Although far from perfect, I am really glad we were assigned Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben & Rastus, particularly since it will have been the only book in our class specifically addressing minority concerns. Kern-Foxworth's book was not only informative but motivational. I think she would agree with me that before you can create change, people have to understand why change is necessary. And people can't understand if they don't know; thank goodness for educational, insightful books like hers that make the process eloquent and efficient.

I gave an oral presentation on Chapters 6-8 and that is where I'll focus within this piece. Chapter 6 spent most of its time citing statistics from innumerable studies. While I must credit Kern-Foxworth for trying to be so thorough, after the eighth study or so I started getting bored. However, I enjoyed her introduction of the idea that ''ads are designed to 'sell' a self and world-concept'' maintaining ''the perpetuation of sexual, racial and economic inequality.'' Particularly after her quote from a 1992 survey of marketing and media executives where 54.8% admitted there are too few African-Americans in ads and 56.3% admitted that advertising has an influence on America's racial attitudes. All I can say is, finally! Finally these guys are fessing up to the power of advertising to shape people's minds. Now if we could get them to admit that under oath.

Chapter 7 follows the ''potential white backlash'' thread by chronicling efforts toward integrated advertising and surveys of people's reactions toward those ads. As I pointed out in class, equating college students' opinions to those of the whole country is just a tiny on the improbable side. However, as we've seen in the four years since this book was published, integrated advertising efforts, while still fragmented, are now operating on a much higher frequency.

This tells us that things are improving, which is great. Kern-Foxworth's problematic dictum that anything less than 100% racial and/or ethnic representation in advertising is a 'disservice' is at least being worked toward. However, the real disservice may be in holding advertising, tool of the capitalistic, patriarchal society in which we live, to a standard so high as to be impractical, improbable and almost foolish. Attempts are noble (and I do applaud them) but ultimately the struggle, which is really for equality on a universal level (not just advertising), would be better off in a more constructive forum: public policy. In the meantime...hey, isn't that Michael Jordan?