The Subtle Racist

I found this image on the Bank of America website. Notice how the corporation represents their initiative to become a "global financial leader" by placing 4 people of different ethnicities in the above image. You have the Asian woman in the back - deemed ultimately more acceptable by white society than their male counterparts. You have the white guy who is obviously making some sort of a point - as white business men almost always attempt to do. You have the "brown" man next to him. I say "brown" because he could be either Indian or Hispanic. That's the beauty of it - you can't tell. He's a 2-for-1 deal. Lastly, you have - again, the female - African American shoved into the corner of the picture, with only her profile showing - the only angle of African Americans from which white society seems to view them. In addition to all of this, the two women in the image suffer from increased blurring, or a lack of focus, suggesting their dimished importance. This effect is also seen in the brown gentlemen, albeit to a lesser degree, a likely correlate to his gender. Notice that the two men are also placed in the center while the two women are displaced to the sides, with the African American woman displaying only half of her face. Also, there are two ethnic women in the image while there is only one ethnic man who is suppose to be representative of both the Western and Eastern minorities (Hispanics and Indians). They each get 0.5 representation. The East Asian male - a sizable chunk of the world's population - is completely absent.

Interesting fact - When Chinese men moved into the West during and after their slavery to build the railroads, many Chinese men married white women due to the lack of Chinese women in the new land. As a result, huge smear campaigns were made against Chinese men, immasculating them and depicting them as sex-less creatures of labor. Anti-miscegenation laws were passed preventing individuals of different ethnicities from marrying. (The word "miscegenation" has an innately negative connotation, but I won't get into that right now.)

Can someone say intimidation?

Anyways, back to the picture. Lastly, we come to the white man, the patriarch, the scribe of history as the world knows it. He sits adjacent to the Brown man and the Asian woman - notice how he is distanced from the African American female. Not only does he seem to be the only person in the image taking an active role, he is also seen as the leader of the group. The rest of the characters are passive and simply there for the sake of existence. They all smile in agreement with what he is proposing. His hands reach forward, palms faced out, as if he were putting forth some insightful and intelligent comment. The other three look reserved and without opinion.

I imagine this is only one of billions of poisonous images slipped into the cocktail of modern media. These advertisements permeate contemporary culture and are ingested without doubt by millions of people of all ages. What is most lamentable about this is that the youth as a demographic are probably the most susceptible to this type of subliminal discrimination, for they have not the thick filter of knowledge acquired with time.

Needless to say, Bank of America will not be getting their pink palms on my money any time soon.