Friday, September 17, 2010

salaam ladies. look at your man. now back to me. now back at your man. now back to me.

I'm not trying to start rumors about his religion (or birthplace or political affiliations) but I think it is cool that the "Old Spice Guy" is named Isaiah Mustafa. Some superficial facts about him (his first name, his appearing half-naked on tv, serving and drinking liquor on the red carpet) suggest he's probably not Muslim but I'm still curious about what the story is. I'm guessing that his father or grandfather was in the Nation of Islam.

On other fronts, some writers have found interesting things to say about the "Old Spice Guy" from a racial lens:

The Root: Why the Old Spice Guy Is Good for Black America
The Daily Beast: The Post-Racial Commercial Genius

Farai Chideya especially (in the Daily Beast) does a good job of tracing how American thinking about Black male sexuality has changed from Emmett Till to Billy Dee Williams to Terry Crews (who was the "Old Spice Guy" before Mustafa) to Isaiah Mustafa.






Imdb: Isaiah Mustafa
Wikipedia: Isaiah Mustafa

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