Posted by Derek Walker on 03.04.10 @ Adage
That's my standard response when I get the "question."
I hate the "question." I laugh it off but I really can't stand it. I know folks mean well but it just makes me want to scream.
What is the question, you ask?
I don't even want to type it, but here it goes:
"Why don't you go to work for a black agency?"
Or:
"Why don't you open a black agency?"
I don't know why it makes my blood boil but it does. Maybe I'm being overly sensitive. Maybe I'm not. All I know is that I hate that question. I hate it! I think it is the implication.
I feel like I am being told to get back to my place, where I belong.
Now, before I go any further let me set the record straight -- I am black. Always have been, always will be. I love my people. The first advertising agency I ever learned about was Barbara Proctor's shop. There was a story in Ebony about her. I followed her agency as best I could through middle school to high school and into college. I even got to meet her at an AAF competition my senior year.
I see a real need for African-American shops. I cheered when black shops showed the industry what they could do with Sprite, M&M and Burger King when their efforts went mainstream.
But still there is something about the "assumption" that I belong or need to be at a "black" agency that sets me off.
My entire career has been at general-market agencies, I've had both success and failure but that's the way the game is played. These folks asking the question know me, they're people that have worked with me for years. It is like I am intruding in their club when there is a club down the road that they feel I belong at.
That's it. The question says I don't belong. How dare I take a spot at "their" agency when I can be at "our" agency?
Too bad.
Langston Hughes said it best in his poem "I, too, sing America."I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes,But I laugh,And eat well,And grow strong.
Tomorrow,I'll be at the tableWhen company comes. . . .
(Read the whole thing here.)
I have actually asked a couple of them, "Why don't you apply to a 'black' agency? They are looking for a creative whatever."
The look on their face and their silence speaks volumes. I guess, they don't like being asked that question either.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Derek Walker is the janitor, secretary and mailroom person for his tiny agency, brown and browner advertising based in Columbia, S.C. E-mail him here.
https://sites.google.com/site/mayuradocs/PinIt.png
5 comments:
I can see why that pisses you off.
Tiffany
http://liferequiresmorechocolate.blogspot.com/
"It is like I am intruding in their club when there is a club down the road that they feel I belong at."
This says it all.
A long time ago I wanted to be a "black" designer and champion my race every chance I got. Now I have decided to be a good "designer-who-is Black" it is far less limits what I am as a person and means more to me.
I think of
Stan, I like that. Let's keep reppin' .
having worked for barbara proctor back in the day i can only say it was a wonderful experience...though i did not find it nurturing enough for the beginning of my ad career...it was sad to see her close her doors...then moving to another state and breaking into the field was made difficult and you do keep getting those stares when you walk in and aren't the receptionist. cant see it changing much for the future, just want more of "us" going out for the professionals we can be.
living in MS my entire life and earning a degree in advertising has given me the uncanny ability to know what this article was about before i even read it. i applied to every major ad shop here. when i walked in to my interviews, there were no black faces which only gave someone like me the fire to get hired. needless to say, i continued to work as a teacher and ended up opening a black shop (which my partner and i recently decided to close).
my question is, why not open the black shop and simply not brand it as such? i am hungry to work again. i would love to be nurtured by a black shop and offer my talents. if you need another mailroom clerk, i am your guy ;)
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