Essay on Race and Racism - Racial Implications of an...

Race and Racism - Racial Implications of an Advertisment The other day, as I was trying to find a picture for this assignment, I stumbled across the picture at the top of the personals section of a local paper. On the surface, it seemed racially balanced. It certainly wasnt structured to make an outward statement about race. However, just the way its laid out reflects subtle and probably unconscious judgements of the nature of race, and how it affects us. It has small, individual photos of six people, of varying race and age. The two people farthest to the left are a bit older, perhaps in their forties. I was not sure about one of the pictures: my first opinion was that it was a young Hispanic man, but she is really a partially†¦show more content†¦The ad doesnt show an obviously Hindu or Sikh man or woman either, although the indeterminate person could be a never-married Hindi woman. Now, people from India are a minority by far, and the old culture involved prearranged marriages, but there are cities in this country where a good 30-40% of the people are of Indian descent, such as Fremont, California. Many of their young people are making love marriages, based on the traditional American process of dating. This is a concern to some orthodox Hindu and Punjabi people, but others see it as necessary adaptation to modern society. However, the presence of marriage-symbols from other cultures in this ad would probably confuse readers, and would unconsciously be perceived as a threat to the dating-process that it is trying to sell. Those races that the ad does depict are semi- white. For instance, it shows an east-Asian young man; some scholars feel that the population regards Asians as a model minority. Another young man could be Latino, but Spanish is a European language, and the Spanish culture is quintessentially western. The oldest person in the ad is a white man. The youngest person in an African-American woman, but even she appears to be of a mixed race. In spite of these distortions of reality that the authors of the ad foist upon us, they clearly made some attempt at portraying diversity. Many organizations attempt to politically benefit themselves by making publicShow MoreRelatedThe Effect of Germanys Cultural Factors on Marketing Essay1814 Words   |  8 Pagesgovernment portrays that everyone is equal and this view is shared by most of the population. Though still there exists some racism in Germany, mostly in the old Eastern Germany. Today still there is a small portion of the white population who are still racist. After sitting and having a conversation with some Germans you may find that there is no serious hatred of other races but minor prejudice. Men and women are all treated equally though and there is no real sign that one is treated better than