Chloe's Big Black Blog

You Shouldn't Be Mad at Tyler the Creator & Mountain Dew

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:36:00 -0400

A lot of folks panties are in a bunch over Mountain Dew’s “racist” ad which was the brainchild of Tyler the Creator of Odd Future fame and infamy.

The campaign features a talking goat who drink Mountain Dew and goes on a rampage. The one spot that has gotten the heat depicts a police lineup of all black men and the goat.

One headline bashing the ads read “Mountain Dew pulls most Racist Ad Ever.”

Well clearly this passionate writer has never seen this:

Or This…

Because all drug dealers are slick talking black men who turn into SNAKES.

Sure it’s easy to forget just how racist ads used but to consider the Mountain Dew campaign as deplorable is ridiculous for an array of reasons.

1. Corporate America Takes Its Cues From the (Inner City) Youth

Want to sell a product? Find out what the black kids are doing and bring it to the mainstream. It will look cool and more kids will want it and drive their parents crazy until they buy it.

If you were a kid in the 80’s it felt like there wasn’t a single commercial that didn’t have break dancing in it.

Nothing like a head spin to sell a Toyota.

So when Mountain Dew wanted to get in touch with “the youth” they went after the always controversial, anti-everything Odd Future. The group of rowdy yet creative kids have already scored musical success and have their own (really funny) show “The Loiter Squad”.

“Sure, they’ll know exactly how to get all the hip black kids to drink Mountain Dew. We tried it before with Lil’ Wayne and worked wonders. And once you get the black kids, the white kids follow and then the world.” - What I assume the Mountain Dew marketing execs thought

When you turn over the reigns to a multi-million ad campaign you have to trust that the people you collaborate with know what they are doing. In this case the kids of ODD Future did what they thought was funny, a talking goat that goes ham after drinking the Dew.

No harm, no foul.

But these kids didn’t factor in how the world, specifically the black world would respond because…

2. ODD Future Doesn’t Have “Black Baggage”

This country often talks about wanting to move past race. We don’t want to be judged my color. We also expect every person born in this country to automatically know the history of racism, slavery, feminism, gay rights, etc.

We all know our educational school system leaves much to be desired so how are kids like Tyler supposed to know that showing all of this friends (who are black) in a police lineup will evoke parallels between them and this nation’s depiction of the black man being the constant criminal.

I’m sure he doesn’t think of himself and his friends are convicts. He’s thinking, “Me and all my boys about to be on TV.”

Kids today have everything.

They walk around with a fully functioning computer in their pocket that doubles as a phone. They can reach anyone in the world with a tweet, Vine or Instagram. They don’t care to use race as an excuse as to why they “can’t do” or “can’t be”. They don’t know or care to know about all that those before them had to endure and why they should still hold a grudge about slavery or make sure that their every move doesn’t shame their culture.

There are no chips on their shoulders and there shouldn’t be.

Should Tyler be aware of what the imagery in the Dew commercial conjures up for older black folks, sure.

Should he be penalized because he chooses not to let that impede his artistic expression, absolutely not.

But hey, these are just my thoughts.

Must Read: The Power of Talking to Your Baby

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:56:53 -0400

Must Read: The Power of Talking to Your Baby:

All parents gave their children directives like “Put away your toy!” or “Don’t eat that!” But interaction was more likely to stop there for parents on welfare, while as a family’s income and educational levels rose, those interactions were more likely to be just the beginning.

The disparity was staggering. Children whose families were on welfare heard about 600 words per hour. Working-class children heard 1,200 words per hour, and children from professional families heard 2,100 words. By age 3, a poor child would have heard 30 million fewer words in his home environment than a child from a professional family. And the disparity mattered: the greater the number of words children heard from their parents or caregivers before they were 3, the higher their IQ and the better they did in school. TV talk not only didn’t help, it was detrimental.

The Unattended Baby

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 19:23:48 -0400

Watched a mom on the bus ignore her doozing toddler as his head bobbled, hit the railing and his tiny frame almost fall off the seat.

There was a distance between them. An entire seat on the 3-seat bench. She never once addressed him or scooped him into her arms like a loving mother would.

Instead, she was on the phone telling a man how much she is ready to move forward with him and needed to know he was going to be there for her and accept her.

As they arrived to their stop, the mom nestled her cell phone between her ear and shoulder, delicately placed her purse over her other shoulder and tapped her kid to wake up.

I couldn’t help but wonder, who is going to be there for that little boy.

Work tonight. #comedy

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 23:11:27 -0400

Work tonight. #comedy

The woman on the right would tell the young woman on the left a...

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 02:50:39 -0400

The woman on the right would tell the young woman on the left a lot about life, love and career.
Don’t take LIFE for grant. You’ll see people leave this earth and think about all the things you said you’d do later. Make time for you, especially your health and happiness.

When you decide to LOVE fully commit. So what if your feelings get hurt. So what if you don’t win every argument. Learn from your partner even from their flaws. You aren’t perfect either. Love is a choice so make it with the right one.

You spent your entire life thinking you wanted a CAREER in journalism and was well on your way to being at the top. Then one day everything changes and you’ll find yourself starting all over but you will enjoy every minute of it. Most aren’t lucky to have two career paths but know your ability to roll with the punches and abandon your “plan” is what keeps you head of the game.

Love Chloe (age 32) to Chloe (age 24)

#LetterToMyYoungerSelf

What would you tell your younger self?

COMEDY NIGHT @ indieScreen Saturday 3.30.13 Doors 8pm Showtime...

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 13:31:00 -0400

YAMANEIKA SAUNDERS

NORE DAVIS

MICHELLE WOLF

AMY CARLSON

COMEDY NIGHT @ indieScreen

Saturday 3.30.13

Doors 8pm

Showtime 9:30pm

Tix $12 » Buy Now

Black Folks Are Leaving BedStuy, White Folks Moving In

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 10:42:32 -0400

Black Folks Are Leaving BedStuy, White Folks Moving In:

I’ve lived in Bed-Stuy for 6 years. I wasn’t a big fan of the neighborhood when I first moved from Woodside, Queens.

There are still things that piss me off here:

Having to talk through a bulletproof glass at the dry cleaners
Terrible pizza shops
The lack of fresh fruit
Barely any good restaurants within a 3 block radius
Niggas

However, After reading this I feel compelled to stay put.

It’s my one-woman protest I guess.

9 Out Of 10 Americans Are Completely Wrong About This...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 02:30:50 -0400

9 Out Of 10 Americans Are Completely Wrong About This Mind-Blowing Fact

I Did NOT See This One Coming...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 13:06:07 -0400

I Did NOT See This One Coming...:

I was a PBS kid. I’d run home every day (well not run cause I was chubby, more like a focused walk) home and turn on the TV to watch “my shows”.

I loved Ghost Writer and it turns out Jamal (the black kid in the show) went to my junior high school.

The show only ran 2 years but we never found out who the ghost that was leading these young kids on daily adventures was.

Turns out he was a SLAVE! A murdered runaway slave.

Farewell Facebook, and Good Riddance

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:33:24 -0500

Farewell Facebook, and Good Riddance:

I’ve seriously considered quitting Facebook and would have done so without a blink of an eye but for comedians FB is like the yellow pages, white pages and four square all-in-1.

Oh my friend Araceli wrote this.

She is dope and a Village Voicer like me. :)

siddharthasmama: reachforunity: Not the mention Brothers being...

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:34:08 -0500

siddharthasmama:

reachforunity:

Not the mention Brothers being shot without question by the police for resembling him, and the women being shot for being in a truck that looks like his.

How many times do they have to show you our lives mean nothing to them?

but it’s not a race thing, right?

Why I'll NEVER take a cruise

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:30:00 -0500

Why I'll NEVER take a cruise:

Some people love cruises. I am not one of them.

Nothing gets me excited about floating in a coffin, limited in my activities and being forced to engage with the hundreds of others on the ship because well…we are on a damn ship.

Stories like these make me feel better about laughing in my mother’s face when she suggests we take a family cruise together.

This ship was supposed to tour the Caribbean a couple days but ended up getting stuckafter a fire broke out.

The passengers can’t flush the toilet and they are eating “onion sandwiches”.

You can miss me with that.

Be in the Building. My new monthly comedy show. Great comedy...

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:30:00 -0500

Be in the Building.

My new monthly comedy show.

Great comedy in Wiliiamsburg.

Only a Woman...

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 13:03:19 -0500

Only a Woman...:

Even after death a woman wants to control who can and can’t come to her funeral.

All Is Predictable in ‘Love & Hip-Hop’

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:11:53 -0500

It doesn’t take a psychic to know how the new season of the reality drama is going to end. Chloé Hilliard offers the three best (and most entertaining) case scenarios

~~~~~~~~

Just a little something I wrote.

I can’t promise I not to post this more than once. My...

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 22:30:49 -0500

I can’t promise I not to post this more than once. My birthday comedy show is in an actual movie theater. Not Magic Johnson’s but a theater nonetheless. When I started doing comedy 2 1/2 years ago never imagined I would be doing it full time or have the balls to throw a birthday party for myself (which I rarely do) and get 80 asses in the seats. So if you are on the fence or are waiting to see what else you can get into Dec 28 know TIX are SELLING quickly. Visit @harveysjokejoint to buy now. If you don’t want to do it for me, do it for your sense of humor. It’s a great show with amazeballs comics.

Be in the building. It’s my birthday and I am gonna be in...

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 02:57:48 -0500

Be in the building. It’s my birthday and I am gonna be in rare form.

Destroying our Kids Self-Esteem One Cheese Sandwich at a time

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 02:07:52 -0500

Destroying our Kids Self-Esteem One Cheese Sandwich at a time :

A woman who was fired from her job in an elementary school cafeteria earlier this week after giving free lunch to a needy student has been given her job back, according to Missouri’s Channel 5 News.

____

Chloé’s Note:

This women didn’t want a young student to be subjected to bullying. He was too poor to pay for school lunch and instead of a “regular” lunch he was to get a CHEESE SANDWICH and a carton of MILK.

Folks in prison get better food than that. And we wonder why our poor kids are failing in life. We are setting them up for lactose intolerance.

BOOM! Be in the room to witness my comedic ability. I got some...

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 19:55:11 -0500

BOOM!

Be in the room to witness my comedic ability.

I got some funny folks hitting the stage.

A great night will be had by all.

BUY TIX: http://harveysjokejoint.com/post/37064893699/chloe-bday

My new pug laptop desk. #pugslife #pugstagram

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:24:48 -0500

My new pug laptop desk. #pugslife #pugstagram