Racial Stereotyping

RACIAL STEREOTYPING

      Stereotypes exist for every culture. To name a few, Asian people are smart or cheap, black people are criminals, white people are superior. Even in Mexican cultures we have our own set of stereotypes for people from different cities. Watch out for people from the Mexico City, they will steal you wallet. And what about people from Michoacan? All they ever do is deal drugs. And lets not forget about the shorties from Oaxaca who aren't as civilized. These stereotypes can apply to certain people but they in no way describe an entire race.

      Racial Stereotyping is very much alive in advertising. Usually the protagonists of ads and commercials are white males or females and if there are other characters, they are part of a joke. Back in the 1800's when the Chinese started immigrating into America, advertisements began showing up, in attempt to get rid of them. These advertisements often compared rats to the Chinese, implying that both were pests that were invading and needed to be gotten rid off. This was also during same time, Asians, were assigned the color yellow because yellow was a dirty color associated with disease. 

     In the commercial above, a Chinese woman is depicted as an airhead Asian while the white male is the smarter of the two. In the commercial below, an Asian couple try to be sneaky by speaking their language in front of a white car salesman. They are portrayed as the typical Asian, trying to get a cheap price on an expensive item. However, the white man outsmarts them and replies to their English in their language. 

 

http://web.wm.edu/americanstudies/370/2005F/sp6/early_print_chinese_images.htm