Labelled: Hmmmm, Interesting...

I ran across this article this morning (3:00am!  Visit me, Mr Sandman!), Frankie.  Naomi Campbell does not like to be compared to a chocolate bar and is contemplating suing Cadbury over a recent advert they ran mentioning her.  Okay, this ad is obviously based on her diva behaviour, and I don't think it was conceived to be a comment on her ethnicity at all.  And racist?  Come on, that is quite the stretch, there.  The reaction has been a bit shrieking from some corners, but they do make an interesting point.

I've long had a problem with people referring to black people as chocolate, milk chocolate, caramel or any other objectifying, food-based term.  I think it's dismissive and silly.  Every time I hear anyone going into their urban voice **cough, Tyra, cough** talking about a "fine, chocolate brother" or sister or whatnot, I wonder why that is considered a complement.  I suppose when black people do that, it's a way of embracing their skin tone?  When non-black people do it, is it their way of...well I'm stumped, I can't think of any reason that isn't based in comedy.

I've been approached by guys who say that they are only into chocolate and I would immediately lose interest.  Not just because of them equating me with food but also because they clearly aren't seeing me as a person, just a skin tone.  It is unfair to the other person.  They don't realize that I might take it as an insult because chocolate is fairly often used to describe black people.  In my mind, however, it goes back to that hypersexualization of blacks (notice how the word "chocolate" is always a guttural exaggeration, sometimes to the point of near-grunting) that was used in the past to consider us more on an animalistic level than on an "enlightened human" level.

Mind you, I would never, ever be mistaken for hypersexual but, uh...anyhoo...