Clients and advertising agencies have no stomach for a fair fight.

I’m no comedian. I’m about to butcher this joke. I apologize to comedy for what I’m about to do. I wish I could remember the name of the comedy team that did this but I can’t. Still, I want to give all credit to them. This is not my joke, I am only trying to retell it:

​(I despise the word in this joke - I loathe using it. But this is one of the few times I will.)

​One day 2 comedians (1 black, 1 white) were sitting around talking about how much things in the south had changed:

White comedian: Man, things in the South sure have changed!

Black comedian: Yeah, but it sure hasn’t been easy.

White comedian: What do you mean? I remember when we let that first Black boy into the university!

Black comedian: Yeah, but not before you gave him an entrance exam no scholar could pass, but he passed it!

​White comedian: Well we let him in didn’t we?!

Black comedian Not until you submitted him to a physical exam that no pro athlete could pass, but he passed it too!

White comedian: Well, we let him in didn’t we?! Black comedian: Yeah you let him in but it wasn’t easy…

​White comedian: What? We let him in, didn’t we? Black comedian: Oh yeah, but first you took that boy down to the stadium, and filled it with 70,000 screaming white folks…

White comedian: But we let him in didn’t we?

Black comedian: Not before you took that boy to the end zone, and handcuffed his hands behind his back, shackled his feet, tied him up with rope and wrapped him in chains so that he could barely move.

White comedian: But we let him in didn’t we? Black comedian: Then you took that poor boy and dropped him in a hole you had dug in the end zone, and buried him with only his neck and head sticking out the ground.

​White comedian: But we let him in didn’t we?

Black comedian: Then in the other end zone you rolled out a cage a tiger in it.

White comedian: But we let him in, didn’t we?

​Black comedian: Not before you told that black boy, “Boy, if you want to get into this university all you have to do is beat this tiger that we’ve been starving for the last 7 days.

White comedian: But we let him in, didn’t we?

Black comedian: Then you open the cage and let the tiger out…

White comedian: But we let him in, didn’t we?

Black comedian: That tiger saw that black boy’s head, and took off! He was at the 10, the 20, the 30, the 40, the 50…

White comedian: But we let him in didn’t we?

Black comedian: …the 40, the 30, the 20, the 10…

White comedian: But we let him in didn’t we?

Black comedian: ...at the 5 yard line that tiger leaped at the poor black boys head…

White comedian: But we let him in didn’t we?

​Black comedian: And as the tiger was flying at him that black poor took and ducked his head,

White comedian: But we let him in didn’t we?

Black comedian: And as the Tiger flew over him, the boy reach up with his teeth and grabbed the tiger by the balls…

​White comedian: But we let him in didn’t we?

Black comedian: Yeah, you let him in but as he had that tiger by the balls what was those white folks screaming?!

White comedian (embarrassed): Fight fair, nigger, fight fair

I heard this joke the summer before my freshman year of college. I never laughed so hard. I listened to it over and over again, making sure I would always remember it. However, I would almost never tell it to anyone. But I would hear that line over and over the rest of my life. Soon, I stopped laughing at the joke.

Working in advertising, certain situations cause me to hear the punch line over and over again.

Having a creative director who was suppose to pick me up at the airport walk past me 4 times because the art director who recommended me for the job forgot to tell him I was black. The giant portfolio case and me in a suit wasn’t enough of a clue. "Fight fair, nigger, fight fair”

Having people tell me that I work in the mailroom or a delivery person. Being asked 18 times by the same person what department I work in because the agency doesn’t have any black creatives. “Fight fair, nigger, fight fair”

Despite being the most productive and award winning creative - the one clients praise because my work got results, I was also the first laid off. Then the agency calls me days later asking me for the ideas I was working on for upcoming campaigns.

​“Fight fair, nigger, fight fair” Having to hear more than 3 times that your CD or some member of management or potential employer didn’t believe blacks could be creative or clients weren’t ready for a black creative. “Fight fair, nigger, fight fair” Knowing that you are underpaid for your position.

​“Fight fair, nigger, fight fair”

Having the quality of your work challenged because you “aren’t nothing but an affirmative action hire.” That was said to my face.

​“Fight fair, nigger, fight fair”

Despite churning out blog after blog, demonstrating my knowledge and understanding of advertising being told by event organizers that they aren’t sure if I can present on the subject of advertising.

​“Fight fair, nigger, fight fair”

Being told I need to hire a “white face” to pitch businesses. Or being told by potential clients that they don’t have an African American effort, when responding to my reaching out to them, not realizing that my agency doesn’t focus on African American marketing.

"Fight fair, nigger, fight fair”

Listening to people talk about “diversity of thought” as a way to side-step addressing diversity of people. Listening to them assume that black and brown people in America are just like them in thought but only with a tan. Realizing they seriously don’t see us. “Fight fair, nigger, fight fair”

Being feed the same old, tired excuse that minorities don’t know about marketing and advertising as a career choice, and that the solution is educating young people while ignoring all the older, experienced and talented people who have been fighting for a fair shot.

“Fight fair, nigger, fight fair”

Having to listen, read or watch people talk about diversity in the context of quotas or lowering standards as if those excluded are less qualified or less talented. Having to endure their arrogance that they have gotten to where they are through hard work and talent.

“Fight fair, nigger, fight fair”

Watching careers and agencies build reputations for creative greatness by “borrowing” from every aspect of the cultures of people of color yet refusing to hire people of color. “Fight fair, nigger, fight fair”

Yes, it is all in my head.

No one would ever tell me aloud to “fight fair.” But they do with their actions and/or inaction.

Is marketing and advertising expecting people of color to fight fair as we are handcuffed, tied up, shackled and buried up to our necks? Of course it does.

The thing is that despite all the things, we’ve overcome. Some of us have done just that, and pushed through. I’m slow to call it success, because it doesn’t feel like winning. We’ve just managed to grab that tiger by the balls, and prevented it from eating us. We still know that we aren’t truly welcome. I wonder what advertising would look like if the careers of so many people of color were not so restrained. Then I look at the music, movies and TV industries, and see the answer – the work would be so varied and different, and unexpected. I can only imagine. This isn’t a pity party for derek. I’ve had a wonderful ride, met some really cool people, and done some amazing work, and that offsets all the crap I’ve had to put up with. Oddly enough, I feel bad for advertising as an industry. I mourn for what we as an industry could have been - the work we could have created for clients. We should be ashamed, and clients should be pissed. The work could have been so much better. I just realized that in handcuffing, shackling, chaining up and burying people of color, advertising has actually buried itself as to the quality of the work it delivers.

We need to stage a fair fight, and let the chips fall where they may. Then we will realize diversity and inclusion in advertising. But I wonder if advertising has the stomach for a fair fight.