In case you have never heard of the show, All American Muslim is a TLC reality show following the lives of five Muslim families living in the United States. According to TLC.com, the show "offers an intimate look at the customs and celebrations, misconceptions and conflicts these families face outside and within their own community." Well, the show itself is now facing discrimination.
Lowes, the popular home improvement store, pulled its advertising from the show in response to the disapproval of a group called the Florida Family Association. The organization complained that All American Muslim was "propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda's clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values."
"Individuals and groups have strong political and societal views on this topic, and this program became a lightning rod for many of those views," the company's statement said. "As a result we did pull our advertising on this program. We believe it is best to respectfully defer to communities, individuals and groups to discuss and consider such issues of importance."
Lowes' actions have sparked outrage from, well, basically everyone who doesn't agree that all Muslims are terrorists. Senator Ted Lieu of Southern California has been particularly vocal in expressing his disapproval, going so far as to consider consider calling for a boycott of the store. The senator has also suggested that legislative action needs to be taken.
So what do you think? Was Lowe's justified in its actions? Is legislative action or a boycott needed?
If you want to read the SF Chronicle on Lowe's action, check out the link attached to this posts title.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
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6 comments:
While I personally don't approve of reality shows on large networks that just film the life of certain families or people, I definitely don't think Lowe's actions were justified. They should know that discrimination only makes people angry. Why would they support such a statement? Just read it out loud and it sounds ridiculous. It just doesn't make sense to me that a company called "Florida Family Association" would come out with a statement like that. Lowe's is such a large company, I wouldn't have thought that they would do something like this. Discrimination is such a huge deal in America and as such a large company, they should have known not to do anything that could resemble discrimination. They should have known there would be an enormous amount of criticism. As for a boycott of Lowe's, that wouldn't be too difficult. There's always Home Depot and Orchard Supply Hardware.
Lowe's decision to pull advertisements because of a small group of unhappy Floridans seems really illogical and ill-advised. There are lots and lots of shows on the air today. If every company were like Lowe's, almost no shows would have advertisements. "Oh I don't like how players wear SHORTS that COVER the knees in the NBA, this is outrageous and promotes gang violence, take out their advertisements [big corporation]"
I really love this quote from the article:
"The show is about what it's like to be a Muslim in America, and it touches on the discrimination they sometimes face. And that kind of discrimination is exactly what's happening here with Lowe's,"
And it's true. And as Kevin said, it's ridiculous to pull the ad due to a few people who apparently discriminate against Muslims. It was foolish of Lowe's to pull the ad because of a few complaints, because now they're probably going to deal with a whole lot more complaints over this action.
I agree that Lowe's action is unjustified. To pull support from a show for a few complaints is ridiculous. However, to play devil's advocate, Lowes is a business and I think that when they decided to pull its advertising, they were trying to avoid offending those who agree with the Florida Family Association. I don't think that they expected such a vehement backlash. I think that Lowes is well within its rights to pull advertisting as a corporation. However, it was definitely not a smart move to give into the demands of a small minority and risk alientating the majority.
I looked up the Florida Family Association. They seem to be one of those extreme (by my standard) right wing Evangelical-Christian, gay bashing, immigrant-hating, folk. However, Lowes is a business, as Sophia said, and does have its own interests to look out for. But they may have affected their image negatively.
I do not believe that it is fair that Lowe's pulled it's advertisements from the show. Lowe's has indeed created a negative image by somewhat associating themselves with this "Florida Family Association". This group, as Joseph has pointed out, is clearly close minded and very opinionated about issues concerning Muslims. It is not fair for the Muslims who live in America to be discriminated against just because of a terrorist group. That doesn't include all the Muslims in the world! I think that Lowe's needs to be able to say to these groups that although they understand the point that is being made, they do not discriminate against any race or religion.
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