Is Lowe's Stupid or in a Bad Position

Recently Lowe's pulled their advertisements from episodes of the TLC show All American Muslim. Protest from conservative groups, mostly from Florida, caused this decision.

All American Muslim is one of the seemingly never ending list of reality shows that are featured on The Learning Channel. Certainly they seem to have gotten away from thier main mission with current shows also including Virgins, and Sister Wives. Truly we probably do not need to learn about these people.

All American Muslim centers on some Muslin families in Dearborn, Michigan. Interestingly the protests over the show center not on what is shown, but that what is shown attempts to make people think that Muslims, for the most part, are just like us and should not be discriminated against or perceived as a threat.

The argument is ridiculous. My wife and I had a rather heated quasi-argument about racial profiling two weeks ago. Her position was that she felt it was ok for Grandma's and babies from Iowa to be taken out of line for a full search while a few turbaned Muslims skated right through because profiling was wrong. I was of a mind if 99 percent of all plane related terrorism relates to a certain group, in this case Muslims I supported profiling. Anyone who gets on a plane in America profiles. Your concern always increases when you see an obvious Muslim. I believe that people who tell you they do not are fibbing, either to you, themsleves or both.

That said the position that this show does a disservice is wrong. There is a higher percentage of the perceived American nationalities that have negative feelings about America and our government than do Arab Americans. Most of these folks are here for a reason, they choose to be, they believe the freedom in America is worthwhile. Most would not return to the Middle East if they could. To say a show that does not have for a sixth family a jihadi family so as to show the whole scope of Muslim opinion is foolish.

Lowe's giving into this pressure was very odd to me. However when one looks at Lowe's and their average customer demographic it is easy to see why. The percentage of people who might be offended by their decision, those that lean left and with a higher level of education is not the target Lowe's customer. Actually they really had no choice on this issue if they were going to protect their shareholders. Certainly they could have placed an add talking about the issue, stating their postion and going Stars and Stripes for everyone, including Muslims but that at best would have been a break even position. The amount of airplay this story has received, even in the left press, shows that Lowe's made the decision that was best for thier company financially.