From the House of Adobe: “Customer Success Story: Harris Publications”
In “Customer Success Story: Harris Publications,” Adobe is not only trying to tell me how great Dreamweaver is but it is also putting in my face one of the most telling examples of why I don’t bother to censor myself on my Blog so I can “get a great job” in a major corporate media company. Although I have mentioned that I intend to fire my manager, I am as about as far as I can go in W2 land, plus or minus $20,000US, before taxes. (More on the latest productive developments on this manager thing later…)
In “Customer Success Story: Harris Publications,” Adobe documents product testimonials from principals with strong Euro-American-suburban features, running several “urban lifestyle” magazines full of African-American, masculine, hip-hop imagery—lots of platinum-blonde colored women and lots of brothers in hellafied gangsta leans. Apart from the token, 20-frame shot of the Afro-female snug in her cubicle, we pretty much have the cast of Friends rapping to us about how they use Adobe products to get the word out on the streets. Now it’s time for you to don your sarcastic sunglasses and throw your mocking gang signs.
“We could not find any qualified, competent African-Americans to work for us,” would eventually come out in some dramatic exchange about this situation. Personal experience from informal surveys suggests strongly to me that “qualified, competent African Americans” means a colored employee detached and/or docile enough not to take over the entire company… We don’t have a right to be mediocre in any field we pursue outside of government institutions. So when I see a “person of color” in a commercial, professional setting, I immediately assume that I am in the presence of a bad mufukka. That quota, equal opportunity bullshit is for the Klan funny papers… What’s the honest truth is that even the cast of Friends needs to be gainfully employed. I can’t imagine that many of the featured speakers choose to put out the “urban” products they put out… I can’t imagine meeting one of them back in design school saying some shit like, “My dream is to publish an urban, hip-hop magazine. I want to crop photographs of tattooed Black men and boody babes every day.”
So another Adobe promotional offering, “Customer Success Story: Coca-Cola / Spring! / Juxt Interactive,” looks like it should “make me happy,” right? All the topical colors match up, right? Corn on corn? Wrong! What you have lurking behind this harmless fluff is the threat of privatization of water. Coca Cola is trying to raise a generation of “kids” who take for granted that water comes in plastic bottles. Cute, huh? This video promotion should save Adobe from only the wildest accusations of being the tool company for “the liberal media.”
Young, Afro/Latino-American design students! Don’t bother trying to prove yourself to country rubes from sundown towns! Don’t waste your time! Don’t start out with drug-free dreams of Mile Davis only to end up like Kevin Eubanks! Remember when making money for the sake of making money was vulgar and tasteless? No? Oh, yeah… Well, go ask your grandma!
Still! No? Okay: a few bullets in defense of Adobe:
- It would not be surprising to find that many Afro/Latino design firms and media groups do not maintain a “structured relationship” with Adobe. These groups do not attend Adobe-sponsored events. They do not respond to Adobe surveys. They do not pursue strategic partnerships. It follows that Adobe is permitted to be ignorant of them.
- The above applies to left-wing outfits as well. These hippie people are just too flaky. Right?
- Adobe is following the “professional guidance” of consultants that suggest through “market research” that promoting technology featuring people “of color”—especially people of strong African features—does not “resonate” with the audience (their customers). The punch line here would be that the data suggest that this phenomenon is most pronounced with customers who are of same ‘oppressed’ groups. This means that colored Adobe customers actually feel “more comfortable” with authorities who are clearly of European ancestry than with their own colored folk. In fact, many would dare to suggest that they are being “short changed” when a non-white shows up at their door. Does this sound stupid? I would really want to listen to what Terry White has to say about this…The irony about that last point is that one of the early architects of Adobe Shockwave automation technology is a Black man. See “From the FunkyKB Archives: Russell de Pina” for yourself.