Reader question:

Please explain “poster boy”, as in “Donald Trump, the poster boy for white privilege.”

My comments:

Okay, this is not a question about white privilege in America, which would’ve been a much larger question, a big one. A huge one, as a matter of fact.

Or yuge, as Donald Trump prefers to say.

Instead, it’s merely a question about Trump, President of the United States being called a “poster boy”.

I can understand the confusion easily to some extent. After all, Trump is a septuagenarian, someone who’s more than 70 years old. In other words, he’s not a boy any more. Not by any measure. Not even by fake news.

However, nevertheless and notwithstanding, be as it may, it’s perfectly apt for someone to talk about Trump in that manner. You see, the way Trump behaves, one sometimes gets the impression that the US President sounds just like a boy, an immature boy of ten or twelve.

Anyways, let’s turn our attention to the phrase “poster boy”. Literally, it’s a boy they put on posters as an advertisement some cause or campaign. The earliest examples of the poster boy or girl are children who have a hard-to-cure disease. They are pictured in posters to solicit donations for combating the disease, thus helping other boys and girls who share a similar plight.

Metaphorically speaking, a poster boy or girl can be anyone whose public image is identified with something. For example, Michael Jordan is, or rather was a poster boy for pro basketball. Martin Luther King is or rather remains a poster boy for equality, freedom and civil rights in general.

When we see the picture of Jordan, we think of pro basketball. When we see an image of Martin Luther King, we’re reminded of all the things he fought and stood for.

And, when some people see a picture of Trump, they see white privilege.

Well, many people see a lot of other things in Trump, things that sound worse, racism, misogyny, etc., but you get my point.

“Poster boy”, in short, is someone who’s a typical example or representative, an epitome of some particular characteristic, activity or cause.

Here are media examples of poster boy, or girl or child:

1. As a young boy, I used to watch Muhammad Ali's boxing matches on TV with my dad. I remember watching the “Thriller in Manila” and “The Fight of the Century” in Madison Square Garden, just a few miles from where I grew up.

I remember how excited my father, Joe, a New York City Police Officer, used to get by Ali’s poise and power. Seeing my dad be so riveted made an impression on me. At the time I thought I was just watching a guy who knew how to fight. I did not realize I was not just watching a boxing legend -- but also a marketing genius in the making.

Having proved himself to be the best boxer in the world at the 1960 Olympics, Muhammad Ali knew that he now had a platform where he could affect issues outside the ring. After winning the Heavyweight boxing title in 1965, Ali’s career took off like a rocket. He immediately seized the opportunity to use his newfound celebrity to inspire people and create change in the world. During the course of his career Ali’s beliefs and ideals touched the lives of us all whether we realized it or not.

In business, the lessons and examples set by Muhammad Ali are endless. It is said that Mr. Ali, is one of the most recognized personalities in the world. This is because he built a brand. The brand was Muhammad Ali. People knew who he was and what he stood for, and whether you agreed with his stances or not, you clearly understood his mission.

In business, the goal of marketing and brand building should be just that -- effectively communicating the company’s mission and what it represents. The way I see it, the ingredients Ali used to build his brand were the following: practice, belief, goals and tenacity.

...

Ali was the poster child for tenacity. He said, “Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.” Ali was defeated several times and came back over and over again. It’s not how many times you’re knocked down -- it's how many times you stand up again, right?

In business, there are always setbacks. If you can overcome an obstacle, you will ultimately be stronger for the next fight. Each setback that you overcome is adding to your 10,000 hours. When the next challenge comes your way you will have more knowledge, strength and confidence to fight the good fight.

Ali had a mission, a purpose and a dream. He was a man who took the fight for the American Dream to new levels. A man who came from humble beginnings and perfected a memorable and legendary brand. Take lessons from the Champ, and implement some of his mantras into your business.

- Muhammad Ali Was a Marketing Genius Who Also Happened to Be a Boxer, by Tom Scarda, Entrepreneur.com, June 7, 2016.

2. Perhaps you remember Barack Obama’s so-called “patriotism problem.”

It was that some people said he didn’t have any. The claim was based on the flimsiest of evidence: his failure to wear an American flag pin on his lapel and a picture, widely circulated online, that purported to show him with hands clasped instead of over his heart, refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Of course, most men don’t wear flag pins. And the picture was taken during the singing of the national anthem, not the recitation of the pledge.

But the feebleness of the evidence did not stop a whisper campaign about this supposed defect in Obama’s character. Then-Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., demanded to know where the candidate and his wife “stand on America.”

Bill O’Reilly said Obama needed to “answer some questions” about how he sees this country. CNN ran an online poll asking whether Obama showed “the proper patriotism.”

The question would dog Obama well into his presidency. Every time you turned around, it seemed, someone was asserting his otherness and he was being asked to prove himself again.

Donald Trump has faced no sustained questions about his patriotism, though the evidence for his lack thereof is far more substantial than an empty lapel and a photograph. Indeed, in just the last few days, we’ve learned that he failed for almost two weeks to contact the families of four American soldiers killed in Niger. He did, however, manage to squeeze multiple Twitter feuds and lots of golf in that time.

Called on this, Trump offered the lazy, sniveling excuse that previous presidents had also failed to console grieving families. The problem is, previous presidents had done no such thing, as their furious staff members made abundantly clear.

Trump only made matters worse when he finally got around to this most somber of presidential duties. Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson, who was listening on speakerphone, reports that he told Myeshia Johnson, pregnant widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, that her husband “knew what he signed up for, but when it happens, it hurts anyway.”

Wilson says Trump kept referring to La David as “your guy,” as if he couldn’t remember his name. It made Myeshia weep and Wilson furious.

Trump has denied this. So we must decide whether to believe Wilson, whose account is supported by La David’s aunt, who raised him, or a man who insisted his sparsely-attended inauguration was the biggest in history.

It is not a tough call.

Over time, one becomes inured to the double standards imposed by race, but this one is galling because it is especially obvious. And yet, even in its obviousness, it is largely unremarked upon.

The black guy fails to wear a lapel pin and endures months of questions about whether he belongs. The white guy canoodles with Russia, insults the intelligence community, undermines the judiciary and makes a Gold Star widow cry, dismissing her husband’s sacrifice as, apparently, just one of those things.

And though he is reviled for it, no poll asks whether he shows “the proper patriotism” and there is no accusation of otherness. Even at a level of awfulness bordering on sedition, his American-ness, his “one of us-ness,” is a taken-for-granted thing. Meantime, football players are asked to reassure us they love America.

Donald Trump is thus the poster boy for white privilege, including the privilege of being terrible. And yes, some will look at this and see no unfairness, nor cause for anger or despair. That’s no surprise.

Blindness is a privilege too.

- Commentary: Donald Trump, the poster boy for white privilege, ChicagoTribune.com, October 22, 2017.

3. Olympic swimmer Cate Campbell who admits she ‘choked’ during the 2016 Rio Olympics has written a powerful letter to the 'keyboard warriors' that trolled her after the event.

The 26-year-old was tipped to win the 100metres freestyle final in Rio 2016, but instead she came in sixth place.

She also lost out on placing in the 50metres event a few days later by finishing fifth, and many online trolls hit out at the young swimmer, saying: ‘I lost money on you!’

In her letter, she calls out her ‘faceless’ critics saying that they couldn’t possibly have been more disappointed in her than she was in herself.

‘You could not have been more ashamed of me than I was of myself,’ she wrote.

‘You could not possibly have judged me harsher than I was (and to an extent still am) judging myself.’

Campbell has now heralded herself as ‘Australia’s poster girl for failing’.

‘I became the real personified version of Buzz Lightyear’s quote from Toy Story when he says ‘that wasn’t flying, that was falling with style’,’ she wrote.

‘And if I have learned anything throughout this whole experience, it’s that the flying might not be as important as the falling.’

She said that her own fear of failure was what destroyed her possibility for success, and stressed the importance of changing the way the world views failing.

It takes a whole lot of work to get to a place where failure is possible, Campbell wrote, and she said it is the same place where success is possible.

She explained that she had a long time to process what went wrong, and that there are ‘many, many’ reasons why – none of which she feels the need to justify, although she did at the time.

‘For future reference, when you see someone choking, it’s not because they don’t care – it’s because they care too much,’ she wrote.

‘And I cared.’

- ‘I’m Australia’s poster girl for failure’: The powerful letter written by Olympic swimmer Cate Campbell to vile online trolls after admitting she ‘choked’ at the Rio Olympics, DailyMail.co.uk, August 31, 2018.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：張欣 編輯：丹妮）