Courtesy of www.nydailynews.com

Remember the Acura Super Bowl Ad with Jerry Seinfeld doing ridiculous things to be the first person to own some car that he probably doesn’t actually care about in real life?

Well, some controversy has been brewing around it, but it has nothing to do with Seinfeld, the car, or even the actual commercial itself.

The real issue actually stems from the casting description for the African American car dealer featured in the commercial:

“Nice looking, friendly. Not too dark. Will work with a MAJOR COMEDIAN.”

See where the controversy comes in? If you’re color blind, you may have missed it. Basically, the casting crew wanted the car dealer in the commercial to be black, but not too black. But why?

According to a spokesperson for the casting team, the skin tone was specified because “lighting and special effects would get tricky” with darker skin.

But some feel that the context of the statement suggests otherwise. Based on how they read it, the specifications appear to insinuate that people with very dark skin may be perceived as not-so-friendly.

Acura has issued an apology for the language of the casting sheet, stressing that they selected the actor for the car salesman part based solely on talent. But some are still speculating about what the casting crew really meant by the description.

Is it possible that there is a malicious insinuation in the casting specifications? Or is it really just an innocuous case of careless phrasing? And if the specification for skin tone truly was made to ensure that lighting and special effects would be well-implemented, does the company even need to apologize for the casting sheet?

Few issues can every really be viewed in just black or white, and it seems that this is yet another example of a controversy that falls in a grey area–but not too grey.