Erick Erickson's Latest Sexist Tirade Draws Outrage & Fox thinks working women are destroying America 30&31MAI13

I am overjoyed about all the controversy over the comments by erick erickson's on women in the workplace and the the way the male-female relationship should work. Maybe, just maybe, this will be a wake up call to the women who watch fox "news" and they will realize fox doesn't respect them or their opinions. The female staff at fox now knows the network considers them window dressing, on the air to show legs and boobs and "report" what they are told to.  From Media Matters, and sign the petition to fox if you are disgusted by their caveman mentality. And if you are interested check out my earlier post ECONOMIC INSECURITY AND INEQUALITY FOR WOMEN IN AMERICA 22MAI13 http://bucknacktssordidtawdryblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/economic-insecurity-and-inequality-for.html
...

Erick Erickson's Latest Sexist Tirade Draws Outrage

Research ››› May 30, 2013 7:52 PM EDT ››› BRIAN POWELL

Fox contributor Erick Erickson drew outrage from conservatives and liberals alike over a series of sexist comments, in which he lamented an increase in the number of female breadwinners in the United States and argued that males should be dominant in human societies because "the male typically is the dominant role" in "the natural world."

Erick Erickson Argued That An Increase In Female Breadwinners Defies Natural Order

Erickson: "When You Look At Biology, Look At The Natural World...The Male Is Typically The Dominant Role." From Fox Business' Lou Dobbs Tonight on May 29:

LOU DOBBS: Erick, your thoughts on this study and what it portends?

ERICKSON:  Lou, I'm so used to liberals telling conservatives that they're anti-science. But this is -- liberals who defend this and say it's not a bad thing are very anti-science.

When you look at biology, look at the natural world, the roles of a male and female in society, and the other animals, the male typically is the dominant role. The female, it's not antithesis, or it's not competing, it's a complementary role. We as people in a smart society have lost the ability to have complimentary relationships in nuclear families, and it's tearing us apart.

And what I find interesting in the survey is that three-quarters of the people surveyed recognize that having moms as the primary breadwinner is bad for kids and bad for marriage, and reality shows us that's the truth. [Fox Business, Lou Dobbs Tonight, 5/29/13]

Erickson: Kids Do Best "Where They Have A Mom At Home Nurturing Them While Dad Is Out Bringing Home The Bacon." From a May 30 Redstate.com post responding to criticism of his previous comments (emphasis added):

We should not kid ourselves or scream so loudly in politically correct outrage to drown the truth -- kids most likely will do best in households where they have a mom at home nurturing them while dad is out bringing home the bacon. [Redstate.com, 5/30/13]

Erickson: "Back On The Radio. Listen Live From 5 To 7 PM ET. Get Your Husband's Permission If Need Be. Heh." On May 30, Erickson tweeted:

[Twitter.com, 5/30/13]

Erickson: "I Understand That Some Women Believe They Can Have It All, And That's The Crux Of The Problem." On his radio program, WSB's The Erick Erickson Show, Erickson stated:

It is a fact that children in a two parent, heterosexual household tend to have a more stable upbringing and a better chance of success than those of single parents or gay parents. This is a fact. This is not to insult gay parents. This is not insult single parents. It's just a fact. And the, of the subset of children who are raised in a two-parent, nuclear, heterosexual household, children where the father is the one who is the leader of the family, or the breadwinner of the family, however you want to say it, tend to out-perform those where the mother is the primary provider of the family outside of the home. Those are the fact. All I have done is pointed them out.

[...]

And I understand that some women believe they can have it all, and that's the crux of the problem. I have to tell you, as a man, where women are told that men have so many more advantages in society, we can't have it all. Women, you can't have it all either. Life is a series of compromises and choices. [WSB, The Erick Erickson Show, 5/30/13] 

Erickson's Comments Have Drawn Outrage From Female Colleagues At Fox News

Fox News' Greta Van Susteren: Have My Colleagues "Lost Their Minds?" In her blog, Fox host Greta Van Susteren highlighted her thoughts on Erickson's remarks:

Have these men lost their minds? (and these are my colleagues??!! oh brother... maybe I need to have a little chat with them) (next thing they will have a segment to discuss eliminating women's right to vote?) [Gretawire.com, 5/30/13]

Fox News Political Analyst Kirsten Powers: "I'm Sincerely Confused As To Why [Erickson] Used Behavior Of Animals To Suggest That Women [Should] Stay At Home." From Twitter on May 30:

[Twitter.com, 5/30/13]

Fox Contributor Katie Pavlich: "Attacking Women For Being Breadwinners Is A Really Bad Idea." On her Twitter account, Pavlich wrote:

[Twitter, 5/30/13]

Pavlich: I'm Offended Erickson Implied Women Aren't Capable Of Leading A Household. 

[Twitter, 5/30/13]

Fox Contributor Jedediah Bila: Why Does Erick Erickson Have Beef With Female Breadwinners? Bila tweeted:

[Twitter, 5/30/13]

Bila: "Housewives & Househusbands Can Be Nurturing. Generalizations Suck." 

[Twitter, 5/30/13]

Erickson's Comments Have Drawn Outrage From Across The Political Spectrum

The Atlantic's Derek Thompson: Erickson "Is Terribly, Embarrassingly Wrong About Women." From The Atlantic's Derek Thompson on May 30:

First, there is something troubling about this statistic. The majority of female breadwinners are single moms, who face an extraordinary tension between working pay and raising children. But I didn't hear Erickson mention the phrase "single moms." He was talking about women earning more than men. And the fact that some married women are out-earning their husbands isn't tragic. It's inevitable. And it's good. [The Atlantic, 5/30/13]

Salon.com: Erickson "Doesn't Get It." From Salon's Alex Seitz-Wald on May 30:

Erick Erickson, the conservative blogger and Fox News personality, became the most hated man on Twitter today after responding to a much-discussed Pew survey on female breadwinners by saying that science says that men should dominate women (to be fair to Erickson, Juan Williams and Lou Dobbs expressed equally retrograde sentiments on the very same segment, but have largely escaped the drubbing).

Erickson tried to clear things up with a blog post this afternoon, but only made matters worse by showing how much he doesn't get it. The missive started off poorly, with some whining about how feminists and "emo lefties have their panties in a wad" (pro-tip: when accused of sexism, don't reference your opponents' panties while mounting your defense) and only got worse from there.

[...]

Here he shows he just doesn't get it. What upset people about Erickson's comments had less to do with single mothers and the decline of marriage rates than about gender roles. It was his notion that women should always stay at home and tend to the kids and that men should always be the breadwinners and dominate women -- because that's only natural. [Salon.com, 5/30/13]

Newsbuster's Matt Vespa: Erickson's Post About Female Breadwinners "Isn't Going To Help Us Reaching Out To Women." From Twitter:

[Twitter.com, 5/30/13]

Washington Post's Alexandra Petri: "I Would Write An In-Depth Response...But I Am Too Busy Urinating On A Tree To Mark It As The Boundary Of My Territory." From the Washington Post's ComPost blog:

A recent finding that 40 percent of American households with children have female breadwinners did not leave Fox News commenter Erik Erickson particularly happy.

He called it "anti-science" to accept this sort of role for women.

[...]

I would write an in-depth response to this, but I am too busy urinating on a tree to mark it as the boundary of my territory. I am relieved to know we do not hold ourselves to a higher standard. It was getting annoying to have to sit through all those office meetings and not pick fleas off anyone. I look forward to reproducing by emitting thousands of eggs into the ocean as I yell: "I HOPE SOME OF YOU SURVIVE."

I would go into detail about how human beings are uniquely fortunate to have highly developed minds that allow us to choose to function at a level above that encountered in the natural world so we can meet each other mind-to-mind regardless of our physiology and work in tandem without having to Establish Dominance Within The Pack, but, hang on, I have to go lock horns with another goat and shove it off a cliff. [Washington Post'sComPost blog, 5/30/13]

UPDATE: Current TV's John Fugelsang: Erickson's Radio Show "Doubled Down On His Dumbing Down." On the May 30 edition of Current TV's Viewpoint, host John Fugelsang highlighted Fox's segment on female breadwinners and noted that Erickson used his May 30 radio show to double down on his previous night's remarks. [Current TV, Viewpoint, 5/30/12, via Media Matters]

Morning Joe's Brzezinksi Labels Fox Segment Featuring Erickson's Comments "Caveman Central." After airing video of comments from Erickson, Lou Dobbs, Juan Williams, and Doug Schoen, Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinksi labeled the conversation "caveman central." Guest Donny Deutsch added, "The fact that in this day in age you can have men talking that way is stunning." [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 5/31/13]

MSNBC'S Melissa Harris-Perry: "It Does Make You Wonder If He's Ever Watched National Geographic, Where The Lioness Gets Up And Goes Out And Does The Hunting."  [MSNBC, Now With Alex Wagner, 5/31/13]

The Atlantic Wire's Elspeth Reeve: "Erickson Needs To Fact-Check His Anti-Working Moms Fairy Tale." In a post at The Atlantic Wire citing peer-reviewed studies on the subject, Elspeth Reeve laid out how Erickson's
comments about female breadwinners are "exactly wrong." [The Atlantic Wire, 5/31/13]
http://mediamatters.org/print/research/2013/05/30/erick-ericksons-latest-sexist-tirade-draws-outr/194278

Fox thinks working women are destroying America

Lou Dobbs and several of his guests hysterically claimed that working moms are ruining America. Tell Fox News to fire Lou Dobbs and his guests for their ignorant, anti-woman comments. Click Here

What do Lou Dobbs and Fox think is the biggest threat facing our society? Working moms.

Yep. You read that right.¹

On Wednesday, an all-male panel on Dobbs' Fox Business show was absolutely panicked over a new Pew study that shows women are the primary breadwinners in 40% of American households.² In their hysteria, they opined that having women as primary breadwinners is "bad for kids, bad for marriage," "catastrophic," and will "undermine our social order." One panelist, Erick Erickson, even said that "science" dictates that men are dominant over women.

Earth to Dobbs: This is not Leave It to Beaver. Working is a fact of life for most women, just like it is for most men.

The video of Dobbs and company blaming working mothers for the disintegration of society is spreading like wildfire online and across media outlets.Even Fox's female hosts and reporters are speaking out.³ The reaction is clear: people are tired of this garbage on our TVs.

We can't let Fox and Dobbs get away with this degrading, ignorant, anti-woman rhetoric on television. More Americans watch Fox News and its affiliates than any other cable news network⁴--what their panelists say is influential to tens of millions of people. If we all speak out, we can make sure Dobbs and his all-male panel are held accountable. Will you sign the petition demanding Fox fire Lou Dobbs, Erick Erickson, and Juan Williams?

Add your name to the petition.

And this isn't just a problem isolated to Dobbs' show--it's all over Fox. Host of Fox News program 'The Five'," Eric Bolling, said the increase in women's earning power was actually a symptom of the "breakdown of the American family."⁵

Lou Dobbs has said inflammatory things about women on Fox outlets before.⁶ And prior to his gig on Fox Business, he was known for xenophobic rants about immigrants on his CNN show.⁷

Dobbs is one of the worst examples of an old conservative who's terrified of anything changing and just wishes the entire country were a Leave It To Beaver episode.

But reality is very different than Dobbs’ hysterical fantasy: women working outside the home is not destroying society. The divorce rate has been decreasing over the last 20 years, and Americans are happier than ever.⁸ The real problem is that while more women are the primary breadwinners at home, they’re still earning less than their male counterparts at work ($0.77 to every dollar to be exact).⁹

It's time Lou Dobbs went the way of all 1950s television--off the air. His sexist rants and panels have no place in the 21st Century.

The outrage is already so bad that Erick Erickson, one of Dobbs' panelists, called people challenging his out-dated views "emo lefties" on his blog.¹⁰If we act now, we can hold Lou Dobbs and his panel accountable. Will you sign the petition demanding Fox fire Lou Dobbs, Erick Erickson, and Juan Williams?

Sign the petition.

Thanks for speaking out.

--Nita, Shaunna, Kat, Malinda and Karin, the UltraViolet team

Sources

1. The 'science' of gender roles, The Maddow Blog, May 30, 2013

2. Breadwinner Moms, PewResearch Social & Demographic Trends, May 29, 2013

3. Erick Erickson's Latest Sexist Tirade Draws Outrage, Media Matters, May 30, 2013

4. May 2013 Ratings: Fox News Gains Total Viewers, Loses Younger Viewers, TVnewser, May 29, 2013

5. Fox’s Eric Bolling: More Women In The Workplace Will Lead To ‘More Abortions’, Mediaite, May 30, 2013

6.Fox's Lou Dobbs: "Even If Roe v. Wade Were Turned Back ... Abortion Rights Would Remain", Media Matters, November 2, 2012

7. Lou Dobbs, American Hypocrite, The Nation, October 7, 2010

8. Divorce Rates Declining In The U.S. (Interactive Map), Huffington Post, April 11, 2013

Americans' Emotional Health Reaches Four-Year High, Gallup Wellbeing, May 10, 2012

9. Fact Check: Women Earn 77 Cents to Every Dollar Men Earn, Says National Women's Law Center, National Women's Law Center, October 17, 2012

10. Erickson Fires Back At ‘Emo Lefties’, Talking Points Memo, May 30, 2013

Jean Stapleton, Who Played Edith Bunker, Dies 1JUN13

JEAN STAPLETON died today, 1 JUN 13. She was Edith, the "dingbat", Archie's wife on All In The Family. I loved that show, it was so very controversial for it's time, it made people aware of and discuss different aspects on war, racism, women's rights, patriotism, gays, abortion, divorce, rape, religion and a lot of other things. the show made you angry, and howl with laughter and cry. My good friend Russ has referred to my parents as Archie and Edith for years, and they in turn have called him Meathead. This from NPR, and if I can find the clip I mention in my comments on the NPR page I will post it here....
You could have done much better choosing a clip from the show to honor Edith. My choice would have been when they took the trip to the hotel where they spent their honeymoon. Though there was a bit of tension between them in the room because of Archie's usual self-centeredness, in the end he did profess his love for her and the scene closed with them dancing only as people in love can. Thank you for the laughter and the tears Edith, and may you rest in peace Ms Stapleton.

by EYDER PERALTA

June 01, 2013 5:17 PM

Enlarge image

Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker and Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker on the CBS TV series All in the Family in 1976. Stapleton died Friday at 90.

CBS/Landov

Jean Stapleton, best known for her iconic role as Edith Bunker in the 1970s TV series All in the Family, has died, her family tells The Los Angeles Times, TMZ and The Hollywood Reporter.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

"She had been a veteran of stage, film and television when she was cast in the CBS sitcom opposite Carroll O'Connor's loud-mouthed, bigoted Archie Bunker, who often addressed her as 'dingbat.' She won three Emmys for the role.

"'The benign, compassionate presence she developed made my egregious churl bearable,' O'Connor wrote of Stapleton in his 1998 autobiography. He died in 2001."

Stapleton was 90.

Enlarge image

Stapleton, seen here in 2000, said she became somewhat of an activist when she moved out to Los Angeles.

Brenda Chase/Getty Images

In an interview with the Archive of American Television, Stapleton said before she took the Edith Bunker role, she was "apolitical."

But surrounded by activists in Los Angeles, things changed.

"I began to get a little educated and became somewhat of an activist," she said.

Her character became an icon of the women's rights movement. Activists took out an ad calling Edith Bunker a second-class citizen. The series also took on bigotry. Edith was the tolerant one and her husband was the bigot.

In the interview with the archive, Stapleton said the series uncovered bigotry through humor.

"Humor reduces it to nothing," she said.

We'll leave you with one of the iconic scenes of the show, when Archie and Edith show up to Lionel Jefferson's engagement party. Lionel, their neighbor's son, was engaged to a woman whose father is white and mother is black:

YouTube

Update at 6:17 p.m. ET: Rob Reiner And Norman Lear Statements:

Rob Reiner, who played the Bunkers' liberal son-in-law on All in the Family, issued this statement about Stapleton's death:

"Jean was a brilliant comedienne with exquisite timing. Working with her was one of the greatest experiences of my life. My thoughts are with her family."

Norman Lear, who wrote and produced the sitcom, said Stapleton helped him to see his own "frailties and humanity." In a statement, he continued:

"No one gave more profound 'How to be a Human Being' lessons than Jean Stapleton. Goodbye Edith, darling."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/01/187871026/reports-jean-stapleton-who-played-edith-bunker-dies 

HURRICANE SEASON IS HERE; Remapping Our Awareness Of Storm Surge Danger 1JUN13

HURRICANE SEASON starts today, 1 JUN 13, and the federal government is doing their best to be prepared and to be able to warn those in danger of any of the seven to eleven hurricanes expected this year. People do have a responsibility to be prepared too, for their sake and because they do not have the right to put the lives of our first responders in jeopardy by not heeding evacuation orders. From NPR......

by GREG ALLEN

June 01, 2013 6:36 AM

Listen to the Story

Enlarge image

Streets flooded in the Staten Island borough of New York after Superstorm Sandy hit in October. The storm caused multiple fatalities, halted mass transit and cut power to more than 6 million homes and businesses.

John Minchillo/AP

Hurricane season begins Saturday, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting an active season, with perhaps seven to 11 hurricanes.

With memories of last year's destruction from Hurricane Sandy still fresh, meteorologists are working on ways to improve how they forecast storms and communicate warnings to the public.

When Sandy was making its way northward in the Atlantic and began to turn toward the East Coast, the National Hurricane Center tried to emphasize the danger that storm surge posed for residents, especially those near New York City.

The Hurricane Center's forecast warned of 6 to 11 feet of storm surge. As it turned out, the center was right on the money. Rising seawater, pushed by Sandy's powerful winds, came ashore and brought widespread flooding to New Jersey, Long Island, parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island.

"It was like the ocean came up on land," says Rosemary Caruso, who lives just a block from the water on Staten Island.

Underestimating Storm Surge

This wasn't the first time a storm had flooded Staten Island. There were storm surges in the 1930s, but back then many of the coastal areas were still undeveloped marshland.

When Sandy hit, thousands in vulnerable neighborhoods didn't evacuate, despite the warnings. More than 20 people died on Staten Island, most from drowning. Jamie Rhome, a storm surge specialist at the National Hurricane Center, says it's a problem seen in nearly every hurricane.

"In general, this nation does not understand storm surge, nor does it understand its vulnerability," Rhome says. "We've seen poll after poll of individuals, right at the coast, saying they're not vulnerable to storm surge."

As Sandy showed, it's a threat that's not limited to states along the Gulf and in the Southeast.

"The New York area is, what I think, one of the most vulnerable areas in the entire East Coast," says William Fritz, a geologist and president of the College of Staten Island.

Months before Sandy, Fritz worked with Alan Benimoff to map areas on the island vulnerable to storm surge. The map proved prescient. The morning after the storm, Benimoff was out on Staten Island charting the surge.

"It was terrible. I never saw anything like it," he says.

In some neighborhoods, he says, Sandy's storm surge reached 14 feet. It matched Fritz and Benimoff's model almost exactly.

With the help of supercomputers at the University of North Carolina, Fritz says, his team is now prepared to do real-time modeling to understand the threat of storm surge as a hurricane approaches.

The problem, he says, is that public awareness of the threat of storm surge now lags behind science's ability to forecast it.

The National Hurricane Center is working on new storm surge maps — like this one of Miami-Dade County in Florida — to help residents understand their risk.

National Hurricane Center

"Some of the people that lost their lives ... were a few blocks away from safe ground," Fritz says. "But they didn't know ... where the safe ground was."

Fritz is calling for a public education campaign similar to that used in the northwestern U.S. for tsunamis; one that would include signs identifying surge-prone areas and the nearest high ground.

An Easier-To-Understand Message

Learning from the experience of Sandy, Florida's Miami-Dade County has recently drawn up new maps dividing the county into five evacuation areas now relabeled "storm surge zones."

Related NPR Stories

The Two-Way

New Jersey Shore Is Ready For Visitors, Gov. Christie Says

The Two-Way

Superstorm Shines A Light On Power Grid Vulnerabilities

The Salt

Sandy's Damage Under The Sea, Through The Eyes Of Oyster Farmers

On the new maps, the number of people who live in areas that could potentially be evacuated has tripled. Emergency Management Director Curt Sommerhoff says that's nearly 2 million residents — most of the people who live in Miami-Dade County.

"We're in the most hurricane-prone area of the most hurricane-prone state in the United States," Sommerhoff says. Since Florida is a peninsula, he says, it faces storm surge threats on three different fronts.

In a hurricane, emergency managers advise residents to shelter in place when at risk from high winds. But when there's a risk of storm surge — which causes the most damage and takes the most lives — they tell residents to evacuate.

Efforts to get that message to the public are also underway at the National Hurricane Center. One of the new tools is graphics and mapping software designed to be read and easily understood by the public.

Instead of technical terms like "height above mean sea level," the map tells coastal residents how deep the water is likely to be in their neighborhoods. The map is color-coded, too, explains Rhome, who helped design the software.

"The brighter the color, the deeper the water has the potential to be," he says. "But more importantly, people don't understand how far the water goes inland. This map clearly shows how far the water goes inland. If you're in one of those colored areas, you need to do something to protect your life."

The new storm surge maps were intended to be ready by next year, National Hurricane Center officials say, but because of the need and strong demand by emergency managers, they hope to begin using them this summer. 
http://www.npr.org/2013/06/01/187726555/new-maps-aim-to-raise-awareness-of-storm-surge-danger?ft=3&f=1001&sc=nl&cc=nh-20130601

HATERS GONNA HATE.....CHECK OUT THIS CHEERIOS AD 1JUN13

TOO many people are still ignorant. But I see nothing wrong with this commercial. There is no secret message, no propaganda, no agenda, it is an ad for Cheerios, and the people in it are the faces of America. Haters, get used to it......

June 01, 2013 7:00 AM

On Thursday, blogger Monica Mingo posted about a new Cheerios commercial featuring an interracial family, noting that it was causing a stir and asking readers if it bothered them.

YouTube

I watched and couldn't understand what about the video might be bothersome. As commenter Roslyn Holcomb wrote: "Cute. Causing a stir where? 1956?"

After clicking around the Web, I discovered that the issue was indeed the commercial's interracial-ness. People on YouTube and Reddit were salty because the ad seemed to push "race" in their face: "These videos encourage people to seek partners outside their racial group. It already happens too much ... for comfort. I shall eat Toasted Oats instead."

I can't show you more because the comments got uglier over on YouTube and the comment section for that video was shut down. But according to Tim Nudd at AdWeek, the comments included "references to Nazis, 'troglodytes' and 'racial genocide.' "

Here's the thing: We're used to companies targeting minorities and jacking it up.

In May, for example, PepsiCo pulled a Mountain Dew ad — dubbed "the most racist commercial in history" by one critic — from all its online channels. The ad, part of a series of commercials by Tyler, The Creator, showed a cop pressing a battered woman with a crutch to pick out her assailant in a line-up that included a goat and five black men. (I never even understood what this commercial was supposed to be trying to tell me. But yeah, MISSTEP.)

And last year, Burger King pulled this commercial featuring hip-hop artist Mary J. Blige singing about their crispy chicken wrap:

YouTube

The company says it pulled the ad for licensing and other reasons, but the crispy chicken ad was criticized by some for relying on greasy old stereotypes: Black people love them some fried chicken, they sho'nuf do! (Code Switch blogger Gene Demby recently explained the origin of that crispy fried trope.)

But with this Cheerios commercial, the company seems to have done everything right. Cute little girl. A mom, a dad. A box of Cheerios. Love, caring. The written statement I got from Camille Gibson, vice president of marketing for Cheerios, was as warm and fuzzy and inoffensive as the commercial itself: "At Cheerios, we know there are many kinds of families and we celebrate them all."

And still, there was blowback.

Too many black folks, not enough black folks. How does a company market to anyone in the era of social media when everyone is a critic? What can you do? *pulls hair, screams*

"Advertising is about appealing to people in some way that makes them buy your product or service," said Michael Burgi, features editor for AdWeek. "Someone is always going to get their nose bent out of shape. You have to be careful of not offending people who have money in their pocket to spend."

But as Burgi pointed out, haters gonna hate (my words, not his). The bottom line is that great ad campaigns that feature minorities and interracial couples — such as the Cheerios commercial — are moving product for companies.

Fashion and issue advertising are areas likely to push the envelope, and Burgi reminded me about how multicultural Coca-Cola is in its advertising.

McDonalds, on the other hand, is very careful with its marketing, Burgi said, highlighting specific racial or ethnic groups such as Latinos, but rarely overlapping them the way the Cheerios commercial does.

"Many of McDonald's ads now feature only African-Americans," Burt Helm reported in a 2010Bloomberg Businessweek story. "Of the 10 most-aired TV ads from the past 12 months, compiled by ad tracker Nielsen IAG, five had all-black casts. While the ads usually push specific products or deals, many use situations aimed directly at ethnic consumers."

But of course, McDonalds has also been accused of exploiting children of color in its marketing.

So now I turn to you, dear readers. With all the potential minefields, is there any way for a company to do this right? Tell me your ideas — and share examples where this was done well — down in the comments.