My first impression when i read the article and look at the ad, it does look and sound racist. "Re-civilize" yourself. From the ad it would look like having afro hair and thick beard isn't idealistic.
But after a few mins of thinking, you can look at this whole pic from another point of view. Had the model been a WHITE MALE about to those A WHITE MAN'S HEAD with long messy hair and thick beard, would it look racist? Probably it will look ANTI HIPPIES.
Logically speaking, if a white man were to look messy, he would have long messy hair with thick/long beard. Now if a black man were to look messy, obviously he would have a messy afro hair with thick/long beard. You can't expect a black man to have messy long straight hair right?
Ideally, the image of a well groomed man is a man with SHORT HAIR and CLEAN SHAVEN. I know some Africans are proud of their afro hair because it's unique. But just because someone ask you to wear a wig over your afro hair or to cut it short, it doesn't have to be a racist thing.
People always tell me to straighten my hair because having a straight hair doesn't make you look messy as to having curly hair. Well screw them. I'm not gonna waste my money straightening my hair because i love my natural curly hair but yeah i do admit those with straight hair don't look messy. Then again, curly hair is sexy :-D.
Let's face it, society already set the standard of what is "well groomed" or "hot". And for a man, having long hair doesn't mean he's well groomed.Only minority of men can pull off long hair and still look hot. But long hair is never "office-material". The term metrosexual man doesn't apply to mean with long hair.
Basically, black men can't have long hair. They can only have a big hair if they never cut it.
So i would think Nivea has a good defence in making the ad instead of just issuing apology and saying they are wrong. Re-civilized means looking "non messy". And if a black man would look messy, he would have a messy afro and beard. And if a white man were to look messy, he would have long messy hair and beard. I can't really see clearly what products Nivea is promoting in the ad but as far as i know, when you say Nivea, i would think deodorant and facial cleanser. In other words, re-civilised means with Nivea products, you groom yourself to look more presentable.
A piece of advise to the US, maybe they should quit using black models since every time a black model is being used, there will be a racism issue. Like a black model being made fairer. Duh, it's photoshop. Im sure white models are being made to look whiter. Or slim people being made to look slimmer. Photoshop means going overboard with everything with the objective to make things look fake and perfect.
Sometimes the minority can be wayyyyyyy to sensitive and want to make an issue out of everything. If minorities are involved, they will start using the "racist attack". I'm not just talking about the blacks in the US but also the minority in Malaysia. I remembered once there was an issue with a local aid where a character representing the Indian community is being coloured "too dark". Or the chinese character being drawn with "small eyes" a.k.a "mata sepet".
Why is this racism? Aren't majority of Indians dark brown and majority of chinese have small eyes? Why do you have this idea that being dark brown or having small eyes is insulting? Honestly, i never think that being dark brown and having small eyes is a bad thing until the people themselves express their dissatisfaction of having dark skin or small eyes. Dark people want to bleach their skin to make themselves look fairer while those with small eyes want to wear heavy eye makeup or go for operation to make their eyes bigger.
Who's hating who now? Others hate you? Or you hate yourself for having a particular trait that only your race have?
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