I don't know that "separate but equal" in any form would ever work...

Kwame Kilpatrick, mayor of Detroit got stuck in the middle of a storm when a group of blacks in Detroit requested tax dollars and city approval for some type of "African-American Town" (similar to Chinatown, Little Italy and the other ethnic communities).... Non-blacks rose up and raised hell about their tax dollars going for any part of that.

In the private sector, which always gets a certain degree of city/state support, you'd face the same type of backlash regardless of the industry...

I think whites would rise up in outrage at the idea of anything that might exclude them in any kind of way.

But if black consumers simply decided to ignore, not boycott, but permanently ignore companies who engage in stereotypical advertising and predatory marketing practices, that would be a good start.

But as a commmunity, we'd have to be willing to support those who do respect us, as opposed to letting a lot of good businesses and balanced imagery/tactics fall upon def ears.

Earlier this year a few black-owned agencies actually formed a "black ad agency club"... It's similar to the AAF--American Advertising Federation and the AAAA--American Association of Advertising Agencies, which are the two biggest professional groups in my industry, but they're very whitebread. Their idea of diversity is blondes, brunettes and redheads and occassionally marching out a black summer intern or two and calling it a day.

But the biggest the black agenies have is that most of the clients are still not black. And when it's the client's money, they do what they want and get what they want. And if they're not comfortable seeing certain things in their advertsing campaigns/marketing efforts, then you won't see them. In short: As the client goes, so goes what the agency can do.

The ad world/marketing world is funny in that for all our years in existence, we've done a great job of keeping the average person in the dark about how it all actually works. Most people have no clue what goes into making a commercial or a getting one on the air... Building brands and advertising can be an ugly game, even when it's played right.

I'll post another excerpt this week.