A few days ago I had a person ask me a question about a joke he was going to give. He wasn't sure if it might cause some problems for sensitivity, so he asked me and I gave an opinion. I said it was funny and I knew him and knew the intent he had, but maybe others might not.

According to what I just learned, I now qualify as an External Ethnic Diversity Advisory Board. Yes, I am going to use that as a title now.

OK, what is this all about? I was researching for a possible article about Superbowl ads and the controversy some of them have had, like the Groupon ads. I got into an article about the Pepsi ZeroMax commercial with the black couple and was surprised to hear something stated by the reporter from MSNBC. He read a statement from Pepsi and they said, “ We vetted this ad with our External Ethnic Diversity Advisory Board as well as with nationally recognized community leaders and activists . . .” OK, does it strike anyone as odd that there needs to be an External Ethnic Diversity Advisory Board? It's like the statement they say about having nationally recognized community leaders and activists weigh in on the ad. I always get suspect when companies like this, when caught in scandals, always say they vetted something with community activists or leaders. Who in the world are these leaders? Who nominated them and why haven't I gotten a ballot?

It's the whole groupthink that higher ups always use to justify their wrong headed decisions. Dr. Laura thinks she can say the N-word because she hears black comics use the N-word. Why should they have all the fun? The reason why you can't use the N-word Dr. Laura is just because you hear someone say something offensive, and you know it's offensive, doesn't mean its OK. Now the person who asked me the question about the joke doesn't fit into the category, but I have had people in the past use me to justify their stereotypes or prejudices for all black people. I have said time and time again with folks like this that I don't even come close to representing all black people. Don't put that pressure on me. However, when I was growing up it was the time of representation. Whatever I did was considered to be reflective of every black American (we were black back then, not African American). I had to get As because if not it was a disgrace to the black race. I had to aspire for greatness because I had to represent the black race.

So think of that upbringing then looking around today and seeing African Americans gravitate towards athletes, celebrities and music stars with too much money, too much bling, too many babies and too little sense. That is the projection seen and those are the ones who become what the majority would call community activists and leaders. Now, I don't want to stereotype and make it seem everyone is like that, but the point remains when you turn on the tube, you are far less likely to see doctor than a rapper if they are black.

That brings us to the fun sounding External Ethnic Diversity Advisory Board. Who in the world would be on such a board? Why would a company have such a board? I mean, is this set up like the Justice League, is it like the X-Men or is it the Avengers? Seriously, they take ads they think might be offensive and show them to this 'board' to get an ethnic OK? They seem to treat this like a political campaign ad, with this stamp of approval that seems to say you can't call the ad racist or insensitive because we had some of 'your people' look at the ad and they said it was OK so you should like it too. Like in the case with Dr. Laura, just because you see people say the N-word doesn't mean its right for you to say the N-word.

I wonder how many more companies have an External Ethnic Diversity Advisory Board. What about women? This board seems to be based on ethnicity, but what if the ad is offensive to women? The main criticism of the ad seems less about black and more on black women. Black men, we can only surmise, might think the ad is OK but black women might not. If you really want to get into the woods about this, going to black sites the commentary I saw about the ad, and this would be comments by readers, got into such issues as the black woman being a dark skinned woman as opposed to a light skinned woman, which perpetuates the dark black woman as being pushy to the black man. There was issue with the dark black woman being 'heavier' than the white woman the man looked at, thus perpetuating the black man lusting after the white woman riff. So Pepsi had their External Ethnic Diversity Advisory Board give an OK to the ad yet people not on the advisory board were able to pick out not so subtle issues with the ad. Or, did the board see these issues and management decided to discard the recommendations?

That is why companies get in trouble by having ad hoc committees like the External Ethnic Diversity Advisory Board because while they can present them as clearing houses for controversial decisions, ultimately they are nothing more than rubber stamps for outmoded and pigheaded decisions made by internal corporate heads.