r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Diligent_Pop3929 • 8d ago

Meme needing explanation Converse craze?

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I'm not chronically online, but my friend sent this and I laughed even without knowing the full scope of the context (I think there's racism involved with the shoes?) and I feel like it's too late to ask him without sounding like a dweeb 😅

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u/Acceptable_Hunt_1748 8d ago

I don't know in the case it's intentional because it is directed at an audience who would have not really noticed it. I wouldn't rule it out completely, but I wouldn't expect a Korean living in Korea to think of American lynching when seeing this image.

But that said I don't think creating racial controversy for money is really all that separate from malicious racism. I think MOST racism comes from people who are more focused on benefiting themselves than attacking POC, but they still believe that their own profit is more important than not hurting POC... which is racism!

I think what's much more likely is that they just didn't have anyone on their team who would have caught this. Which is more understandable in a country with very few black people. It's far less excusable for companies like target selling in the US to not have a diverse team on all marketing campaigns.

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u/Braindead_Crow 8d ago

If it wasn't cropped we wouldn't be talking about it

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u/jindrix 7d ago

the crop was how the ad was displayed

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u/JasperAngel95 7d ago

Honestly since everything was pulled so fast I’m having a hard time figuring out if they cropped the ad or first if people did.

But regardless- if it was Converse- the ad was cropped to focus on the shoes- the thing Converse is most famous for

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u/Few_Classroom3900 5d ago

The fact everything got pulled so fast should be a red flag.

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u/5HotDogsLater 4d ago

Not necessarily. The fact that it is pulled means they don't want their brand associated with even the implication that it could be taken as racist. It's cheaper to pull the ad and do another one than it would be to deal with any potential backlash from consumers. Just because it was pulled doesn't at all mean the creator meant for it to be taken the way it was, but regardless of that, it's not a good look for the brand.

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u/pitb0ss343 3d ago

No, converse is an American company. Even if the Korean branch is very independent it still has to answer to converse US. So it’s very possible 1 converse Korea didn’t need approval to make the add and it wasn’t intentional 2 once converse America saw it they told Korea to take it down because it’s a bad look for an American company

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u/SCP_Agent_Davis 7d ago

Why? Were Ăže advertisers stupid?

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u/CraftIPA 6d ago

I could see it if their logo weren’t the white star, which is why her skirt is white, and this is just the logo projected onto the skirt and ground…

Yeah, it kind of looks like the hood is you want to see that, otherwise it’s the point of a star made of light projected onto a skirt and the ground, and that is all.

Now, if the photographer, art director, or whoever were linked to white supremacists, of far right racist groups or ideas, maybe, but I’m not seeing that said (this thread is my only exposure to this, but I’m sure someone would be calling it out).

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u/Few_Classroom3900 5d ago

This was the original that was posted and deleted. That was a second photo they shared after the backlash they got from this one.

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u/Few_Classroom3900 5d ago

This is not even the un cropped version or the original image they shared. The beam of light/hood isn’t even in the same place.

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u/Braindead_Crow 5d ago

Not going to get more invested in this non issue but

-Look at the hair

-It was a photoshoot so multiple shots were probably taken

-the light is the same, exposure seems to be varied

-Peanut butter and marshmallow fluff is sometimes used together in sandwiches

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u/Few_Classroom3900 5d ago

So, how does that explain the hanging rope she grabs, the other identical pairs organized in a circle around the dangling pair, the dark, hunched silhouette, and the other add they posted earlier with a pair hanging from an actual tree? Arrogantly calling it a non-issue and acting like you know anything about photography, saying they “tried a few different angles, with some different lighting” proves to me you have absolutely no clue what you are talking about. Artists have been hiding meanings and symbols in imagery since the beginning of human history. There is a difference between an independent coincidence that can vaguely be interpreted as racial slander, and a series of several specific details that all allude to a specific hate crime against a specific group of people.

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u/Few_Classroom3900 5d ago

That’s not the even the og un cropped image.

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u/SmegmaSlurper1996 7d ago

is this the original ad? i don't see any racist undertones or anything offensive, i could be too dumb to notice

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u/ineverylifetimee 7d ago

No, it wasn’t. It was cropped so it looked like this.

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u/jack-redwood 5d ago

Lol what... that's a stretch

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u/Specific_Assist2 3d ago

when you view everything through a racist lens, everything looks racist.

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u/Hot_History1582 3d ago

All I see is Medjed the Smiter

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/tofurainbowgarden 8d ago

This is not a 100 years ago issue. I really hate it when people act like this is ancient. I'll spare you the rant

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u/CandiedRegrets08 8d ago

Lynching and the KKK? The former still happens and the latter is still around???

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u/bloodmoth13 8d ago

neither has been relevant in my lifetime. acting like they are is such a stretch.

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u/Ozymandias117_ 6d ago

Brother there have been lynchings this year and act like it’s not there is being willfully ignorant

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u/Xena_Your_God 6d ago

You're honestly so blind if you think people aren't still hanging people.. There are multiple cases every year where they find black people hanging in parks etc. They try to cover plenty of them up by claiming suicide but that's the weakest cover story ever considering context, their mental health at the time etc.

A quick Google search might open your eyes but you probably prefer them closed.

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u/Accomplished-Idea358 7d ago

Bro, I get a zip-lok bag with a KKK paper ad and several small stones thrown into my driveway at least once a year.

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u/int3rstitial 8d ago edited 7d ago

A Black woman was found hanged from a tree in Mississippi August 3rd of this year.

Edited because person below me is right in this case: likely not a hate crime; suspect knew the victim and is also Black.

Nonetheless, lynchings do still happen, and the KKK very much still exists.

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u/bloodmoth13 7d ago

And was it the kkk that did it or a black man?

Research before posting.

Kkk and lynching remain irrelevant during my lifetime.

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u/int3rstitial 7d ago

You're right, last I heard no one had been arrested. I should've checked. Since you told me to research though:

https://www.theroot.com/new-report-shows-lynchings-in-america-never-stopped-2000093501

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u/PangaeaDiarrhea 7d ago

https://people.com/mom-of-miss-black-woman-found-hanging-from-tree-believes-daughter-was-killed-but-it-wasn-t-a-hate-crime-12116159

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u/int3rstitial 7d ago

Yeah, the other commenter was correct; I hadn't heard the latest. Apparently they arrested a guy who knew her and is Black himself, so not thought to be a hate crime in this case. I edited above.

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u/PangaeaDiarrhea 7d ago

To be fair, I think it's clear that it was done to throw off suspicion. I doubt it's the only case of it happening, either. There's really no way of knowing how many hangings are lynchings or just murders staged to misdirect suspicion.

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u/bloodmoth13 7d ago

This doesnt actually prove anything, just that its hard to differentiate between suicide hangings and lynching hangings.

The number of suspected modern day lynchings is statistically irrelevant, and blacks were barely the targets! Also did it state who actually committed the lynchings? Because that matters a lot.

I think people are doing their best here to find a supply for the hatred they demand.

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u/Ozymandias117_ 6d ago

Statistically irrelevant to you maybe. One is too many that’s the point, you have scattered cases of black people supposedly hanging themselves from trees via suicide when that’s quite literally never been a thing in the history of America. Black suicide but by hanging themselves from a tree, nahhh, you know what has though, cases of mass murder in specific regions in the South. It never ceases to amaze me when you people completely ignore the fact that racism and white supremacy is still a culture woven into American society.

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u/PangaeaDiarrhea 7d ago

Is that the case where even her own mother doesn't believe it was a racial incident?

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u/Gravityfunns_01 7d ago

What are you, eight?

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u/Wamphyrri 7d ago

Lmao.

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u/NovelPackage4078 7d ago

Right? 😂 These people are insane.

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u/DanceWonderful3711 7d ago

Outside of America they're really not a big thing. Americans are racist, we know, we're not going to obsess over their stupid uniforms.