'Programing'

Last week, Converse, the tennis-shoe company, published an advertisement that received widespread and immediate criticism. Many members of the public expressed outrage and accused the advertisement of being racist. The imagery featured a Korean celebrity holding a pair of Converse shoes in one hand, with her arm extended at her side. She wore a long white skirt, and when a five-point star was projected onto the skirt, the lighting and shadows appeared to resemble the pointed white hoods associated with Ku Klux Klan robes. Combined with the shoes hanging from her hand, the projected imagery led many viewers to associate the advertisement with the imagery of a person being lynched. Converse apologized and removed the advertisement, stating that this interpretation was not their intention. How did the advertisement reinforce or evoke a narrative that lynchings are on the rise in the United States? Join the conversation and get answers to this question and more on According2Sam episode #444.