Entry #2: Racial Advertising against Blacks in 1930s

"22 Shockingly Racist Ads." Neat Designs. N.p., 2013. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. <http://neatdesigns.net/22-shockingly-racist-ads/>.

MDSB62 Media Portfolio Entry #2—Image from 20th Century no later than 1980s & Commercial advertising
By: Annie Duong

Racial Advertising against Blacks in 1930s

          Advertisements from the 1930s are seen today as extremely appalling and unspeakable due to anti-racism. As years passed by, discrimination against race has changed drastically. We no longer see racism depicted in advertisements, although stereotypes of certain characteristic traits still exist in the media. In the 1930s, there were advertisements for “blackface make-ups”. These were to be used for theatrical purposes. Blackface make-up are usually made from burnt cork or black grease paint that are applied to the face and body and their lips would be thickened with red or white paint (Padgett). The “Nigger Make-Up” is deemed racist for many reasons, such as the choice of language that was used and the man’s physical characteristics.

          In the advertisement, words such as “nigger”, “burnt”, and “blacking” are racist slurs because it separates white people from black people. The language that were used also conveys a sense of white supremacy in a way that white people are able to “change” their appearance or skin colour to look like a black person as a form of mockery. Whereas, if a black person were to change their appearance or skin colour to look like a white person, it is unacceptable and is punishable, especially in the era of 1930s. For example, “[w]hen black women actresses like Lena Horne appeared in mainstream cinema most white viewers were not aware that they were looking at black females unless the film was specifically coded as being about blacks” (Hooks, 119). Hooks explains that in order for Lena Horne to be accepted as a black woman playing a white character is if the audience does not know that. Since racial segregation still took place in the 1930s, it is unlikely that cinemas will tolerate black characters pretending to be white or even black characters in general.

          Another point that makes the advertisement racist is the fact that the physical characteristic traits are exaggerated. The “Nigger Make-Up” comes in the form of a mask instead of using burnt cork or black grease paint in order to prevent the skin from “blacking”. In the ad, it suggests that the mask can be “slipped on or off in a minute” and it also comes with a top hat, which draws on the element of stereotyping the way black people dress. The man in the ad is wearing a mask that exaggerates the dark skin tone and the whiteness of the teeth and eyes, depicting the character as abhorrent and unattractive. Stuart Hall argues that “[s]tereotyping deploys a strategy of ‘splitting’. It divides the normal and the acceptable from the abnormal and the unacceptable. It then expels everything which does not fit, which is different” (247). The blackface mask in this advertisement establishes the strategy of splitting by creating a distinction between what it looks like to be black compared to being white. The mask acts as a division between the normal and the abnormal. 

Works Cited

Hall, Stuart, Jessica Evans, and Sean Nixon. Representation. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: SAGE
          Publications Ltd, 2013.

Hooks, Bell. Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992.

Padgett, Ken. "History of Blackface." Blackface. N.p., 01 Nov 2013. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.                      <http://www.black-face.com/>.

"22 Shockingly Racist Ads." Neat Designs. N.p., 2013. Web. 10 Feb. 
           2014. <http://neatdesigns.net/22shockingly-racist-ads/>.