Wow - just saw a segment on NBC News

[creekland]

Just saw a segment on NBC News (Today Show) and have a real urge to shop at Old Navy soon even though I hardly ever go to one.

 

Would love to post a link, but I'm getting really low on time to keep other commitments.  Perhaps someone else can?  Or take my word for it and get a better feeling for Old Navy just because.   :coolgleamA:

 

ps  I own no stock whatsoever in them.  I just appreciate what they're standing up for and the negative comments they're getting make me peeved.

[El...]

Just saw a segment on NBC News (Today Show) and have a real urge to shop at Old Navy soon even though I hardly ever go to one.

 

Would love to post a link, but I'm getting really low on time to keep other commitments.  Perhaps someone else can?  Or take my word for it and get a better feeling for Old Navy just because.   :coolgleamA:

 

ps  I own no stock whatsoever in them.  I just appreciate what they're standing up for and the negative comments they're getting make me peeved.

Are you talking about the reaction to their ad with the mixed race family?  Yep, some of those responses make me want to take the day off and go shop there.  I don't usually, because I didn't like the vintage/super-delicate T-shirts, but I'm sure they have something I'd like!

 

It surprises me that people are still so hostile, because I see so MANY bi-racial families around me.  Maybe that is because I live in military communities.

[Farrar]

What I told dh about that was that I can't decide how to feel about the racist response to things like that. I mean, obviously, it's horrible. But is it just like, okay, the internet has a few dozen evil racist trolls who are really relentless, but they're a tiny number who just always pop up to comment on this stuff (or, say, Malia getting in Harvard), but some of whom don't even really care about what they're saying, they're just trolling for attention? Or is it like, the internet keeps revealing our horrible racist underbelly in every possible way?

 

It's probably somewhere in between. Sigh.

[poppy]

Cheerios had it happen last year and it was a nice moment of the Internet collectively saying, nope, that's just a few trolls , we loved the ad.

 

This one feels a little manufactured. Like, they put out a bland ad, got a few jerks to comment, and thought 'cha-ching!!!!'

[KungFuPanda]

I always wonder where these people live that this family doesn't look normal to them.

[kahlanne]

Guess I missed all of it. I have probably seen the ad but it didn't hit my radar as something abnormal.  Why should it?

[BlsdMama]

I always wonder where these people live that this family doesn't look normal to them.

 

 

I live in IOWA.  Is there anywhere whiter than this?  While racism still exists, I wouldn't say it's normal, not even here.  A person  has  issues, in this day and age, to have something so minute as a mixed family ad get you in a lather.  I just have to wonder why this is even a topic of discussion anymore?  I have some uncles, whom I love, that honestly?  I'd like to never hear their mouths open - can't figure it out because my grandparents weren't racist and I have mult-racial cousins.  But they are of the previous generation and their kids aren't like that so there's hope.

[BlsdMama]

Well, I don't think interracial marriages are "normal" (in the sense that most people are doing it), but I also think it's not so uncommon anymore that it should turns heads and cause people to clutch their pearls. I've been immersed in a military community nearly my entire life so I'm quite used to seeing it, but I don't think it's so terribly common in the civilian community, maybe?

 

 

I think it's fairly common...  I wonder what the actual stats are?  1 in 20 couples?  My OB is an interracial marriage.  Two of cousins are in interracial marriages.  I saw a few interracial prom pictures cross my feed this month.  I don't think it's UNcommon.

[QueenCat]

I always wonder where these people live that this family doesn't look normal to them.

 

 

Spot on!

[elegantlion]

Huffington Post has an article about it too. 

[Matryoshka]

I think it's fairly common...  I wonder what the actual stats are?  1 in 20 couples?  My OB is an interracial marriage.  Two of cousins are in interracial marriages.  I saw a few interracial prom pictures cross my feed this month.  I don't think it's UNcommon.

 

:iagree:   I don't live in a super-diverse area, but I have lots of friends who are in interracial marriages, and am acquainted with many, many more.  I wonder where one could even live where it's still something uncommon.

[SquirrellyMama]

I live in IOWA.  Is there anywhere whiter than this?  While racism still exists, I wouldn't say it's normal, not even here.  A person  has  issues, in this day and age, to have something so minute as a mixed family ad get you in a lather.  I just have to wonder why this is even a topic of discussion anymore?  I have some uncles, whom I love, that honestly?  I'd like to never hear their mouths open - can't figure it out because my grandparents weren't racist and I have mult-racial cousins.  But they are of the previous generation and their kids aren't like that so there's hope.

 

What makes something normal? Is it the number of times you see it in your real life, or is it something else? Maybe the number of times you hear about it, or see it in movies, ads, and TV? I wonder if the number of interracial adoptions is making it more normal?  I'm just curious, not picking on you. I live in Iowa also, so I think I latched on to your message :)

 

I don't really look at those ads and see anything different than any other family, anymore. Even though, I do totally agree that most of Iowa is very white.

 

Kelly

 

 

[QueenCat]

You piqued my curiosity, so I found this informative Pew Research link: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/12/interracial-marriage-who-is-marrying-out/

 

What's really interesting about that article is that it says the stats of 12% of new marriages are interracial DOES NOT include marriages between Hispanics and non-Hispanics as that is considered interethnic rather than interracial.

[bettyandbob]

I live in the DC area. I couldn't imagine considering interracial, interethnic, or inter anything marriage unusual.

 

I remember the Cheerios commercial. I thought it was cute. Someone told me it was controversial after I'd seen it a few times. I stared at it and had to be told what was controversial about it. This stuff does not register with me at all. That's how much of a bubble I live in. In fact I'm so used to multi everything I'd probably be uncomfortable some place that is all white, even though I am white.

[Kathryn]

What's really interesting about that article is that it says the stats of 12% of new marriages are interracial DOES NOT include marriages between Hispanics and non-Hispanics as that is considered interethnic rather than interracial.

And the interethnic marriage article says:

 

About 15% of all new marriages in the United States in 2010 were between spouses of a different race or ethnicity from one another, more than double the share in 1980 (6.7%). Among all newlyweds in 2010, 9% of whites, 17% of blacks, 26% of Hispanics and 28% of Asians married out. Looking at all married couples in 2010, regardless of when they married, the share of intermarriages reached an all-time high of 8.4%. In 1980, that share was just 3.2%.

[Guest]

Ok, I mean thats great, buy have they gotten their sweatshop situation all sorted?

 

Ppl that get worked up over mixed race families are insane.

[TechWife]

Well, I don't think interracial marriages are "normal" (in the sense that most people are doing it), but I also think it's not so uncommon anymore that it should turns heads and cause people to clutch their pearls. I've been immersed in a military community nearly my entire life so I'm quite used to seeing it, but I don't think it's so terribly common in the civilian community, maybe?

 

I think it's fairly common. No one blinks an eye here in my southern suburbia. 

[Lady Florida.]

I always wonder where these people live that this family doesn't look normal to them.

 

Yes. I live in a city that isn't diverse (over 80% white, most of the rest are AA, and all other races combined are a tiny percentage) and yet I don't see people give even a second look to interracial couples. 

 

Well, I don't think interracial marriages are "normal" (in the sense that most people are doing it), but I also think it's not so uncommon anymore that it should turns heads and cause people to clutch their pearls. I've been immersed in a military community nearly my entire life so I'm quite used to seeing it, but I don't think it's so terribly common in the civilian community, maybe?

 

 

I think it's fairly common...  I wonder what the actual stats are?  1 in 20 couples?  My OB is an interracial marriage.  Two of cousins are in interracial marriages.  I saw a few interracial prom pictures cross my feed this month.  I don't think it's UNcommon.

 

It's normal in our family (dh's). One nephew is married to a woman from Japan, a niece is married to a man from Costa Rica (neither spoke much English when they first met their now-spouses).. Dh's family is very, very white - straight up British ancestry, WASP, from a tiny mountain town in Tennessee. If anyone in the family would be prejudiced towards them it would be MIL (now deceased) and FIL, yet both welcomed them to the family with open arms. Had it been their own children and not their grandchildren I don't know if they'd be as welcoming. However, over the years I think they did what many people did - examined their views, realized that they were wrong, and changed them. 

 

Guess I missed all of it. I have probably seen the ad but it didn't hit my radar as something abnormal.  Why should it?

 

I missed it too, but we don't have cable or satellite. I rarely see commercials.

Edited May 3, 2016 by Lady Florida.

[mamiof5]

Interethnic?? That's a new term for me. Hmmm...I guess I've never thought about our marriage being inter anything? Just a union between two people? I'm Hispanic, hubby is from the US (he has German somewhere back in the family line). I always chuckle at our different personalities, but that's about it. Have never thought of our marriage as interracial, ethnic or anything. The Old Navy ad? I don't know...I just wouldn't think anything of it. It's sad they got bad reactions :( I've met a couple "interracial" families, lovely families! Don't know them close enough so I'm not sure if they have experienced troubles because of the race thing. I hope not?? I do have to admit when I read articles like this I always think of a young man I met probably around 15yrs ago? He wasn't even interested in getting to know me better or being friends because I wasn't black, I remember him saying something like I wouldn't fit in his circle (of friends, family etc...that they just didn't interact with whites and it wouldn't be taken well). I do wonder sometimes if anyone in his family ever broke the rule and allowed friendships with white folks? Who knows...never saw him again :)

[Lady Florida.]

Interethnic?? That's a new term for me. 

 

Yes, and an interesting one too as the definition of ethnic has changed or I suppose has been refined. Back when my parents were married (1954) their marriage would have been considered interethnic if that had been a word. Italian-Americans and Irish-Americans were very, very different cultural/ethnic groups then. In fact, all the various European immigrants were considered different ethnic groups. Their immigrant ancestors were still alive, and many of the older people didn't speak English. Southern European and Northern European were seen as very different and not just "white European", which is the distinction today.

 

I'm not making any statement for or against how ethnicity is defined, just commenting on how it has changed.

[Slojo]

I live in the DC area. I couldn't imagine considering interracial, interethnic, or inter anything marriage unusual.

 

I remember the Cheerios commercial. I thought it was cute. Someone told me it was controversial after I'd seen it a few times. I stared at it and had to be told what was controversial about it. This stuff does not register with me at all. That's how much of a bubble I live in. In fact I'm so used to multi everything I'd probably be uncomfortable some place that is all white, even though I am white.

 

I honestly think people have lost the ability to understand what the word "controversial" means. This isn't the 1950's. Bodies of different colors are posing next to each other in a way that they could be construed as "family?" Earth-shattering. 

 

And then the really controversial things don't get engaged, at all (okay, that's hyperbole, but I think you know what I mean). It's in the media, in politics, etc... takes our collective eye off the balls that really matter. 

[Farrar]

Well, interethnic is clearly a thing even for many white couples... My Big Fat Greek Wedding, anyone? Or even, say, a couple where one partner is from a liberal, white New England family and the other is from the deep south. There's culture clashes...

 

It doesn't read the same to the outside world though. No one pulls out this miscegenation crap on a couple where one is of Russian descent and the other is of Irish decent. Or if one is African-American and the other is Jamaican or Nigerian or something. 

[creekland]

What I told dh about that was that I can't decide how to feel about the racist response to things like that. I mean, obviously, it's horrible. But is it just like, okay, the internet has a few dozen evil racist trolls who are really relentless, but they're a tiny number who just always pop up to comment on this stuff (or, say, Malia getting in Harvard), but some of whom don't even really care about what they're saying, they're just trolling for attention? Or is it like, the internet keeps revealing our horrible racist underbelly in every possible way?

 

It's probably somewhere in between. Sigh.

 

I would like to think it's merely a few trolls, but then I look at this year's election and it makes me pause significantly.  How much has just been hidden and is crawling out?

 

My MIL is extremely racist.  Hubby and my BIL are not at all (BIL adopted a biracial son).  I'd love to think that cwap ends with MIL's generation - for everyone - not just his family.

 

Cheerios had it happen last year and it was a nice moment of the Internet collectively saying, nope, that's just a few trolls , we loved the ad.

 

This one feels a little manufactured. Like, they put out a bland ad, got a few jerks to comment, and thought 'cha-ching!!!!'

 

Hmm, didn't think of that angle.  My first thought was to go buy something there even though we never do now that my boys are grown up.

 

I live in the DC area. I couldn't imagine considering interracial, interethnic, or inter anything marriage unusual.

 

I remember the Cheerios commercial. I thought it was cute. Someone told me it was controversial after I'd seen it a few times. I stared at it and had to be told what was controversial about it. This stuff does not register with me at all. That's how much of a bubble I live in. In fact I'm so used to multi everything I'd probably be uncomfortable some place that is all white, even though I am white.

 

Ditto.  I watched that segment on the News this morning - seeing the ad - and couldn't figure out at all what was wrong with it until the commentary that went along with it.  It's my bubble I guess, but I like my bubble.

[Guest]

I honestly think people have lost the ability to understand what the word "controversial" means. This isn't the 1950's. Bodies of different colors are posing next to each other in a way that they could be construed as "family?" Earth-shattering.

 

And then the really controversial things don't get engaged, at all (okay, that's hyperbole, but I think you know what I mean). It's in the media, in politics, etc... takes our collective eye off the balls that really matter.

This, exactly. Its a manufactured kind of thing.

[indigomama]

I always wonder where these people live that this family doesn't look normal to them.

 

Nebraska. 

[Garga]

The area I live in is 92% white (from the most recent poll I saw.)  You bet there are interracial marriages around here!  Those remaining 8% don't have a lot of options if they don't marry outside their race. 

 

So while one might think that an interracial marriage/relationship would be unusual in a mostly white area, I've found that there are plenty of interracial marriages.  Probably not as many as you'd see in a city, just because of the low population around here, but certainly enough that it's not a shocking thing.

Edited May 3, 2016 by Garga

[Garga]

I live in the DC area. I couldn't imagine considering interracial, interethnic, or inter anything marriage unusual.

 

I remember the Cheerios commercial. I thought it was cute. Someone told me it was controversial after I'd seen it a few times. I stared at it and had to be told what was controversial about it. This stuff does not register with me at all. That's how much of a bubble I live in. In fact I'm so used to multi everything I'd probably be uncomfortable some place that is all white, even though I am white.

 

 

I am uncomfortable with how white this area is, and I'm white.  I came from the Baltimore area and was used to many different people all living together.  I am not happy with the fact that my sons only see people who look like themselves 92% of the time. I don't want them growing up and acting awkward around people who don't look like themselves. 

 

While I like living here for the slower pace of living and the gorgeous views, there are things I regret about moving up here.  Diversity is one of them. 

Edited May 3, 2016 by Garga

[Tsuga]

They know their demographic. Actual families who already shop at Old Navy are, in my area, very likely to be from mixed backgrounds, be inter-racial, or be related to such people.

 

If you go to Old Navy (owned by the Gap, incidentally) that is already their customer base. It's cheap trendy clothing with some organic / ethical lines. Very positive messages on the tee-shirts, just generally positive, fun messages, non-violent, for girls AND boys. I have never seen a "boys are icky" type tee-shirt there either and the boy tee shirts are action-oriented, but so are the girls', and no violent messages or "boys rule" or "mommy's princess" there either. I feel that at some level the buyers and I share a basic idea of decorum.

 

I think their marketing people just pounced on this particular thing and that's fine with me. It reflects their actual values and actual customers, so go for it.

[The Girls' Mom]

Racism is alive and kicking where I live.  Interracial marriages are still pretty uncommon in my little pocket of the world, and unfortunately the few couples I do know get flack for it.  And their kids get picked on for being biracial.  It is awful, and part of the reason I really dislike where I live.  There are several rather racist family members in our close family.  They, thankfully, are learning to keep their opinions to themselves around me and my girls.  

So, yeah, I can see some idiots here locally getting themselves in a froth over it.  They probably had residual froth from the Target "controversy" that spilled over  :glare:

[ktgrok]

Wasn't it in the news not that long ago that a woman was kicked out of her apartment because the landlord found out she was married to a black man? (she was white)

[mamiof5]

Racism is alive and kicking where I live. Interracial marriages are still pretty uncommon in my little pocket of the world, and unfortunately the few couples I do know get flack for it. And their kids get picked on for being biracial. It is awful, and part of the reason I really dislike where I live. There are several rather racist family members in our close family. They, thankfully, are learning to keep their opinions to themselves around me and my girls.

 

So, yeah, I can see some idiots here locally getting themselves in a froth over it. They probably had residual froth from the Target "controversy" that spilled over :glare:

Ugh!!!! Sad :(

[mamiof5]

Wasn't it in the news not that long ago that a woman was kicked out of her apartment because the landlord found out she was married to a black man? (she was white)

That's so sad :(

[LucyStoner]

Wasn't it in the news not that long ago that a woman was kicked out of her apartment because the landlord found out she was married to a black man? (she was white)

It's hard for me to imagine where such crap is legal.

[foxbridgeacademy]

I always wonder where these people live that this family doesn't look normal to them.

Southern Indiana?  South of Bloomington in the country is very, very Caucasian.  Growing up I didn't have a class mate that wasn't white until 6th grade.  When I went to Jr High in Bloomington I couldn't believe how many kids there were that didn't look like me.  DH is from an even more rural area in Indiana and his school (through High School) had 1 black family in the whole town.  We've made a point to try to live in areas/towns that have a mix of all races and cultures.   

 

 

*Whereas Bloomington has people from all over the world of all colors.