Abstract
In this article, I examine how white supremacy is reproduced and circulated through advertising. I explore the shift from the racial and ethnic specificities of “multiculturalism” to the more open-ended concept of “diversity,” which indexes difference in unspecific and nonthreatening ways. How diversity is represented in general-market advertising and how it differs from multicultural advertising offers a window into white supremacy and the role of advertising in furthering its agenda. Advertising has long acted as a vehicle for white supremacy, and by analyzing diversity, there is something to be learned about the current work done by this medium. [race/ethnicity, advertising, media, diversity, white supremacy].
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 112-119 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | American Anthropologist |
| Volume | 122 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 1 2020 |
Funding
Funding for research featured in this article was provided by the National Science Foundation Cultural Anthropology Program (BCS-1323769) and Northwestern University. I am very grateful to Aisha Beliso-De Jesús and Jemima Pierre for inviting me to participate in this special section, to Deborah Thomas for her editorial guidance, and to the anonymous peer reviewers for their time, effort, and thoughtful comments. I also thank Jonathan Rosa for collaborating on an earlier version of a portion of this paper, and Jillian Cavanaugh, Graham Jones, and David Valentine for their feedback. All errors are my own.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Anthropology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)