After reading Eden Osucha's piece, The Whiteness of Privacy: Race, Media and Law, I began to think about the racialization of commodification that still exists in our society today. While not in the same form as the depiction of Aunt Jemima, advertising of products within the media still seems to maintain a level of racialization but more so directed towards the consumer of the same race versus the exploitation of races for consumption by those of the opposite. Interestingly enough, Osucha highlights the exploitation of Aunt Jemima as a means to illuminate racial difference that would comfort and condition the consumer of the pancake mix, mainly whites, to buy the product. The product therefore, was non-threatening and represented Aunt Jemima as being on a subservient domestic sphere. While I do not believe nor will claim that advertising today is racist, however, similar to the product marketing of Aunt Jemima, advertising within the 21st century appears to be continually racialized by using obvious stereotypes to influence those within the race, that it depicts, to buy the product. By playing into the stereotype, it is assumed that those of the race will therefore be intrigued and buy or give into the product. Though I would not call this racism, I was intrigued by the concept of racialized commodification presented by Osucha.
Can we consider modern advertising to be racialized at all? Are there still levels of racism within modern product advertising? And How has the role of the photograph/photography, changed or altered this concept in current day society?
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