According to Erasmus, (2008) race is a social construct. Erasmus continues to argue that race is not natural or not found in society. “Race is not given”. Race ideally was made by modern science. Race can be learned and unlearned over time. In the same way as Thornton would argue about culture not being real, but something that has been historically created, the same analysis can be made about race. In that case race challenges the stereotypes about it having any biological or cultural basis. Erasmus goes on to argue that race is not something you are born with but something that has been created socially. Therefore, I would agree with Erasmus about race being socially constructed. However, I acknowledge the fact that apartheid ideology still has an effect on racism in South Africa to this very day. It might not be apparent but it still exists. I would argue that it is wrong how the media and society reinforces racial ideas, after 20 years of freedom; it is time to let it go. In comparison to race is a social construct, in this essay I will analyse and compare two advertisements that were made in South Africa in post-apartheid in order to provide evidence for my argument. To begin with, firstly I will be summarising two advertisements, a Standard Bank advertisement, and on the other hand, a Nedbank advertisement. The Standard bank advertisements main character is a white male banking consultant. He is dressed in a white shirt and tie which makes him look professional. He’s body language shows him leaning forward, sort of pushy but still confident in what he is doing. From the wording in the visual advertisement I pick up that he is talking to a Standard bank client about their new product on the market, online banking. The clien... ... middle of paper ... ...sion. To move on to the Nedbank advertisement, I will start off with the target audience. I feel the audience for this advertisement is aimed at people who own businesses, people who want to start businesses or even people who want their businesses to grow and be successful. The layout of the advertisement like I have mentioned shows to men, one being the Nedbank consultant and the other the business owner. The fact that the black guy has a laptop and body language shows that he is trying to explain to the business owner, tell us that he is the more educated one out of the two. Now before post-apartheid, this racial idea would not have existed. The fact that a black guy being more educated than a white guy would not have been allowed before post-apartheid, one would rather see a white guy teaching a black guy. Lastly is the use of language in the advertisement.
While some commercials may seem like they are trying too hard and essentially forcing consumers to buy their product, most advertisements have the same approach, hegemony. Instead of straight out saying “buy my product or we will hunt you down”, instead, companies will take their audience into consideration and move forward by attracting that specific group. Wall Street, for example, targets undergraduates because they can be easily persuaded and manipulated as most of them are still assimilating into the transition from high school to college; So, everything is new and open to interpretation. By exposing students to the lavishness and extravagance of an investment banker’s lifestyle, investment bankers can hook students and leave them yearning for more, as “they quickly become used to the respect, status, and impressive nods from peers” (Ho 179). Like getting addicted to a drug, these students are dependent on inclusion of investment banking when exposed. Because this is so ubiquitous, it is hard to notice. It is like the breathing, it is only when a person directs their attention to it that they start noticing it. This can be related to hegemony, it plays a role in a person’s daily life, but it is only when something goes wrong that a person will start investigating what went wrong. This is seen in Reading Lolita in Tehran, where Nafisi and a group of her
The author of this book Bruce Barton was a partner in a successful advertising firm during the 1920’s. This was a time when the industry of advertising was under going some major changes. These changes had a lot to do with a number of factors the first of which being the post war prosperity this meant people had more money than they ever had before. Another one of these factors had to do with the high number of teens who were now attending high school, this proved to be important because it created a whole other market which hadn’t existed before. One more factor was the advances made in transportation and communication, these advances allowed goods, people, and information to travel long distances relatively quickly intern allowing companies to grow large enough to spread their services nationally. Still another important factor was the invention of financing, this allowed people to pay for durable objects (large objects that would last a couple of years) with affordable installments or payments. But the biggest changes were the actual advertising practices themselves, many of which were pioneered by Barton and his associates, and didn’t become norms in advertising until after the release of Bartons book “The Man Nobody Knows” in 1924. This book served not only as a manual on how to advertise more affectively but also as an example of good advertising itself.
The connection of race and race relations in the United States was an ongoing issue, and while much progress was made, there are still people who revert back to old and ignorant takes on different races as the white man. This clearly relates to my own history based on the fact that various races are still being discriminated and treated unfairly and looked at as unequal. I can only hope that one day the whole population of the world can do the right thing and look at everyone as equals.
Our daily lives are affected by race whether we are aware of it or not. How we live different aspects of our lives depend on the colour of our skin. From the types of jobs we have, the income we earn, where we live etc. In societies fundamentally structured by race, it is important that we do not abandon the notion of race, but instead pioneer a revolution in the way that races are understood. In this paper, I will examine how the dominant groups in society define race in terms of biology, which leads to the notion of white privilege, which is their advantaged position in society, at the expense of other racial groups.
Advertising is simply everywhere, it is something that we can not avoid. Although we might ignore it when we are walking down the street, there is always something wanting to catch our attention. We have advertisements through radio, television, magazines, newspapers, and even on billboards. It has gotten increasingly popular in today 's economy because of how companies uniquely promote their product. These advertisements are created to introduce the goods and services to an audience to try and inspire them into buying their product. Therefore; when companies promote an effective advertisement, customers usually engage in a way if it appeals to their wants and needs. "The Essence of Breitling" ad in Fortune magazine
Even though Black music such as blues did not end oppression, it helped rehabilitate the oppressed by creating a new identity through music such as blues. The Social construction of racial formation categorized racial groups to construct their social identity. A form of this basis is determined from skin color or skin pigment. Black music such as blues were used as a form of arts to escape the oppression that was placed upon them based on their skin color.
Although we often use race to classify, interact, and identify with various communities, there is a general consensus among scientists that racial differences do not exist. Indeed, biologists such as Joseph Graves state, "the measured amount of genetic variation in the human population is extremely small." Although we often ascribe genetics to the notion of race, there are no significant genetic differences between racial groups. Thus, there is no genetic basis for race. Our insistence and belief in the idea of race as biology, though, underlines the socially constructed nature of race. Racial groupings of people are based on perceived physical similarities (skin color, hair structure, physique, etc.), not genetic similarities. Nevertheless, we are inclined to equate physical similarities with genetics. Sociologists also use a temporality to argue that race is a social construct. The notion of race results from patterns from the signification of certain traits to different groups of people. However, these patterns (and societal notions of race) change over time. For example, the 20th century belief that "In vital capacity… the tendency of the Negro race has been downward" is certainly not commonplace among individuals today. Notions of race also differ across societies. Racial attitudes towards blacks, for example, are inherently different between the United States and Nigeria. These arguments all suggest that race is socially constructed. The lack of a universal notion of race means that it is not a natural, inherent, or scientific human trait. Rather, different societies use race to ordain their respective social
The concept of race is an ancient construction through which a single society models all of mankind around the ideal man. This idealism evolved from prejudice and ignorance of another culture and the inability to view another human as equal. The establishment of race and racism can be seen from as early as the Middle Ages through the present. The social construction of racism and the feeling of superiority to people of other ethnicities, have been distinguishably present in European societies as well as America throughout the last several centuries.
Society is defined as people who live in a specific geographic territory, interact with one another, and share many elements of common culture. Within a society there are many components that make up that society. There is crime, culture, social class, gender, marriage and the family, religion, education, medicine and health care, the political order, etc. However, race and ethnicity has a great and powerful influence in society, and has for many years. On the reverse side, society also influences the different races and ethnicities of people. Race is defined as “a group of people who have been singled out on the basis of real or alleged physical characteristics” (Curry, Jiobu, Schwirian 209). Ethnicity is defined as “common cultural characteristics
The clear dominant part of the advertisement is the three human subjects placed in the middle. The first subject described is in the left hand side, sitting on a desk. The model is wearing traditional gendered beautification: pear necklaces; short dress; and high heels, this will lead to me believe she is representing a woman. When analyzing the pose of the woman, you can see the way she is sitting. The dress shows most of her leg, portraying the normative view of women as sexualized subject. This model is “doing gender” as West and Zimmerman described in their article. The model is representing a gender and therefore dressed and posed as a woman is expected to be in society. As she is leaning to the right, I no...
Paul Haggis’ film Crash (2004), demonstrates how people can adopt a dominant and subordinate role concurrently, this is illustrated through the character Jean Cabot. When people look at Jean they see an affluent White female. As a result of the way a person looks their actions are scrutinized due to social construction. Jean is White, so people assume that she leads a charmed life. Although, Jean’s racial identity and class allows her to be a member of the dominant group, her gender she does not have as much power as White males; Jean builds her life around the racial identity that is assigned to her and participates in the social construction that plagues American communities.
Racism is often considered a thing of the past, with its manifestation rarely being acknowledged in the United States today. Race: The Power of an Illusion, is a documentary that addresses the legacy of racism through its significance in the past, and its presence in society today. To understand racism, it is vital to understand the concept of race. Race is a social invention, not a biological truth. This can be observed through the varying classifications of race in different cultures and time periods. For instance, in the United States, race has long been distinguished by skin color. In nineteenth century China, however, race was determined by the amount of body hair an individual had. Someone with a large amount of facial hair, for example,
On the site, "Race: The power of an illusion" it shows how sorting people by race can be hard to do so. Skin color, finger prints and even blood type can't be used to classify people in a specific race due to this large spectrum of difference in people.
Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s arguments from “Racial Formations” are about how race is socially constructed and is shown in Caucasia by Danzy Senna. Michael Omi and Howard Winant believe that race is socially constructed in society; therefore, the meaning of race varies within different cultures and societies. According to Omi and Winant, influences such as, media, school, politics, history, family and economy create society’s structure of race. In Caucasia, media, family and school are forces that create race by stating how one should conform to social norms for different racial groups.
The purpose of advertising is to sell a product, marketers accomplish this through targeting audiences and using various layouts with images, and writing. This writing contains many techniques used to persuade to reader into buying their product. Advertisements sell a products but they also sell ideas and lifestyles. Audiences are targeted using stereotypical aspects such as colours, and fonts. The advertisements layouts, text, images and colours draw the reader in. These are shown in many advertisements including Blackmore’s women’s vitamins advertisement and an advertisement for an apartment on South Terrace in Adelaide.