But when my OG weezermonkey asked me on Twitter to blog about this commercial, I just knew I had to. She's been with me since (almost) the very beginning, so who am I to say no? So without further ado, check out this commercial for the Samsung Smart TV:
Shout out to Samsung for reppin' the Asian and white interracial marriages. As the Asian half of such a couple I know says, Once you go brown, you don't turn around. According to weezermonkey, half white and half Asian kids are called hapa. I think I might have known that, but I also thought it might be kind of a derogatory term. If it is--take it up with her. I also know that it is the name of my favorite sushi spot, but that's neither here nor there.
I have a lot of the same feelings that I had about the infamous interracial family Cheerios commercial. I don't want to repeat myself, so if you'd like to read my thoughts on that one, you can click here.
After I saw the Samsung commercial, a word that came to my mind to describe this family was respectable.
Now, what does it mean to be respectable? What does it mean to show someone respect? I think to respect someone can mean to look up to them as someone to emulate. But I also think you can show respect to someone that you have no desire to be like. Because you respect all people and/or try to treat all people with respect.
So like when I talked about people looking nice, it's interesting how this family of well dressed people, in a large house, that just bought a very large (and probably very expensive,) tv immediately brings up the idea that they are people that are worthy of respect, or that they most likely behave in ways that I would like to behave.
So what do you think? What do you think it means to respect someone? Do you think that everyone deserves to be treated with respect, or that everyone automatically deserves respect? How you determine who gets respect and who doesn't? What does respectful behavior look like to you? Does someone have to show you respect to get respect back?
Just for the record, I don't like it when people say that not everyone deserves respect, and I also don't like it when people say they have to get respect before they give it. To me, that is like moving towards the lowest common denominator. But if you feel differently, that's fine. We can disagree--respectfully.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Yay! Thanks for posting about this!
ReplyDeleteI was not aware that hapa could be derogatory. I've been using the term since...forever. In college, we had a club called HAPA (Half Asian Persons Association). If it's derogatory, that's news to me!
Is "respectable" code for "upper middle class" here?
I really liked this commercial because they were portrayed as just a regular family. They just happened to be interracial.
Hapa is not derogatory. You'll certainly find at some point someone who will want to take offense at the term, but not much you can do about it.
ReplyDeleteI just saw the latest commercial from that campaign, where the wife and hapa son are mainly featured. I think it's wonderful, something that is more than about-time to happen.
As a hapa pake man in my 40s, it's nice to begin to see folks in media who look like me.
so to go back to one of your earlier posts - when i see this title come in my email from this blog my first thought was "shit, what did some white dbag say now?"
ReplyDeleteI'm also hapa and never thought of it as derogatory at all. Just FYI.
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