Has anyone else seen the twitter uproar that surrounded the new Sainsbury’s advert?
Everyday this lovely tolerant country shows us exactly how unlovely and intolerant it is.
The advert itself is about a loving father who receives a call from his daughter , he is joking with his daughter, claiming kitchen genius for his gravy and longing to see his daughter whom he hasn’t seen for a while (probably due to COVID) whilst a montage of memories are shown. Very relatable.
My favourite response from one disgruntled viewer was simply “Christmas in Nigeria”, I couldn’t help but laugh. It should be said that there were a lot of comments supporting the advert and responding to those who left negative responses.
From the shadow banning of my very first article on Linkedin below
It is my belief that the phrase “Black Woman” in my title meant that the article was not being seen by my network. Regardless of reactions/likes by highly followed and highly regarded D&I advocates, the viewership figures were way below my normal viewership levels of a few thousand, regardless of the article receiving, at present, 42 “likes” and 51 comments for 110 views — that’s a very high engagement for it not to have more views. Linkedin have reached out and informed me that they will be looking into this anomaly. Funnily enough, many D&I advocates have experienced this same anomaly, enough for a NY Times article to be published.
Below is Linkein Help’s response to my query:
So is it really any wonder that a black family is subjected to all this hateful rhetoric for daring to be on a Christmas advert?
I’d like to say I am surprised but I don’t think there is a single person of colour (POC) who lives in this country who is surprised. Not one.
And for every non-POC who is surprised, why are you? Haven’t you spent the majority of your life pretending racism is a bygone issue that doesn’t exist and covering for these low lives?
The issue is clear…a happy, celebrating, black family cannot be part of British advertisement. Hell, they can’t be part of a British Christmas. It’s fine when it’s a mixed race family…even if secretly we think those families are being over represented… honestly how do they manage to show up on every single advert? Hoooowww?
But a full blown 100% black family, not light skinned or anything…erm no, that’s where we have to draw the line. It’s frankly unacceptable, we’re the majority here. This is Political Correctness gone wrong, critical race theory… someone find the remote and quick. At this rate I’m not going to be watching any Christmas TV at all…I’m tired of it.
Oh boo hoo, cry me a river, grab me a violin.
With everything going on in the world, are we really here discussing a Christmas advert? Yes…because representation matters, and it gets us thinking…well if they don’t want us on “their” adverts, what about in “their” schools, in “their” workplaces and in “their” society.
When we advocate for equality, way, way, way down on the list somewhere is a Black family starring in an advert (it could honestly be the last item on the list) so the fact that doing so elicits such a visceral reaction in so many shows that there is still a view that in an ideal British society, we’re not to be seen and we’re not to be heard. We belong exactly where we are…out of sight and out of mind.
