Black History Month

This morning, on my way to work (after not having worked ALL week...) I made my routine stop at the Exxon gas station by my house for a bottle of Propel and a Pepsi on ice. When I was at the register, I noticed a stack (a very large stack, might i add...) of flyers on the counter. My curiousity lured me in and I started reading...

A nicely printed flyer on shiny paper. A colorful collage of what appeared to be african american professionals - a scientist, a member of the armed forces, a businesswoman, a man in a tie...decorated the front of the flyer with the following sentence: "We honor those who dedicate their lives to building, protecting and educating America." The back the flyer reads: "Exxon and Mobil retailers are proud to celebrate the contributions of the many pioneers who changed not only the way we all think, but the way we all live: doctors, educators, scientists, inventors, innovators, community leaders and humanitarians whose efforts continue to impact both the African-American community and America as a whole. So, this Black History Month, we celebrate where we've been and where we're all going, together."

Thats it. No coupon, no promotion, no special event scheduled, no fun african-american factoids...just 3 sentences that say we support black history month. so why, you ask, did this deserve a blog entry?

Well, i thought it was kinda strange that there were like 600 flyers on the counter...implying "please take one". what am i to do with such a flyer? hang it on my fridge? frame it? share it with a friend and say "hey, my gas station supports black history month"? if it had a coupon on it, i'd save it. if it had fun facts, i'd share them, if it had a special event, i might even attend. but it had none of that. just three sentences. kinda seemed like a waste of paper to me...they could have just made a poster for the door.

so i asked the lady at the register..."Whats the point of these flyers?" and she just shrugged her shoulders.

I know the point...Exxon and Mobil put out flyers advertising that they are not racist. I think that had to be their intention. They should have saved the ink and just made flyers that said "We are not racist". I mean, that is the only point i can come up with anyway. It just seemed so illogical and stupid to me. It's like me walking around telling people that i am not racist...you just don't advertise that. and from my experiences, anyone (or any company in this case) that feels the need to make a public statement proclaiming that they are not racist...probably is.

So basically, Exxon and Mobil presumably put out millions of flyers saying "We are not racist" indicating that we, as customers, have reason to believe they are. If someone can come up with another possible motivator of publishing these flyers, I'd love to hear it...

The money spent on flyers could have been better spent actually DOING something in honor of this special month. As for me, I think a poster honoring black history month would have done the job...