African-Americans In Advertising

Words: 524
Pages: 3

The first appearance of African-Americans in advertising came about during the 1870s. During the 1870s, there was a lot of tension amongst African-American and White people in society because of the recent end of slavery and the racist attitudes of many White people at the time. Most advertisements at this time focused on soap and its cleansing effects on whomever who used it. “With the rise of colonialism (imperialism) and the spread of European/White nationalism, European culture became obsessed with cleanliness. Given the centrality, if not inescapabilty, of African (Black) representation to the construction of White identity, particularly in the context of European/White nationalism, the cleanliness associated with Whiteness relied upon