I cannot believe that this ad was out in public, it seems outrageous to me that people can be this racist without knowing it. First of all this ad displays its hegemony with its words. It is a photo of an African Americans with the worlds re-civilize yourself below it. This ad directly points out the all black people are uncivil and not up to par with out “white”, natural class. The setting of the ad, on top of a car parking lot, is symbolizes the black man as being a sketchy person. We all know that parking lots are scary, so putting this uncivilized person in the parking lot means me is considered scary. This ad also shows the African American throwing out his unshaved head. The fact that he is throwing a head means he is also classed as brutal person who likes to kill by dismembering. Also, the other words in the ads state that black people apparently do not give a damn. Lastly, this ad just had to focus on the stereotype that all black people have afros.
So what this ad has put in my mind is that African Americans are uncivilized are sketchy people who are dangerous, have afros, and do not care for anything. Ads like this one teach us that white people are better than blacks and that we can be racist using these aspects. I cannot believe that these types of advertising ads end up out there, and that no one that reviews it has a problem with it. This is partially why there is still type of segregation in the world, because the media instills certain specifics of racism within us even if we do not want to admit it. Ads like this form unconscious preferences within each of us. We are taught to fear blacks. This concept has to deal with nature vs. nurture. In this nurture case, I am unfortunately taught through ads to fear blacks.
It is interesting to see that when people look at African Americans with their cultural nappy hair they consider them uncivilized ;however, if they have hair similar to white people they are considered civilized.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that really caught my eye in this image is the text at the top saying "Look like you give a damn". Automatically, it places the displayed African American man in a state where if he had an untamed afro, he did not care about how he looked. So this ad is just simply outright racist. I do not agree with the argument that the image is trying to convey here.
ReplyDeleteI want to be honest: I do agree with what you're saying, Thom. However, part of me thinks this way:
ReplyDeleteThis is an add for shaving cream. They are trying to sell their shaving cream to people who need it - people with a lot of hair (black or white, doesn't matter). If you look at it from another perspective, I think it makes sense that they used a black man for their model. African Americans tend to have more hair, hence the need for shaving equipment. Also, there have been arguments from the black community that ads use white people too often, so maybe they are trying to incorporate the African American community into their ads.
While I agree "re-civilize" is not the word I would choose, if you think about what people say when a man comes back from camping or hasn't shaved in a while - I think people say they look like a caveman (or an uncivilized person).
Maybe they put him on top of a parking structure because he wants to throw the old him (with all his hair) way away - like off the side of a building?
Lastly, I think the clothes he is dressed in make him look very professional, like a guy you'd see in a coffee shop - helping him to look more civilized. This is an anti-racist thing to do, in my opinion.
I guess what I'm saying is that I agree with you, but if you look at it from other perspectives I don't think it's as terrible as you might initially think.