The chocolate giant Cadbury’s - owned by Kraft - today refused to acknowledge that their present ad campaign that promotes a chocolate bar as a diva, with the strap line ‘Move over Naomi there is a new diva in town’, is offensive to Black women. The Naomi in question is the super model Naomi Campbell.
Cadbury’s executives fail to see that it is both insulting to Naomi Campbell and Black women to be likened to a chocolate bar.
Simon Woolley of Operation Black Vote stated; ‘Racism in the playground starts with white children calling Black children ‘chocolate bar’. At best this is insensitive and at worst Cadbury’s utter disregard for a community's feelings. Their white euro-centric joke is not funny to Black people’.
Valerie Campbell, Naomi’s mother stated; ‘I’m deeply upset by this racist advert. As a child my daughter would be called chocolate bar, it was offensive then as it is now’.
Lee jasper of BARAC stated; ‘Does the chocolate giant Cadbury believe that the First Lady Michelle Obama would like to see Black women being described as chocolate? No, thought not. The same goes for the vast majority of Black men and woman in this country and the USA’.
OBV have called for a full apology and an immediate withdrawal of the advertising campaign.
Ends.
Note to Editors:
1) Operation Black Vote is a non-party political campaign.
2) The term ‘Black’ is a political term. It refers to African, Asian, Caribbean and other ethnic minorities.
3) OBV news item on Cadbury advert: http://www.obv.org.uk/news-blogs/cadbury-s-insult-black-women
Arrest of Bernard Munyagishari
Press Statement
Deputy Spokesman
The United States commends the May 25 arrest of Bernard Munyagishari in Kitchanga, North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Munyagishari is alleged to have recruited, trained, and led Interahamwe militia groups in the mass killings of civilians and rapes of Tutsi women in northwest Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. While the arrest of Munyagishari cannot replace the lives that were tragically claimed during the 1994 genocide, we hope his trial will provide a measure of justice and accountability for those who survived.
With this arrest, there are still nine fugitives facing arrest warrants from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) who are accused of bearing the greatest responsibility for the Rwandan genocide. The cooperation of the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with ICTR sends a strong signal that there is no refuge for the perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity. We encourage the Congolese authorities to proceed expeditiously and fairly with the processing of this case and the transfer of the accused to the ICTR.
