Ain't

As I was watching television today, I came across this commercial:



Due to the power of DVR, I was able to rewind a few times. Now I am fully aware of a few things: 1) Stereotypes of every type (racial, male vs. female, gay/straight, etc.) are ubiquitous in America today, 2) Everyone stereotypes and 3) Stereotypes are necessary. While they used to cause outrage for some and the threat of boycotts (or some combination of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who at this point I am quite comfortable with saying they are causing more harm than help), I would argue now that most stereotypical images in our society cause only the slightest blip in the 'racist radar' (that being the radar manned by the average citizen, not the media). Many stereotypical images aren't even noticed by the average person. Either the producers of the media do a great job of blending the stereotypes or we have become desensitized. I tend to side with the latter.
I won't do a bell hooks and analyze the every minutiae of a 20 second commercial. I won't even say that I'm offended by the "ain't", the dancing by the black dude,the sheer "why are these two seemingly magnetic opposite types of people cooking and hanging out together" factor, the black lady cooking while the white couple is apart from everyone talking by themselves while the other white person (complete w/ extra dark tan) is lounging, the over the top differences in dress (prep galore vs. plain clothes) and everything else. In fact, the commercial and the dude's dance is kinda catchy. Which is the whole point of advertising in the first place, right? So if there is a smidgin of stereotyping in the commercials, I guess what I'm saying is, "Get over it. It's funny."

Or maybe I am just desensitized to it all. If pressured, maybe I'll just say,

'Blame it on the me-me-me-me-me-me-me di a'