Hey Black people, here’s what Acura thinks about you.
Reports TMZ:
You know that Acura commercial with Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno that aired during the Super Bowl — well, we got hold of the casting call document, and they were very specific/exclusionary about their dream African American car dealer.
According to the casting doc, the role of African American car dealer would be played by a “Nice looking, friendly, Not too dark” African American car dealer.
We just got hold of the document from an African American actor who didn’t fit the profile, and who’s pissed.
We made lots of calls, trying to find out why “dark” African Americans weren’t right for the role. Someone associated with casting the commercial tells us … one of the reasons for the “not too dark” restriction was because lighting and special effects would get tricky.
And now…Acura responds.
Acura has issued a full-on apology … after we ran a story that the car company’s ad people sought an African American actor to play a car dealer who was “not too dark.”
The commercial — which featured Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno and ran during the Super Bowl — was cast by an agency that sent out a casting sheet, looking for a “nice looking, friendly, not too dark” African American actor to play the role of dealer.
Acura just issued this statement: “We apologize to anyone offended by the language on the casting sheet used in the selection of actors for one of our commercials.”
The car company added, “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.”
As for the language “not too dark,” Acura says, “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.”
This is EbenGregory.com…telling Acura this:
this is str8 nonsense. do they have any idea how this can impact their car sales?
The most important thing to take away from this “controversy” is that, wit my credit, I couldn’t afford an Acura anyway. But it was racist.
This is not racist! They hired a black man right?? Ok
If this man is considered light skin, I’m considered white… I don’t need anymore of this type drama.. As black folks, we have bigger issues.. They didn’t want a dark skin black, so what! They didn’t want a fat one, a bald one…etc We spin ourselves into butter over every thing.. And gossip blogs feed the beast thinking they are sharing useful info… NOT
Not trying to start anything just saying that one of the problems in the world is what you just said “As black folks”. We need to stop calling race and saying that a race of people need to do this or that. All that needs to be said is people. If you see everyone as the same race then there is not a fight. We are HUMAN and that is the only race people need to see.
There’s a line or two blacked out…Fu**em,when are we going to start doing our own ish, we sell out everything too them boys….it wont end money will rule, sense of history is not a priority at all for us. Legacy is definition we dont take seriously…We need too stop supporting these dudes and stop looking down on ppl goes in another direction whether is clothes,cars or shoes. Stack bread make money share information create a huge pot. Whatever happen to Farrakhan and the warehouse in Africa…He has been silenced…havent seen the last call in a minute.
Great post. Everyone is selling out for a lil piece of the pie when they can get a bigger slice.