"I'm Biracial & That Cheerios Ad Is a Big Fucking Deal," ALSO "10 Reasons It's Best Commercial Ever"

[Hissyspit]

Last edited Sat Jun 1, 2013, 12:59 PM - Edit history (1)

http://jezebel.com/im-biracial-and-that-cheerios-ad-is-a-big-fucking-dea-510740851

I'm Biracial, and That Cheerios Ad Is a Big Fucking Deal. Trust Me.

Meagan Hatcher-Mays
Yesterday 5:10pmg 165,006L 875

By now you know some racist dicks have whipped themselves up in a frenzy of racist dickery over the portrayal of an interracial family in a Cheerios ad. You see, Cheerios has committed the heinous crime of “acknowledging that interracial families exist,” and also that “sometimes interracial families need to eat breakfast.” This was too much for the racist dicks—Cheerios was forced to disable comments on YouTube where the video was posted. (What’s up with you racist dicks, anyway? Don’t you have jobs?)

I am biracial. My mom is black and my dad is white. My family often had the audacity to eat breakfast even though cereal was not being specifically marketed to us. When I was growing up, there were no families on television that resembled mine. My family was something of an anomaly in the overwhelmingly white neighborhood of Seattle where I lived. When I was with my mom, people would look at me and ask, “What is she?” When I was with my dad, people would ask, “Is she Italian?” Because this is definitely the kind of information that strangers are entitled to.

But life was even more confusing for my brother. He was born with blond, curly hair and bright blue eyes. He looked nothing like my mom. When they were alone together, well, that’s when shit got real. The white mothers in my neighborhood not only assumed my mom was my brother’s nanny, but they inquired after her services. Single brows were raised when my mom assured these awful women that she was, in fact, the biological mother of my brother. (This was before Botox. Eyebrows could move freely then.) When my maternal grandmother came to pick us up from daycare, despite being on the authorized pick-up list, they made sure to call my dad to make sure this black lady was legit. (By the way, there are worse things than being kidnapped by a black lady in a luxury Cadillac who takes you to her country club for lunch and lets you drive the golf cart.)

- snip -

This commercial is a huge step for interracial families like mine who want to be seen in public together and maybe eat some heart-healthy snacks. But it also validates the existence of biracial and multiracial people. Often we’re treated like exotic flowers, who should feel complimented when people say stuff to us like, “All biracial women are so beautiful” or “I would kill for your skin.” One of the hardest things about growing up the way I did is feeling like you need to choose one racial identity over another just to fit in. The fact that strangers constantly ask you to identify yourself (forcing you to put yourself in a category) makes you feel conspicuous and gazed upon. You catch strangers looking at you. You know what they want to ask you. You know that they won’t leave you alone until you give them a rundown of your heritage.

MORE[p]


http://m.globalgrind.com/news/reasons-why-just-checking-cheerios-commercial-best-video-interracial-couple

10 Reasons Why The "Just Checking" Cheerios Commercial Is The Best Ever

Global Grind ?- 8 hours ago

If you thought you lived in a post-racial world before yesterday, you were probably ...

[calimary]

1. Hey, I like seeing ads like this. Isn't the idea to reflect reality?

Isn't the idea to appeal to the largest possible consumer pool? Isn't the idea to produce ads to which ANYBODY can relate, and in which ANYBODY can see themselves? The better to resonate with the product and imaging being sold, so you wind up selling MORE, no?

It's very annoying that this stirs up shit. There are MANY American families that aren't the cookie-cutter white daddy/white mommy/white kids version. MANY. And many with one parent. And many with a combination of elders contributing. Forcryingoutloud, we have a President like that.

And many with same-sex parents, too. And unfortunately JC Penney has taken shit for its ads that feature families like that as well.

So frustrating, and disappointing, too. WHY is this still such an issue? This is the 21st Century, for Heaven's sake.

[grilled onions]

2. Just When We Think We Are Maturing As A Society...

breakfast with a family get's a certain group of people very uptight. I looked at the calendar and it did say 2013. However we have people that cannot get past this issue. Oddly enough many who can't cope with it came from the very part of the country where this was an issue during slavery. Whether by chance or choice many a babe was born with mixed race parents. Were they such a disgrace back then? Today I wonder if many groups who would like this issue to be avoided at all costs, are trying to come up with sneaky by laws that would prevent such "scenes" as mixed couples at their yearly dances or golf outings. Uptight mothers are often keeping their kids away from such children as if they might catch something or worse yet ask such questions as to the tone of their skin! Kids learn this ignorance at a tender age from parents who have less then tender thoughts to biracial children. They have feelings and they deserve to be treated as an equal to any other child out there. People--grow up!!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. "WHY is this still such an issue?"

Don't ask these guys:



They don't get it either.

[Warpy]

77. I think seeing black folks in commercials has done more

to get them out of the ghetto and into ordinary, boring America than most other efforts to do so because commercials are set up to feature the boring everyman and everywoman. Now we know those "everys" come in all shades of the human rainbow.

Bigots gonna hate. It's all they have to keep them warm on a chilly and friendless night. This feeds right into the Klan's worst fear, that white women will be taken over by black men. They never consider that the women might have something to say about that, "consent" is not something they have ever recognized as important.

The rest of us think this commercial is kinda cute.

[valerief]

80. Oprah, Bill Cosby, and In Living Color did a WHOLE LOT for racial integration. nt

[Warpy]

82. so did Amos n Andy

but it took the banality of commercials to make it normal. Otherwise, it would have remained tokenism.

[valerief]

90. Good point. nt

[calimary]

98. You just made a most basic point, Warpy -

This:

"They never consider that the women might have something to say about that, "consent" is not something they have ever recognized as important."

What a woman might have to say about something, anything, has been such a non-issue for so long. I mean - seems like we're talking thousands of years. I don't know. But I've found it something that I thought about a lot, even from grade school times. I found myself thinking - "how can you make pronouncements like that? You're not a woman, how on earth could you possibly know?" What did megyn kelly even get pissed off enough to say? "Who died and made you the god of science"? (Or some such thing. Guess that one was even too much for megyn kelly.) Mainly it was for the early exposures outside my nuclear family, including doctors and of course the visiting priest who came to our school once a week to conduct the catechism class - and the other priests in the parish, too.

Women have been regarded as property - to be bought, sold, traded, and owned, or lent out maybe - for as far back as womankind can remember. I sometimes find, in my own mind, that the issues of the woman supersede pretty much all other social and social-justice issues. Mainly because there are women in EVERY demographic imaginable. There are black women. There are Latinas. There are Asian women. There are white women. There are indigenous tribal women. There are old women. There are young women. There are gay women. There are disabled women. There are warrior women. There are business women. There are rich women. There are poor women - and how! Seems to me that ALL issues eventually settle down onto one shared foundation: that involving and directly affecting the female of the human species.

And maybe we need to assert that more, and help integrate that reality into the general (and male-dominated mindset). I don't know. Just rambling, really. But one thing I think is certain: a large part of society is so unaccustomed to having to include and accommodate the female view - not just in Madison Avenue matters but in policy matters. It reminds me of a statement one of the women US Senators made not terribly long ago. I forget who said this but the statement was made that if women held a majority in the Senate (maybe Congress in general), many of the big problems we face would be solved. Because women would be interested in getting something accomplished and some problems solved rather than putting total emphasis on political posturing. We don't have that majority yet, and I'm sure there will be whole population segments that resist it like crazy, but I'm thinking that it's the way we're headed. And I hope so. 'Cause I hate the idea of being held back for such an arbitrary assumption.

[edbermac]

3. Imagine if 'the mom' in this ad was a white male.

Then you'd really see heads exploding.

[Behind the Aegis]

18. That would do it...or the wife wearing a hijab.

CNN: "Scientists baffled by series of "sonic booms" throughout the US. Coming up in the next hour: A scientist specializing in cereal."

FOX News: "Muslim Terrorists attack US by eating breakfast!! Freedom-O's fly off the shelves!!"

Alex Jones: "Zionist-occupied Hollywood fights to have commercial they made banned from airwaves!!"

Pat Robertson: "I am not sure how or why, but the homosexual lobby is behind this...behind, get it?!"

[Lucinda]

4. I'd heard about the stupidity, but hadn't seen the ad yet

Adorable!

I'm too tired right now to wrap my head around yet another case of people being horrible. I seem to be in a perpetual WTF? state lately when reading online...

[proverbialwisdom]

5. If the advertisement wasn't for a GMO, it would be wonderful; as such, it is cynical/exploitive.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cheerios+gmo+backlash&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari
GOOGLE: cheerios gmo backlash

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gmo-inside-campaign-cheerios-facebook-page-flooded-by-anti-gmo-comments-2012-12-06

PRESS RELEASE

Dec. 6, 2012, 2:09 p.m. EST

GMO Inside Campaign: Cheerios Facebook Page Flooded By Anti-GMO Comments

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Thousands of Negative Posts Result in General Mills Removing App Encouraging People to Share What Cheerios Means to Them.

The GMO Inside campaign announced today that thousands of concerned consumers have flooded Cheerios' Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Cheerios) distressed about genetically engineered ingredients in Cheerios and outraged at General Mills contributing over $1.1 million to "No on 37" in California, the narrowly defeated ballot initiative that would have required the labeling of foods with genetically engineered ingredients. Since November 29, the GMO Inside Campaign has been encouraging visitors to its Facebook page (www.facebook.com/GmoInside) to post comment on Cheerios' Facebook page regarding GMOs. The outpouring of comments demonstrates that the drive to label GMOs that led millions of people to support Prop. 37 in California is growing throughout the U.S.

Visitors to Cheerios' Facebook page also used a Cheerios app that allowed users to provide comments on what Cheerios means to them (and which then posted the comments in Cheerios' trademark font) to call out genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Cheerios. In response, General Mills removed the app from its Facebook page.

"The sheer volume of comments on Cheerios' Facebook page raising concerns around genetically engineered ingredients is incredibly inspiring," stated Alisa Gravitz, CEO and president of Green America. "It is also amazing to see the creativity that visitors to Cheerios' Facebook page use to call out Cheerios on using their customers as a science experiment for GMO consumption. Cheerios is a cereal that is frequently fed to children, and many of the comments are from concerned parents who are worried about the fact that they have been feeding a cereal with genetically engineered ingredients to their children."

<>

http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/12/07/occupycheerios

#OccupyCheerios: A Facebook Revolt

The General Mills’ cereal brand didn’t just get “likes” when it posted a vintage commercial on Facebook—it got biting criticism for its use of GMOs too.

December 7, 2012Willy Blackmore

It wasn't an obvious forum for an anti-GMO protest.

A YouTube video posted on Cheerio’s Facebook page depicts an elderly woman leaning over the highchair of her infant grandchild, cooing about family and the holidays, drawing a map with pieces of cereal representing relative’s far-flung houses. “But don’t you worry,” the grandmother says, pushing two Cheerios together, “we’ll always be together for Christmas.”

More than 1,200 users have commented on the vintage Cheerios commercial since it was posted last week, expressing outrage over the General Mills-owned brand’s use of genetically modified ingredients. Commenters have also been critical—like heavy-exclamation-points-use critical—of General Mills’ significant financial contributions to groups fighting against Prop. 37, California’s defeated GMO-labeling ballot initiative

Comments like “Can you please inform the public exactly why it is that General Mills spent $1.2 million to keep consumers in the dark about GMOs????” and “Nostalgic old commercials are no substitute for healthy ingredients. I won't buy Cheerios until they are GMO-free” are a far cry from the stories of spending holidays with family—and perhaps a bit of Cheerios nostalgia—the post was surely intended to elicit.

The protest campaign was stoked by GMO Inside, an organization born of the failed Yes on 37 campaign. The group also called on people to comment-bomb a Cheerios app, which has since been removed from the company’s Facebook page. But beyond that, Cheerios’ response to the criticism has been . . . nothing. Anti-GMO comments are still piling up on the post, and no new material has been added to page in order to bury the video in the timeline.

<>

https://www.google.com/search?q=a+pusztai&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari
http://adventuresinautism.com/files/ArpadandSusanChapter17.pdf
http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2008/05/monsanto-gmos-arpad-pusztai-looks-at.html

[Generic Other]

64. OK the product sucks but the ad

validates bi-racial people in this country. It acknowledges that we exist. I see now why for the LGBT community this kind of validation has meaning. I got tears in my eyes at this video because that family looked like my Asian/Anglo family. We are largely invisible in this country. The South wouldn't even make it legal for mixed race couples to marry until 1967. "Miscegenation" was a crime there.

Today 1 in 12 marriages is bi-racial. But you would never know it because this group has been ignored by the media in America.

I live in an area where almost any extended family I can think of has at least one bi-racial child in the family. That seems fairly normal to me. What seems extremely abnormal is the nasty reaction of other Americans toward bi-racial families.

I mean what the fuck, America? "E Pluribus Whitebread" -- I suggest we change our nation's motto.

[Heather MC]

128. THIS is why I didn't care

I am happily married with two beautiful Children in a biracial Marriage
I heard about the uproar over the Commercial before I saw it, and my first thought was Oh it's a GMO product.

I would have gave it more attention had it been a company that actually did what was right for the consumer and not their bottom line.

[limpyhobbler]

6. +1. Long overdue. I'm gonna buy a box of cheerios. nt

[wryter2000]

58. I should do that, too

Don't know what on Earth I'd do with them...maybe donate them to the food pantry at church.

[Cha]

7. That is Sweet! I never would have seen that on tv.. not

having one. It's totally awesome on so many levels. Well, good for ol Cheerios!

thanks Hissyspit.

[zentrum]

8. I've seen a few other

...bi- racial ads in the past year but since I don't focus on that when I see it--I can't remember what products. Also am seeing lots and lots more b-racial couples in the street in cities. It's less and less "notable" when it happens--which shows it's mainstreaming.

Long way to go--but it is happening.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

9. I bet the same people having a meltdown over this ad,...

....think it's silly for the Middle East to have a meltdown over a cartoon.

[MrSlayer]

55. Who is rioting and killing people over this commercial?

I seriously doubt anyone is going to hunt down and slaughter the creators of this commercial.

There's crazy and stupid and then there's crazy and stupid.

There's no equivalence between the two.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

57. It helps that our crazy and stupid are drunk as well.

[treestar]

62. I would say it is not equivalent

I would not defend those who kill over a cartoon, but their anger is not just about religion - it's got to do with the political conflicts, too.

[Comrade Grumpy]

65. They're Americans. They don't actually do anything...

...except post on discussion boards.

[proverbialwisdom]

10. More warm and fuzzy.

http://www.startribune.com/business/191543111.html?page=all&prepage=3&c=y#continue

A conversation with General Mills CEO Ken Powell
Article by: MIKE HUGHLETT , Star Tribune Updated: February 19, 2013 - 9:10 AM

Oops, maybe not.

[Rhiannon12866]

11. This made me laugh, cute kid!

[Tikki]

59. Super cute kid and this commercial depicts a caring, loving family...it's all good.

Tikki

[Rhiannon12866]

108. I agree, don't really get all the controversy...

[onestepforward]

13. I saw this on TV today

and it made me smile!

[cynatnite]

14. I honestly thought it was a normal family ad for Cheerios...

It just never occurred to me to think of it any other way. I think that's because we've got a lot of bi-racial families around here and it's a fairly normal sight.

However, I think the writer is correct. Bi-racial families portrayed on TV are indeed rare. It's a big deal.

[Behind the Aegis]

15. If I saw this on TV it wouldn't really register.

I have a number of friends in mixed relations, some have children. But, I am glad this ad is out and hope many more follow because while it might not really register for me, it certainly will among those who watch tv and see ads and don't see representations of their family. I was giggling at the end of the commercial; the dad waking up covered in Cherrios. That was cute.

[excringency]

16. This reminds me of an ad from last year.

It was for Philadelphia Cream Cheese. It showed an interracial couple lounging around their bed while enjoying a schmear. I remember cries of the apocalypse being upon us and calls for boycotts from many a nut job. Maybe if such things became more common they wouldn't elicit shock.

[grahamhgreen]

17. Cheerios are not particularly good for ones heart. nt

[LittleBlue]

19. Way past due

Even as a kid in the 90s, biracial marriages were normal. Always wondered why I didn't see any on TV.

Guess the old-timer executives are dying out and advertising is catching up to where society was 20 years ago. Are right-wingers really freaking out over old issues like this?

[MADem]

110. The Jeffersons featured an interracial marriage...Tom and Helen Willis...

[Raine]

20. I really like ads like this that reflect the reality. :-) nt

[xxqqqzme]

21. By September, I will have a

bi-racial grand daughter. I have 2 grand sons so I am thrilled to pieces. I just want her to be healthy and grow up in a peaceful world.

[tblue]

75. Remember "Society's Child?

Mazel tov for your new grandbaby!

(Btw, I am bi-racial--black-Asian. My kid is tri-racial. And I love this Cheerios ad!!!! Nobody I know would dislike it. My kid's friends would have no idea it was even controversial.)

I remember when this song was banned from the radio in southern states for daring to talk about interracial love. Gee, I thought times had changed more than it turns out they have.

[alphafemale]

22. Proof yet again that right wing haters are not reality based.

What isolated bubble have they been living in the past 30+ years? sheeesh.

[Le Taz Hot]

23. THIS is controversial?

Kid looks like half my family. Come to think of it, we haven't had an all-one-ethnic group family since like 1960. Does that even exist in America anymore?

[NewJeffCT]

50. In Freeperville

it's all like Mayberry, USA from the 1950s. All white people in small towns from coast to coast.

[treestar]

63. Or so they wish

That's their real problem with the ad, the President, everything that reminds them the 1950s are gone.

[Generic Other]

66. My friend once told me that if I got 5 miles out of most metro areas in this country

I would hit the Mason-Dixon Line. I have always been surprised at how right he was.

[NewJeffCT]

76. I think that's definitely true in a lot of areas

however, go 5 miles outside of Boston and you're still in fairly liberal suburbs - same with much of the Northeast at least - New York, CT, etc.

[Generic Other]

84. I am a leftcoaster

The further you get from the water, the more likely you are a racist extremist Sarah Palin style teabagger.

[AsahinaKimi]

125. Damn!

I can see the Ocean outside my window, 2 miles away! I guess I am safe, ...unless we get a Tsunami.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

127. And then you have my wife's family in Westchester.

She's got a cousin who is one of the most openly racist people I've come across. All with a thick New Yawk accent.

[JackInGreen]

115. And even in that, they're effing wrong

and Stupid (and I don't like name calling, I prefer wishing grievous bodily harm). If the USA were all Mayberry our cardinal law enforcement officer would be an understanding, 'spirit of keeping the peace' progressive, and the town population pretty well integrated (and yes, there were Black people in Mayberry...though not widespread or entirely equal, taken as just more folks without the dread or public psychosis the right would have), and the business interests low impact and based around the local economy....I think I'd be ok with that, but I don't know about THEM.

[DCKit]

24. Thanks for posting this.

Think ahead babycakes.... what do they have once they've exhausted the racial hatred?

They're stupid, mean people, we should be able to anticipate their actions.

[malaise]

25. True story

My mom was biracial and one of my sisters married a white man and they had two children.
Her daughter looks exactly like her down to the dimples, but she is very fair. On her wedding day my sis went to pick her up from a hairdressing salon in Texas (sis lives in Atlanta after having resided in Texas for 20plus years). She went in, didn't see her and asked them if she had left.
One woman looked at her and said no one looking like you is here. Niece heard her mom's voice - she was in another room and came out and hugged her mother. Only the most racist of people would not see the resemblance.

[JustAnotherGen]

26. We love it!

I love it. I didn't "get it" when I first saw it.

Know why?


That's my family circa 1978 - but - my parents were exceptionally good looking people in their youth! And I don't care who that offends. They were two intelligent, progressive, HOT people that got together and fell in love. And that's that. And a Cherokee medicine man once told me it was all about how good looking they were when they first met. And my parents confirmed their quality and extent of shallow for me when I shared this info with them.

My husband is FBC - full blooded Calabrese (Immigrant from Italy - regional and ethnic Calabrese). I just showed him the commercial only and he's like:

You should go back to your natural dirty blonde. I'm way wrong about the dark hair.

He didn't say a single word about anything else.

So yeah - America - get over ourselves. Get over it. Someone from one of those "evil, racist, backwards, Western/Southern European countries" didn't blink an eye and neither should we.

He totally didn't get it!

[Number23]

92. I love the ad too. Think it is perfect. The responses to the ad, including some here? Not so much

[JustAnotherGen]

96. Agreed

Later on today Giovanni says - oooooooooh! I see why you made me watch that now! :lmao:

What's kind of "hmm" here. . . Folks are giving examples where race is the joke, or the highlight of the program/movie. A girlfriend and I were discussing last night the movie The Words. What was different about that? What made it different say from Something Different?

Race wasn't the centerpiece. It was never brought up - just a footnote of the love story in the story. The greater focus on "two very different people" was the love story in the love story.

[Number23]

97. Not only that but some bizarre comments about how ads like this "lifted us up from the ghetto"

and some other just baffling shit. It's one of the reasons that so many of us don't discuss race here.

There's one thread where the guy says flat out that the reason it wasn't a black woman/white man in the ad is because when white guys "schtup" black women, these types relationships don't threaten the status quo. Like that's all interracial relationships are about is fucking.

The stupidity, the sexism and the racism is just too much. This is a sweet little ad and very cleverly done. I wish that could have been the end of it. Even the people who are trying to help on this matter are making it worse afaic.

Edit: And when you say Something Different are you talking about Something New or another movie? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437777/ I just referred to that exact movie in another thread.

[JustAnotherGen]

112. Something New

You are correct! . I didn't see the other threads - I won't go looking for them!

And this is such a stereotype: re schtup.

I bet the man who wrote that doesn't have as good a relationship or marriage as my husband and I do.

And if he's single - I hope ANY minority woman who comes across him - runs. I hope he shows his ass early - and she runs.

[iemitsu]

116. The Op in that "other " thread was commenting on the reaction

of American viewers to the commercial. He was not defending racist or sexist attitudes, he was pointing out that those attitudes dictated much of the negative reaction to the commercial.
Some people posting on that thread apparently misunderstood and twisted the OPs comments.

[Number23]

121. The OPs comments in that thread make it very well understood exactly what he's saying.

[maddiemom]

103. Sadly too many political figures (right wingers) are still catering to

those "backward" people, and too many "progressives" are still afraid of offending them.

[pampango]

27. The rise of interracial marriage (15% of new marriages vs 7% in 1980)

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2197/intermarriage-race-ethnicity-asians-whites-hispanics-blacks

Marriage across racial and ethnic lines continues to be on the rise in the United States. The share of new marriages between spouses of a different race or ethnicity increased to 15.1 % in 2010, and the share of all current marriages that are either interracial or interethnic has reached an all-time high of 8.4%.

In 1980, just 3% of all marriages and less than 7% of all new marriages were across racial or ethnic lines. Both of those shares have more than doubled in the past three decades.

Just as intermarriage has become more common, public attitudes have become more accepting. More than four-in-ten (43%) Americans say that more people of different races marrying each other has been a change for the better in our society, while only about one-in-ten think it is a change for the worse.

Intermarriage in the United States tilts West. About one-in-five (22%) of all newlyweds in Western states married someone of a different race or ethnicity between 2008 and 2010, compared with 14% in the South, 13% in the Northeast and 11% in the Midwest. ... Minorities, younger adults, the college-educated, those who describe themselves as liberal and those who live in the Northeast or the West are more disposed than others to see intermarriage in a positive light.



This must drive republicans crazy.

WASHINGTON - Multiracial Americans have become the fastest growing demographic group, wielding an impact on minority growth that challenges traditional notions of race.

The number of multiracial people rose 3.4 percent last year to about 5.2 million, according to the latest census estimates. First given the option in 2000, Americans who check more than one box for race on census surveys have jumped by 33 percent and now make up 5 percent of the minority population — with millions more believed to be uncounted.

Demographers attributed the recent population growth to more social acceptance and slowing immigration. They cited in particular the high public profiles of Tiger Woods and President Barack Obama, a self-described "mutt," who are having an effect on those who might self-identify as multiracial.

Population figures as of July 2008 show that California, Texas, New York and Florida had the most multiracial people, due partly to higher numbers of second- and later-generation immigrants who are more likely to "marry out." Measured by percentages, Hawaii ranked first with nearly 1 in 5 residents who were multiracial, followed by Alaska and Oklahoma, both at roughly 4 percent.

Utah had the highest growth rate of multiracial people in 2008 compared to the previous year, a reflection of loosening social morals in a mostly white state.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30986649 /

[mattclearing]

28. It's a great, sweet, inclusive ad.

General Mills' lobbying against GMO labeling is still a dealbreaker for me, but it's a great ad.

[rurallib]

29. okay - saw the commercial 3 times and never caught that it was interracial

that is fairly normal where we live, so it is no big deal - well at least to many around here.

[53tammy]

30. This Cheerios Ad helps more than just interracial children

My sister and brother in law with any luck is going to bring home a beautiful baby boy (birth mothers due date is 6/3)
and has been mothering the greatest little girl from Ethiopia for 6 years now . My sister is white her husband is french and will be completing her family with 2 black children.

My niece has had white school children comment on her white mommy instead of just assuming it is normal. More than anything I want my loved ones to feel as if they and their family are accepted for the valuable citizens they are.

842,025 views so far
9,902 likes 967 dislikes
Go to youtube and tromp the down votes

[dembotoz]

31. sad that this is news but good none the less

I sorta knew about the add so when I first saw it I paid more attention than I might have.
wonder if I would have even noticed it prior.

grew up in a pretty racist area and I have overcome much, but perhaps still has a way to go

[Clear Blue Sky]

32. Cute ad

No idea what is racist about it.

[TDale313]

53. The ad's not racist.

Some people are taking offense to it for reasons that are quite racist.

[Gothmog]

74. The people who are offended by this commercial need help

This is a very cute commercial and the fact that there are people objecting to this commercial is sad.

[marble falls]

33. I thought racism had been dying out. I've been thoughraly disabused of this misconception ...

since the election of the President. Its getting more public again and less self conscious. People used to at least act like it was wrong. Now they just put their racism out there just like the bad old days.

[savebigbird]

34. Cute Commercial

I just don't see what the big deal is.

[Whisp]

35. That's is a good commercial.

adorable.

can't say I have seen one for a long time I could say that about.

[mnhtnbb]

36. Gee, all the vitriol they really want to spew at Obama (white mother, black father)

is displaced in this ad.

Why are people surprised?

[Nye Bevan]

37. Surely President Obama "validates the existence of biracial people" more than a Cheerios ad (nt)

[NewJeffCT]

49. No, a lot of the Freepers

think he's an African born in Kenya.

[treestar]

61. This could be why the freepers would have fits over the ad

It reminds them there is a black man in the WH, something they just cannot stand.

[mountain grammy]

38. Very clever and funny commercial..

My mom used to say if God didn't want the races to mix, their children wouldn't be so beautiful.

[Schema Thing]

39. AND they named it "just checking"

but she doesn't actually say "just checking". Which triples down on the awesomeness.

[heaven05]

40. I'm 65

Last edited Sat Jun 1, 2013, 06:52 PM - Edit history (1)

and growing up biracial with a sister that had blond hair, pale skin and me being the color of the child in the video.....well to say the least about it, both blacks and whites made it difficult for us. You are in better times, although with the fear mongering of the racist right, I fear that portion of the populace whining about the cheerios commercial and REALITY will always be with us. I just hope they can be marginalized somehow. At my age, now, I finally appreciate my mixed genetic/racial heritage.

[notadmblnd]

41. People used to ask me the same thing about my son

"What is he?" My reply was always, he's a little boy. I new what they were really asking and I enjoyed giving them a hard time about it.


Yes, that Cheerio commercial could have been something that could have occurred in our home, except we didn't eat much dry cereal for breakfast.

Now that my son is grown, I don't think he feels a need to choose a racial identity. Maybe it's because he's always been immersed in a very diverse community? His long time circle of friends include 2 African American friends, 3 White friends. One Jewish friend, one Indian friend and two Hispanic friends. His current girlfriend is white and he's known her since he was 11. However he has had African American girlfriends and Indian girlfriends in the past.

Personally, I don't buy into the labeling of human beings culturally or by race. When you get down to the nitty gritty, we are all the same. And in my opinion labeling people serves no purpose other than to divide us all.

[66 dmhlt]

42. Perfectly captured how kids that age think & reason

[WcoastO]

43. I was waiting for this to happen.....

For years I've noticed (and commented to my family about it) that commercials have been careful to not show interracial relationships. Things are much better than when I was younger, but the US is not "post-racial" yet.....especially with the GOP, where racism is alive and thriving.

[mettamega]

44. I just love this commercial :-) <3

[1monster]

45. Absolutely adorable commercial.

In my experience, most biracial and multiracial children are usually very beautiful... Perhaps the backlash is just jealousy?

[Zorra]

46. We are all of only one race ~ the human race. Thanks, Hissyspit,

A pathetic blast from the past

[pink-o]

47. My best friend married her African American husband in '92

And their son was born a year later. The marriage didn't last, but the child grew up strong, good warm and loving He'll be 20 in December, and he's paying for his own schooling, working a full time job and playing in a band that actually gets gigs.

In 93, there were still people who "confided" in me that they felt bad for the boy, because he'd go thru life "not knowing who he was". (Like racial identity is the only thing that gives someone a purpose?). Well, he knows exactly who he is. I was a stupid idiot at 19, and I'm a middle-class white woman. This young man has me outclassed by miles!

Not to mention, if he was insecure about his identity, then Obama's election would've erased all those doubts. For anyone who wondered about biracial children and their social "disadvantages"--well, you'd think that would've finally been put to rest 5 years ago!

[NewJeffCT]

51. It's certainly a lot more accepted than it was 20+ years ago

I dated a lot of non-white women in the late 80s and through the 90s and would often get looks/stares from others - mainly from either white women or men of the race of the woman I was dating. Occasional verbal comments to one of their friends that was just loud enough for me to hear, but nothing more than that.

Now, if I'm out at the grocery store or whatever, I'll regularly see grandmothers with their mixed race children doing shopping in the store and nobody says a word.

[Generic Other]

67. Confession

My own father said essentially the same thing to me in way of apology. I sometimes thought he felt he had handicapped me by marrying an Asian woman. That hurt. So thanks for posting your comment, Pinko. I always thought it was just me who held this sort of painful memory of the past in my heart.

[pink-o]

69. Oh, that's heartbreaking that you went thru that!

And your dad probably told you that because all his well-meaning "friends" drummed it into him. It's always a whisper campaign, like the kids are too stupid to figure out they're being judged. But it sounds like your dad must have loved your mom a whole lotta to defy the cultural ignorance of the day.

And the really sad thing is that kids start out with NO CLUE that there are different races. Remember when you met some other kid on the playground, you'd hang out with him or her, and the last thing that would occur to you is your new friend's ethnicity! Like the old song in South Pacific, you have to be taught--to be afraid, to be wary, to be defensive of someone who looks different.

And then you have to spend the rest of your life unlearning those lessons!!!

[Generic Other]

85. I don't doubt his sincerity in feeling "sorry" for me

but I was stung by the sense I could not be the perfect "white" daughter to him. And that he expected me to be treated badly. The up side is that he taught me to be a fighter. And I forgive him for feeling pity for me for not being "white" enough.

[GeoWilliam750]

86. I have always thought that children of much different parents (there is only the human "race")

Have so many advantages, and so many different perspectives.

Disclaimer: From the father of an absolutely fantastic daughter with much different parents.

[Generic Other]

87. Yay for bi-racial people

They are bridges and they will link us all eventually.

[iemitsu]

117. Yay, for you Generic.

I agree with you 100%.

[kimbutgar]

48. We are quickly becoming a multiracial country and there is nothing the bigots can do about it

I was in Disneyland a couple of weeks ago. There were so many multi racial blended families of all races. The children were beautiful. The families seemed happy. A rainbow of wonderful people. As a person in a multi racial marriage of 24 years we are happy and our love is more important than our colors. What's in our hearts is more important than the color of our skins.

[astonamous]

52. I didn't notice... just thought it was cute.

I'm not sure I would have noticed if it wasn't pointed out to me.

[CarmanK]

54. Eat my multigrain Cheerios w bananas every day! The little girl is precious. Great commercial!

[csziggy]

56. Don't these people watch HGTV? They have lots of mixed couples

Multi-race, same gender, multi-cultural, etc. Especially on House Hunters, they are loaded with a wide variety of people that I expect are a decent cross section of the US population.

These racist jerks need to take off their blinders, get out of their bubbles and really LOOK at the world.

I think the Cheerios commercial is awesome - not only in their quiet acceptance of the new reality, but as an ad that is fun to watch and gives a smile every time.

[treestar]

60. In fact, there should be a sitcom about an interracial family

They could deal with the issues. I remember an old sitcom about a Jewish guy marrying a Catholic girl and this could be on similar lines. Though they'd need to avoid racist stereotypes. There was also a couple on the Jeffersons and George Jefferson was as bad as Archie Bunker in being against them. But it was in a comic way.

[SCVDem]

72. That would be Different Strokes. nt

[JustAnotherGen]

95. Family yes

Couple who give birth and where race is not a punch line? Nope.

[SCVDem]

68. Multiple threads on topic

I posted this in the other one.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2931953

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

70. You must be mistaken about the uproar--haven't you heard that racism is over?

, obvs.

[lupinella]

71. Love this ad!

Makes me wish I ate cereal. I'm mixed race as well, & it feels like a big deal every time I see such a portrayal.

[DFW]

73. This reminds me of the "Etheral Cereal" ad

From one of THE funniest films I ever saw, "Putney Swope." My two roomates in college were black, and they turned me onto this film, which, back in 1970, was NOT exactly considered Oscar material (should have been a comedy nominee, but SO not PC!!).

Here's the "Ethereal Cereal" ad:

Revolutionary back then--wouldn't even raise an eyebrow today--well....maybe except for the last 5 seconds

[Hekate]

78. Where POTUS grew up, Meagan Hatcher-Mays' family was the norm...

She with her "Italian" looks, her brother with his blond hair/blue eyes, mom and dad of different ethnicities. That was the case up and down my block, in all my classes in school. Third generation crosses became pretty unpredictable.

This is probably one big reason Michelle Obama said back in 2008 that she has told her husband's friends that, "If you don't get Hawai'i, you won't get Barack." A lot of this country still doesn't get it.

Cute commercial, btw.

[oxymoron]

81. K&R (nt)

[lunatica]

83. What a cute commercial!

I love it!

I work in UC Berkeley where mixed marriages and partnerships are quite common. UC Berkeley has recognized gay partners as legal health beneficiaries for many, many years.

[GeoWilliam750]

88. I have never really understood

Why some people want to marry somebody just like themselves.

We are all frightening closely related already.

A little diversity is a lot of a good thing.

[pangaia]

89. Hey Hissy..

I saw this ad on another post,of course, but you know what...until you posted this.. I didn't even realize it was an 'interracial' couple. !!

Thanks for the post....

[Auntie Bush]

91. When I read this I figured out I hadn't seen the ad.

Now I realize I did and didn't even notice they were a biracial family. I guess that's a good thing.

[ewagner]

93. As I posted elsewhere....

...I never thought that I could irritate my political opposites by purchasing a box of cheerios....but you can bet your sweet A$$ I will now!

[patrice]

94. #11. tv usually gets cute horribly enervatingly wrong; not so with that little girl! nt

[tavernier]

99. I bought my box today.

Had some for lunch.

[TxDemChem]

100. I'm with the author of this article

I'm mixed and my daughter is even more mixed (half Mexican). This family looks like mine. I hope those racist bastards realize things have changed. Perhaps they should watch Imitation of Life to get a full understanding of what it means to be bi/multi-racial...then fast forward 50 years with the rest of society. We're mixed, we're proud, get used to it.

[heaven05]

114. great movie

and amerikkkan attempt at revealing it's soul.

[TxDemChem]

126. It is definitely a must-watch

I cry every time I watch it

[VA_Jill]

101. I have three grandsons

One is half African-American (probably a smidge of Native American in there too). One is half Puerto Rican. One is a fair-skinned blond. They are all beautiful! I also have a nephew married to a Chinese woman--he lives and works in China. His brother is married to a beautiful girl from Mexico. I can't wait to see the kids they'll have! I still have another niece and nephew who are single and it should be interesting to see who they marry. My mother, who just died at the age of 95, was raised in the south but all the intermarrying was just fine with her. I just think my family is a beautiful rainbow.

[proud patriot]

102. I bought a box today just becuase of this commercial

[7wo7rees]

104. K&R

"What is she?" "Why, she's a human female child, you ignorant halfwit."

[maddiemom]

105. I grew up in an era where some of the straight-laced Protestant parents

were uptight about their kids dating a (gasp) Catholic. On the other hand, I dated a guy whose Mom was upset that I wasn't a "good Catholic girl." Dating someone who was Jewish was heart attack inducing. Fortunately my family had already been screwed up multi-religion-wise for a couple of generations. Both my parents were (non-practicing) Protestants, so the subject was never an issue at home. I married a fallen-away Catholic whose wonderful parents accepted me happily. When our daughter became uncomfortable not "having a church" when she entered school, we let her do the whole Catholic thing because church with her paternal grandparents was the only one she knew. By high school, she'd blown it off, except for Midnight Mass on Christmas. For HER generation it's a racial thing. One of her friends, growing up, had a white mom, black dad; another an Asian mom, white dad. Race was never an issue at our home, and she's dated inter-racially. So the beat goes on. Hopefully the generation coming up now will have solved the racial thing to a large extent.

[davidpdx]

106. It is a cute well made commercial

The only thing I could see wrong (and this is nitpicky and has nothing to do with the context in which the commercial is being discussed) was the box wasn't that close to the mom and it kind of makes it look pretty fake that she was reading the box (yes I know it is fake, but at least they could have make it look a bit more real). They could have had her pick up the box then either put it down or hand it back to the girl.

[HipChick]

107. It's a US-centric issue...no one would bat an eyelid in europe...

Plenty of inter-racial couples and ads there..

[Katashi_itto]

109. I thought it was awesomely funny. Had there not been such a big deal over it,

I wouldnt have noticed anything different about it.

[MichaelMcGuire]

111. K & R

[yellowwoodII]

113. It's Not Nice to Fool Little Kids

Well, it's a darling commercial. So silly that anyone would even notice the racial difference.

But, have you ever looked at the ingredients in this "healthy" cereal? I have a box of "multi-grain" cereal right in front of me.

Here are the ingredients in order of quantity: Whole grain corn, whole grain wheat, sugar, whole grain oats, whole grain barley, whole grain rice, cornstarch, and various added vitamins.

So two of the top ingredients are corn and sugar. Might as well eat the box for nutrition value.

Meanwhile, they cost almost $4.00 a pound.

A family could do well to switch to oatmeal in terms of nutrition and value.

[azureblue]

118. the word "biracial"

in America, means one thing - the person has Negro blood. Would the term be used if a person was half Scot and half Greek? No. Half Chinese and half Spanish? Of course not. I'm half Sicilian. No one comes up to me and seeks to make me define myself as Sicilian. Silly. And just as silly as people that expect a "Biracial" person to define themselves with one culture or the other. My point is that the term used today is society's attempt to impose a stigma on people that are part Negro, to pigeonhole them as being "not one of us", and, as the diarist points out, it carries a negative connotation. Just like New Orleans' Creole culture, people of mixed race will define their own identities, on their own terms.

[mike dub]

119. The Cheerios on the father's heart made me laugh out loud at the end- great commercial

And leave it to General Mills to make such a good commercial. My parents own a summer vacation/lake house in northern Minnesota ( O/T - theirs is two doors down from (former Michelle Bachmann opponent) Jim Graves' lake home) and it seems like some Minnesota companies (Target, as well) are progressive and actually 'reality-based'. Good on you, General Mills, and Minnesota.

[CrazyBob]

120. Its about the TYPE of interracial relationship

Didn't you ever see The Bodyguard? No uproar. None. A Bronx Tale. Guess Who? (Comedy movie). ANY Halle Berry movie. No frenzy. No outrage. How about Kevin Durant's hilarious Sprint commercial in which his "wife" is Asian. No outrage.

The issue about this ad isn't about interracial couples. Its about white women pairing off with black men. Nothing will piss a white guy off faster than that.

Go take a look at the movies with interracial relationships and you will find something pretty peculiar. Black women pairing with white men is fine. Been doing it in soap operas for decades now. No outrage. (Yes, Jessica and Duncan got married in 1992!) No complaints.

Look at Will Smith's movies. The directors always find a black woman to be his love interest. And when they didn't (Hancock), she ended up with a white guy at the end - same as The Long Kiss Goodnight (Sam Jackson and Geena Davis).

Its time to admit that there's much more to this than just race. Racism isn't as simple as some would like to believe. As it turns out, white guys don't mind seeing Pierce Brosnan banging Halle Berry's brains out. Blockbuster movie. Or Kevin Costner taking the wood to Whitney Houston (RIP). Blockbuster. But they don't want to see Sam Jackson banging Gwyneth Paltrow or Geena Davis. THAT is the problem.

[AAO]

122. My pet. Inspite of how he looks - he wouldn't hurt you. He's a very gentle animal.

Unless you piss him off:

[craigmatic]

123. This is much ado about nothing.

It's a white mom and a black dad and throughout most of our history the powers that be really didn't want to see this couple dynamic happen but white men with black women has historically been seen as ok. Well not ok but more tolerable. People make a big deal out of this yet nobody complains about the interracial dynamic on that show scandal. I know I'm reaching expecting bigots to be consistent. But at the end of the day this commercial is positive and progressive and the next logical step will be to see same sex couples get a cereal ad and that day will come.

[Lithos]

124. WTF?

This is one of the sweetest commercials I've seen in a *LONG* time.

I have a daughter about this same age. This is a simply priceless commercial, IMHO.

L-