Sunday, December 13, 2009

UPDATE: NYT Defends Its Racist "People Of Color" Holiday Gift Guide As "Smart, Informed" Ideas For "Minority Readers."

Diane McNulty, the NYT's chief spokeswoman, has finally commented about our Wednesday post on the NYT's Holiday Gift Guide -- you know, the one with a handy, separate section offering gifts made "by and for people of color."

McNulty explains that the feature reflected "the efforts of a diverse Times staff to directly address minority readers with our content."

The spokeswoman is presumably alluding to the fact that the guide's "Of Color/Stylish Gifts" page was written by Simone S. Oliver, a black member of the NYT's editorial staff.

McNulty statement defends the NYT by saying the paper was offering gift ideas to a "wide variety of audiences and interests."

She's right! Aside from "minority readers," the NYT Holiday Gift Guide has special pages devoted to such diverse groups as children, caffeine lovers, and people who prefer "seriously huge televisions."

McNulty also advises NYT readers to "use the guides however they choose," and says the NYT will continue to provide "content that's relevant and appealing."

In other words, the NYT wants you to know that any reader, regardless of skin color, is free to buy themselves a "Wise Latina" t-shirt, or give their loved one a copy of the "Mocha Woman's Guide To Life."

Here's McNulty's statement, in full:

Our online gift guides are intended to offer holiday gift ideas for a wide variety of audiences and interests, with Times writers and editors making smart, informed choices that might appeal to those different audiences.

The "Of Color" guide, in the Style & Travel category, is in keeping with that philosophy, and with the efforts of a diverse Times staff to directly address minority readers with our content.


Of course, we expect our readers to use the guides however they choose, and we hope they'll find interesting ideas in many different categories. But we'll continue our effort to provide content that's relevant and appealing.

4 comments:

Jay Smooth said...

The analysis at thegrio.com does a good job of laying out why your complaints about that guide were misguided.

As a person of color, I wish more publications did this more often! It was a great feature.

Anonymous said...

Hello! WHITE is also a COLOR!

We all know the NYT isn't the most professional or trusted newspaper in the country. But to actually have in their employ a racist, and allowing this racist to create such a guide is ridiculous! That racist should be fired! If that person was white and created a white only guide, they would be fired on the spot!

Unknown said...

It is not racist. Everything in the DAMN world in terms of media is for white people! ALL Day Everyday. We can't take too steps without seeing white faces dominating all facets of the marketing world and it gets old and tired very quickly. You don't want to see or celebrate anything that doesn't look like your lily white faces. The fact that some white folks are calling this racist, shows how ignorant and racist they actually are. You don't know the first thing about diversity or respecting other people's culture and putting your own selfish BS aside. You really need to educate yourselves and stop proving your ignorance on a daily basis. Your attitude about this amazing issue is taking back to 1950's Selma, Alabama. Good job folks. Keep it classy. Not.

Unknown said...

So this who your readers are at nytpicker?? This the most ignorant sites ever. You allow comments that call us niggers, spics and the like. WTF??? Are you for real? I read this crap on the comment section of your recent blog post:

"Anonymous said...
niggers, spics, sand niggers and gook need to shut up and stop whining about every little thing. just die all of you ya stupid pieces of shit parasites lmmfao.