The White Man's Burden(ing): Race and Stereotypes in Advertising

America's been around for a heck of a long time. I hate to fall back on an overused cliche, but we're like a giant melting pot. For a time we were awesome. If you wanna get big in life, come to America! That's why everyone and their grandma (quite literally sometimes) would pack up what they could, hop on a boat, and set sail for the glorious U S of A. Asians poured into California, Europeans docked in New York, and we already had African Americans here due to our unsavory past as slavers. Name an ethnicity and we've got it. Unfortunately, this diversity is also why racial stereotypes are our bread and butter. Despite Native Americans being here first, the white man kind of took over and became the real big man on campus. We thought we were superior from day one and, while times did change and we became more accepting of others, a shred of that past mindset is still there. It's hard to change several hundred years worth of narcissism after all.

With all this in mind, it's no wonder we think racial stereotypes are an okay thing to use. It's just now we say it's all in good fun. There's this invisible line we just can't place that defines what is and isn't offensive, something that goes hand in hand with the idea that there are positive and negative stereotypes. For example, a positive stereotype would be that Asians are good at math. A negative one would be that Jewish people are greedy and love money. So as long as an advertiser doesn't crossover into offensive territory, then sure it's okay. If you're trying to get across the authenticity of your product for example, I would say it even makes sense. Selling pasta sauce? Get the friendly Italian mother making it from scratch on the stove in there. Selling wine? Set the stage on a romantic date night with the Eiffel Tower in the background. As long as the stereotype is more of a nod, a wink, or a friendly nudge in the ribs rather than laughing loudly in the face of our foreign friends pointing out that thing they all do, then I think it's totally fine for stereotypes to be used. That said, racial stereotypes in ads is hardly a thing of the past. Once again, it's just too ingrained in our culture not to show up.