We had a guest speaker, Arnie something or other, from the American Association of Advertising Agencies in our ethics class today and throughout his entire 3 hour talk, I had to bite my lip to prevent from going on an all out tirade about what a chauvenistic, racially ignorant pig he is. What angered me more was that, judging from the enthusiastic applause at the end, the rest of my class did not seem the least bit offended.

Offense #1, he was telling a story about being in an elevator and seeing a "little cleaning lady", just "a little bubushka". While "bubushka" refers to an older Russian woman, using the term "little lady" is absolutely unacceptable. Infantilizing women through biased language like this serves to keep women subordinated in our society. We don't really need any help in that department.

Offense #2, he was talking about how one client from Cincinatti was hesitant to sponsor Queer Eye for the Straight Guy since it depicts "an alternative lifestyle and all". "Alternative" suggests abnormality, choosing to be different or deliberately categorizing oneself as a social oddity and I cannot think of one gay person who would call themselves "alternative" based solely on their sexual orientation. One's sexual orientation is what it is and should never be labeled "alternative".

Offense #3, he distributed a handout about how agencies are facing scrutiny by the City Commission on Human Rights in NYC because their hiring of minorities is lagging behind other industries. He had the NERVE to talk about all the programs they have to recruit minorities but they just "weren't getting enough". Dismissing the issue as a problem with lack of minority applicants completely ignores the well-documented fact that there is a glass ceiling for minorities. There are few ethnic minorities in big agencies and on their boards of directors, but "not enough applicants" is NOT the reason why. Racial prejudice in the corporate world is not something you can just sweep under the rug like that Arnie!

Offense #4, he talked about how tough it is to break into the advertising industry. How tough it was for him at the time because there was a big push to hire women and minorities which made it hard for him as A WHITE MAN. At this point I was about to explode. To even begin to suggest that affirmative action programs were detrimental to his career because he was a white male turns my stomach. We are not sitting on a level playing field here. We did not CHEAT you out of any opportunities. They were all yours to begin with and still are. He claims he lived the immigrant experience too, having come from Lithuania. But you cannot claim that the experience of a white versus non-white immigrant is the same, or even remotely similar. To suggest such a thing is to spit in the face of all the ethnic minorities who immigrated here, who suffered painful overt racism at the hands of Anglo-Americans (immigrant or not) who judged us based on race and skin color alone.