After the Belve then it's probably...Dom?

Jay-Z has decided to boycott Cristal after hearing what the head of their parent beverage company had to say in a recent interview with the Economist.  Their champagne had been a fixture in rap songs and videos for at least a decade.  But it might not be anymore after Managing Director Frederic Rouzaud responded to a question about whether Cristal's association with hip-hop could harm the brand thusly: 

"That's a good question, but what can we do?" he said. "We can't forbid people from buying it. I'm sure Dom Perignon or Krug would be delighted to have their business."

Well, given the contents of the above linked article as well as others I've read, I'd say Jay-Z is probably wrong. 

While you recover from your shock, I said that Jay-Z is PROBABLY wrong.  I don't think the liquor exec's comments were couched fairly in the original article.  For instance, it was the writer rather than Rouzaud who used the words "unwelcome attention" when he described Cristal's link to rap music. 

If anything, it sounds like the writer was either trying to stir controversy or is a closet racist himself. 

However, Rouzaud doesn't get off the hook that easily.  If you're the head of a gazillion-dollar company, and someone asks you about a major group of customers that have mightily contributed to your success, there really is only one thing to say:

"We appreciate the business."  That's it. 

"We appreciate the exposure Cristal has received through hip-hop, because it has allowed the brand to grow and expand to new consumers."

You see, Jay-Z is a businessman.  And he's a damn good one.  He knows the rules of the game.  One of those rules is that you never express anything other than appreciation for the people who buy your product.  When Dave Matthews was asked about the fact that fratboys constituted a lot of his fans, he basically said ":I love the fratboys, because they've supported us and made us famous."  Jay-Z would never be caught dead saying anything bad about any segment of hip-hop's fans. 

Rouzaud is also a successful businessman -- and as such, he must know this.   So why would he so openly commit a cardinal sin of business? 

Was it just a minor slip-up?  Did he just get caught off-guard by a slick reporter?  Or was there something more sinister attempting to crawl to the surface?

This is the problem with today's racism in the modern world: most people aren't stupid enough to come out and be obvious about their racism or biases.  If the civil rights movement accomplished anything, it made it very politically incorrect to be openly racist.  Prejudiced attitudes have been outlawed in the workplace and are now taboo in most social circles. 

As a result, there is a lot of grey area.  Most people who say something racist do it in a subtle, sneaky way that makes it easy for them to plead innocence or (at worst) ignorance.  They often do not expose themselves to racism charges unless there is some situational ambiguity to hide behind ("He was resisting arrest!"  "She was incompetent!"  He had a heavy coat on!"  That sort of thing).  Most of the time, it's difficult to tell whether someone is being racist, ignorant...or just a stupid, rude dickhead. 

In fact, this is what makes open racism (such as Spanish football fans throwing bananas at black players in Europe) so much more shocking and newsworthy.  We're not used to seeing such behavior in supposedly-civilized societies anymore.    

Or when someone is simply misinterpreted in an article that has since generated more attention with crafty context than the author or magazine could have hoped for.

I understand where Jay-Z was coming from.  I get into fights with my non-black friends pretty frequently about stuff like this.  It's hard to explain the feeling or the perspective to people who aren't black or from another disadvantaged minority group.  Others just don't understand most of the time.  But I definitely do.  

So was Jay right or wrong?  It's hard to say.  I think that he is probably mistaken, and that Rouzaud and Jay should both be very unhappy with the Economist for running a quote like that surrounded by potentially-inflammatory editorializing by the writer.

Unless the reporter was providing an accurate representation of Rouzaud's statements...in which case, Jay-Z's boycott is indeed Cristal clear. 

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