Derrick Barnes just wanted to go home again.
Home for him was Hallmark, where in August 1999 he had become the first full-time African-American male writer on the company's payroll. (The company already employed a black editor and black freelance writers.)
Hallmark hired Barnes soon after he graduated from Jackson State University in Mississippi. And after only 6 months on the job, he earned a rare honor: A photo of Barnes was printed on the back of one of his cards. The design also featured Barnes' name on the inside, an accolade usually reserved for prominent poets.
Set against a blurry painting of a dreadlocked black man garbed in white, the words are proud, the tone stately: Don't ever let anyone tell you we're not beautiful ... with a set of lips as full as the moon ... full nose ... so many skin tones of brown, from high yellow to deep purple-black.... When we see other people of color we smile ... because we see ourselves.
But Barnes didn't see much of himself around the office.
When he arrived at Hallmark, Barnes had expected to find a staff of African-American designers and writers working on the Mahogany imprint, a line of cards tailored for black consumers. Instead, he found a white art director, a white editorial director and white writers.
"That was a huge shock to me," Barnes tells the Pitch. "When you make a line of cards specifically targeted to a certain demographic, there is a distinct voice that can only come from people who have themselves lived through the experience. That is not to say that my white coworkers weren't writing beautiful Mahogany pieces, but what I didn't see was an influx of African-American writers getting a chance to express their own experiences or to be writers, period. We would be in editorial meetings consisting of every writer, editor and editorial director in the company, about 100 strong, and each and every time, I was the only African-American man in the room." [...]
| Continue Andrew Miller's "Black Listed: A former Hallmark writer gets the shaft" for the Pitch
posted in articles on August 18, 2004 4:30 PM | t (2)
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I'm laughing at myself because I just finished posting a rant about Black men and personal responsibility in the comment section of another article and here I come across this article about one of the truly outstanding brothers I know.
Derrick is a good husband and father and an amazing writer. And he is not the only Black person Hallmark shafted. (broad, sweeping genralizations just came back to bite me. Ouch.)
WOW - this almost makes me want to rip to shreds any mahogany card I have in my collection. What a sham - and a sign of ill informed we can be at times. I mean imagine the idea of an African American themed "verse" and image were created by African Americans.
I have no objection to a white staff, but the fact they have NO blacks on staff for this line kinda galls me.
Hallmark has blacks on the writing staff. At its height they had five and that has dwindled down to two. American Greetings has two, too. When you see a card that speaks to your experience, know somebody fought to get that card concept through and buy it. Also, write letters! The bigwigs at these companies always say Black cards don't sell, which is a buncha crap.
I suspected that Mahogany Cards were whitewashed! I make my own greeting cards and may start a cottage business. I am so tried of other people making money on our ethnicity. We deserve better. Thanks for the info.
That just goes to show you that you cannot always believe what you see. You learn something new everyday.
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