ArtFilm / TV

pepsi tries to sell soda by minimizing police brutality, gets dragged accordingly

April 5, 2017

By Asher Primus*, AFROPUNK contributor

Pepsi’s BLM-themed commercial is a tasteless depiction of the plight of being a POC in Trump’s America, starring Kendall Jenner.

We know that black girls are missing, Latinx are fighting for immigration status, American Muslims are fighting against Islamophobic rhetoric from conservatives, and the little-known sex-trafficking of Asian women through airlines, meanwhile a suburban while girl quits her glamorous job to party with the protesters.

I guess for white people this is a comedic way on how they wish the protest in Baltimore and Ferguson should have gone down. ‘Bring in the break-dancing color-struck black men on cue when seeing a down-for-the-cause white girl!’ My suffering is not a game nor do I want a pity from white women who think its oppression when the Starbucks’ cashier gets their order wrong.

It is not a good year for white women especially with POC of knowing they have voted in majority for Trump, silenced and gaslight the voices of black feminist at January’s (2016) Women’s March to Washington and careless thought to not rally for missing black girls and also black women who are beaten for accusations of shoplifting.

The reality that Pepsi does not understand is that white women are not coming to rescue. It’s 2017 and if a white woman now notices oppression towards POC then she is not an ally.

A real protest from Ferguson to now and the future does not have smiling faces and we are not begging them to join in our activism. Kendall taking off her blonde wig is not shattering the European standard of beauty. Is she trying to tell me that brunettes are erased in media, just like black woman are not allowed anatomy on how they want to present themselves with natural hair?

Nothing is complete without whitewashing black history as Kendall mirrors the 2016’s BLM protest in Louisiana as Ieshia Evans was photographed while being arrested in a sundress by two officers in riot gear. Of course, Kendall did it the right way by being white and bringing a Pepsi can to the officer. “No arrest made, just young kids having fun and wanting to make a positive change,” says the officer from the imaginary world.

(Click to watch the video)

*Asher Primus is a graduate of Augusta University majoring in Communication with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. While in Augusta University, they were a part of Black Student Union, The Initiative, Thinktools Inc., and Women’s and Gender Studies Association. Their hobbies are video gaming and blogging.

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