Quvenzhane Wallis starred as Annie in the release of the hit movie ‘Annie’ for the modern generation to enjoy.
However, the decision to use a little black girl, seemed to have set off white America. They could not and would not accept that Annie could be black in the movie.
The push back by the white community seemed to have resonated with the Target Corporation. They decided not to use a black Annie, Quvenzhane Wallis, for their in-store advertisements. Instead, they opted for a little white girl to display in little red dress the Annie wore.
From a Change.org petition: Though the model is quite professional, she does not speak to the relevance of the movie or main character. The Red Dress is synonymous to Annie and we are not seeing that in any of your ads. When the original Annie came out, everything was about Aileen Quinn or a character/person that emulated her…why not now Target?
In the current stench of racism and division amongst Americans, why would Target singlehandedly disrespect Quvenzhané Wallis and add more pain to injury as it relates to race relations?
In the current stench of racism and division amongst Americans, why would Target singlehandedly disrespect Quvenzhané Wallis and add more pain to injury as it relates to race relations?
Despite the pressure from online petitions and social media disgust, Target Corporation is staying the course. They have refused to apologize to Quvenzhane Wallis for removing her or acknowledge any wrong doing in not displaying her on their in-store advertising.
Target says: Girls from a variety of backgrounds were featured within the campaign, reflecting that anyone can embody the spirit and character of Annie.
Why couldn’t there just be a black Annie in the ad? When Annie was white, there were only white Annies. Now that Annie is black, there has to be multi-colored Annies so that people can appeased? Having ONLY a black Annie would never do, hunh? I think this speaks volumes!
Why can’t I see the other comments
Why can’t I see the other comments
The little girls in the ad aren’t “Annies.” They’re just models. Target wants to sell those fugly clothes to all demographics, not just one.
a) Wallis was offered the job modeling for this campaign. Her agents at ICM couldn’t reach an agreement with Target, partially because she’s already under contract to Armani. Wallis and Jamie Foxx both consulted on the campaign.
b) Wallis’ agents at ICM are currently using her status as “the first black Annie” to raise her asking price for future films. Putting another little African-American model in that red dress would diminish the uniqueness of Wallis as “the first black Annie.” It would be like President Obama coming out with a book entitled “First Black President,” then some researcher finding out with proof that Abe Lincoln was actually black. It would kill the gimmick. Obama and his publishers would be pissed.
No one “owes” Wallis an apology. This media circus creates publicity that will cause people to buy tickets to see the film and she’ll get more back end points. She’s already getting paid by Target as a consultant on this.
This is a mountain from a mole hill and it’s taking focus off the real problems…like the cops gunning people down in the streets and violating their Constitutional rights.
You sound stupid
Oh Yeah. Someone who explains things in detail totally sounds stupid. Where’s your rebuttal to back up that case? Didn’t think so. Here’s a cookie. Go sit down.
Exactly! And we’ll said
If what you say is true, I 100% agree.
This does sound like the inner workings of contract negotiations, and before anyone gets upset at the actor,a child has little say in this, but can you site a source?
Well said sir
Richard I agree. Most of the people commenting didn’t do their research, they just read: black Annie, Modeling contract, Target, Rejecting contract, White Model instead. That’s enough to get heat from the black community. I just stumbled on this article, and let me say, I have a blast laughing at some of these comments. First and foremost, i’m black and I think this is very arrogant of all the black people fighting over this and that lady returning $400 worth of merchandising back because of this! Why are we black people always fighting for black rights? Why can’t we leave the civil rights movements in the past? It’s been accomplished! For God’s sake there’s a black man in the White House. And the powerful blacks who fought for equality didn’t do anything half stupid as we are doing these days. There are always going to be racist people, not necessarily whites only. There are always going to be prejudice from all ethnicities and background! But we let a small fraction of racial critics bring the ignorance out of us. January 30th I celebrated my birthday, and my boyfriend took me to a 5 star restaurant with whites only, we got weird looks here and there and felt very uncomfortable by some of the guests but we sat down and ate, had a great time. The staff was awesome and and polite, they were all whites. I face discrimination on the regular too but at the end of the day, guess what? I am free!! Free to do what I want, when I want, where I want and no one can stop me! So it’s whatever. If someone wants to discriminate let them! There could be worse things done to us than that. Blacks aren’t the only group of people facing discrimination!! Stop trying to make this all about us!! Stop having a pity parties and be thankful for how far we’ve gotten!! And as a darker skin woman I get looked down by blacks all of the time because they’re somewhat lighter than me, but when they see my mother who is lighter skin woman, they act surprised! So stop the hypocrisy. We do it to our own people too!! ” the good hair” “yellow bone” talk as if being light skinned is a different race than black!
You hit it spot on
Have you been living on another planet? You say leave civil rights movement in the past? So now we as a culture are being judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skins? Really? Last time I looked, we were still wearing the invisible chains of slavery. You may feel you are free but until all of us are free, none of us are. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. You are a prime example of the meaning of “crabs in a barrel”. Honey, it is not all about you!!
I’m so sick of this stupid race shit! We’re all 99.9% all the same n oh we’re all mixed! Look it up! Ignorance is a choice! I choose not to be ignorant!
It’s easy to be sick of Race shit when you may have never been the target (pun intended). I try not to use the race card, but if it walks like a duck, talk like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then guess what? It’s a damn duck!
We are not all the same if we were then blacks would have equal rights when it comes to jobs, education, laws and the judicial system. You want to be blind to the real facts but we are all not treated the same.
Last time I checked their were well educated lawyers and business man and doctors who happen to be African American so if u don’t make something out of yourself it’s not because u don’t have the same opportunities
You have the same opportunities … you just won’t get treated the same way WITH those opportunities.
But it’s okay when everyone knows that Cleopatra was an African-American to use a white Elizabeth Taylor as the Egyptian Queen?? Last time I checked on the race meter Egyptians are people of the African spectrum.
I have to say that Cleopatra wasn’t African American she was from the continent of Africa and place called Egypt near a river called the Nile
You are so horribly wrong in your statement that Cleopatra was an African-American. During her reign America was not even close to a thing. Also is it not a commonly known fact that Cleopatra was Greek? She was the Queen of Egypt because she was the daughter of Alexander the Great’s second-in-command. Greece had conquered Egypt and put one of their own in charge. I am not trying to justify Target but people need to educate themselves before they speak.
You are telling half truth. She was a black a african not white african because white srttlers move to the coast of south african to set up trade post during the 16th century. This is how we get white south africans because many decided to stayed in the region and some migrated. The egyptians were black not white as depicted in the movies. Egypt was supposed to be separated from the rest of africa because the white historians did not want to credit black people with the incredible empires and pyramids they built, but science now proves they were black people or black africans.
She was NOT African at all. She was 100% Greek. Look it up. She was the daughter of Ptolemy. I am not trying to be racist but she is not of African origin and every painting of her depicts her as fair-skinned. Taylor was an adequate choice for the film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra
I honestly had to sign up for this. But she wasn’t 100% Greek, if anyone needs to so research is you. I don’t know where you get your information from but please list them above so I can read them. Because I know for sure she wasn’t full Greek!!. It was believed that she could be African, Greek or Egyptian.
And if you are using Wikipedia as your source of evidence then you have no argument, because Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, please have more prober websites and a little advice its always good to have more then one source of website a lest 5 and see if they have the same information, because I know the picture posted on Wikipedia that “assume” that Cleopatra looked like that is differently wrong.
Elizabeth Abbasmoi, the Cleopatra article is actually locked to prevent vandalism. So no, not anyone can efit it to say whatever they want it to. In this case, it is a credible source.
She was african american? Really?
It seems that white people never see it as a problem and just want to forget about the race problem, but the fact is is that race is still very much a problem! It’s like false advertisement having s white Annie displayed when in the film its a black Annie. It’s not a fair representation of any actress regardless of the race and how the film they are in is being represented. But lately the African American race is getting the bad rap in all areas these days! Let’s face it though, most of us are not 100% full of any race! And moving forward they won’t either because most of our children are mixed so we need to do better at teaching our kids about integrating and getting along so this world can be a better place. When Brandy played Cinderella she was displayed so why is this different! — From a mother of African American girls and a African American husband!!!!
Excellent example Krista Johnson!!
you’re the mother of an African American husband?
Larnel West what you fell to see and realize is what the white man wants you to see. Armani owns their clothing line nor her if she wants to do an ad for another clothing line she can this is not sports. So let look at Queen Latifah she works for Mabalin but she also does or did work for weight watchers so will she get sued because the make up artist used another make up? No. A Model can work for any consumer as long as they clear it. And you all speak of other ethnic groups being used but tell me how many different ethnic groups were used for barbie in the past or wonder woman? Thats just a copeout
I think your argument is a good one but Maybeine and Weight Watchers are not competitors. Target’s clothing line and Armani’s both are clothing lines.
It is more than standard that talent has to sign a non-compete clause. I guarantee you that Armani had her sign one and working for Target’s ad campaign would not only violate that and cost her the more prestigious Armani gig it would open her up to a law suit. Also it would severely damage her reputation in the business because she would have violated a contract.
Should target have asked another African-American actress? Probably. But I am positive the reason for not using her is that she either by choice or contract turned it down.
I found it odd, surprising when I saw the add that little Annie was being played by a person who was not white child. And there’s no comparison! My first question to self was why did they do that? Little Annie is a classic. I feel like the producers wanted this type of reaction. As a black man from that genera ration, who appreciated the Original Little Annie, I did not enjoy the movie. But I definitely think Target was out of line to changing the ad. And yet it will not affect my decision to shop Target. They made a bad decision. Please let’s not start a boycott. We’re bigger than that.
We as a People, some of us have been fighting, struggling, others are crying, and even begging for equity in the American Dream.
Prove It!
First off, “Boycott,” then start our own enterprising, supporting our own, in our own neighborhoods.
Our so called Black Elitist need to stop trying to Fitting-In, “What they don’t realize that They are serious when They say that no matter which ethnic group referring, we all look alike to THEM?”
Black Achievers should return some of their blessings, whether it is wealth and or intellect, and reinvest in the neighborhoods that were abandoned after Affirmative Action.
Yes, I feel the Black Family should be financing our on images, businesses, schools, health and senior citizen facilities, etc., but then there is the struggle to get out into Their controlled industry.
Rioting and destroying our own communities will accomplish nothing, but more Negativity.
All of this out cry should be the catalyst to our realization that we have to start doing for ourselves again, this will be our real strength in backlash.
When proof of the discrimination, direct or subversive, is documented, then take your case to the media and the streets, “Remember the World is Watching.”
Ivan, though I understand where you’re coming from, it sounds like you’re wanting the black part of our family to segregate themselves. Whether or not the racists of America (this includes member of all races) like it or not, we are a melting pot. I believe if we were to poll everyone in this country we’d find that there are a lot more people that believe in equality and human rights than those who don’t. It’s media manipation and generations of hurt and systematic oppression that gives the impression of rampant hate, but this doesn’t reflect true people. There are definitely hateful people, but most are ignorant of the realities of other races and their only frame of reference is the media. The problem with that is we tend to categorize them as racist and find offence, when really their ignorant and need to be educated and exposed, before being considered racist. All of us can choose evolve and use patience, understanding, compassion for the people we interact with in our lives.
No please don’t self segregate. It’s time for all of us to know, on this little planet, in this endless universe, we are one human family.
Cleopatra was Greek. Stop arguing easily provable facts, because it makes you look like a fucktard.