The Underdog - Decoding of the Skechers Dog Race

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Many young black individuals aspire to be professional basketball players or singers/rappers, as they know this is the most common way for them to climb the economic ladder, therefore gaining recognition among their white counterparts. In this case, minorities are often victimised by an aspect of white supremacy, while remaining complicit to another aspect (Jafri 227). This is significant because society exploits the few opportunities black people have to excel, representing a modern form of oppression. The bulldog is markedly less esteemed than the greyhounds, but this is overlooked as the Western world capitalizes on minorities’ abilities. Accordingly, this TV commercial inferences obvious class structures, where African American males are less superior to the elitist Anglo-Saxons.

The underlying concept of the cultural codes expressed by the Skechers commercial is neoliberalism, and its impact on the African American community. The fundamental objective of neoliberalism is the intensification of capital; this is achieved through the deregulation of government, privatization of public services, and a focus on individualism (Steger and Roy 14). This has a significant impact on the black population because social problems, such as drugs, poverty, and unemployment are ignored, leading to increased incarceration rates. Angela Davis argues that prison performs an ideological duty as it allows us to alleviate the responsibility of dealing with social problems stemming from racism and global capitalism (16). This causes African Americans, who are the most prevalent in welfare-dependent communities, to become victims of the system. In addition, the infantilization of blacks in the media and the profit-driven values of private prisons work in tandem to create the prison industrial complex. As a result, the massive rate of incarceration among African Americans, which is meant to be rehabilitative, is in fact a form of repression. This is how black individuals become most vulnerable in a neoliberal state, and are only capable of prospering through mediums controlled by white capitalists.

Overall, cultural codes about African Americans are reinforced through a coded class and racial divide in the Skechers advertisement with the “underdog”. Neoliberal ideologies are the basis of these cultural codes that allow black minorities to be oppressed by the white majority. Racial and social class undertones exist in all aspects of society, especially that of popular culture and the media. In conclusion, race and class cultural codes cannot be overlooked, and must be critically evaluated to better society as a whole.

Skechers’ TV commercial URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGl3QrUrMjg

Works Cited

Davis, Angela Y. “Introduction: Prison Reform or Prison Abolition.” Are Prisons Obsolete?. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2003. 9-21. Print.

Jafri, Beenash. “National Identity, Transnational Whiteness, and the Canadian Citizenship Guide.” Critical Race and Whiteness Studies 8 (2012): 1-15. Web. 26 Sept. 2012

Omi, Michael and Howard Winant. “Racial Formations.” The Social Construction of Difference and Inequality: Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality. Ed. Tracy Ore. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2011. 13-22. Print.

Steger, Manfred B. and Ravi K. Roy, “What’s ‘neo’ about liberalism?” Neoliberalism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010: 1-20. Print.