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Tyler, the Creator has defended his Mountain Dew commercial, which one scholar labelled 'arguably the most racist commercial in history'.
The advert was one in a series of three, and saw a battered and bruised caucasian waitress trying to identify her attacker from a line-up of black men (all Odd Future members) and a goat. The advert was later taken down when Pepsi Co were told that some people found it offensive, and Tyler was also told to take the commercial down from his YouTube channel.
Author and scholar Dr Boyce Watkins wrote a blog post about the advert in which he called it 'arguably the most racist commcercial in history', continuing, "Of course, in the world of Mountain Dew, every single suspect is black. Not just regular black people, but the kinds of ratchety negroes you might find in the middle of any hip-hop minstrel show... Apparently, this is the kind of ad you put out if you want to appeal to the black male demographic."
Tyler had not spoken previously out except for posting two tweets related to the subject. However, he has now given an interview to Billboard in which he speaks out in detail about his intentions behind the commercial, and responds to the points made by Watkins.
"I look at it from his perspective," Tyler explains. "He's an older black man. It's a generation gap. He's older than me. So the things that he had to experience with racism and stereotypes and being a black man in this country, is different from mine. I grew up in a generation where there's white kids listening to rap and black kids playing hockey, breaking the norms and everything.
"He comes from a whole different state of mind when he sees that stuff. He probably was getting f**ked with by white people when he was my age. So for him to always have to break the [stereotype] of being a "black thug" when he was growing up, and for him to see that in a commercial, it probably hurts him."
A still from the now deleted Mountain Dew advert
"But he has to realize that it's a different generation now. He's way older than me; he's old enough to be my father. So I totally get why he would think that, but I also don't understand why in life are you trying to point out the negatives. It's a young black man who got out of the ‘hood and made something of himself, who's now working with big, white-owned corporations. Not even in front of the camera acting silly, but directing it. I'm trying to be one of the directors.
"But instead of looking at the positivity from that, he's trying to boycott Mountain Dew. Now that he's doing that, not only is it messing up opportunities for me, but also maybe opportunities for another young black male who maybe looks up to me and wants to do that in the future. It's ludicrous."
He added later on, " I just don't think it's fair that... I don't like saying this but I'm gonna put it as he would say it, as black men, finally coming out of a negative place whether it be our neighborhoods or whatever, and we finally get to get deals with these big, white corporations, and people like him wanna shut it down because something he didn't agree with or something. It's not fair that this always happen and no one tries to fight back.
"Like I finally made it up here, and you as a black man trying to put the black man down, which is what you're trying to fight for. I don't understand it."
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