If American media moguls and advertising executives have anything to say about it, all perfect families for marketing purposes are white, slim, and perfectly fit. They are often wrapped in glamorous clothes in front of palatial estates. Their cars are always spiffy Porsches or of that ilk. And their children are always pristine and smiling, as if they had freshly arrived from Heaven.
Is God white? Is the Internet a Caucasian stronghold? Are all happy and successful people practically perfect in every way? Do you feel connected with these images?
I’ve been online for 13 years and have taken notes on trends and marketing techniques. There is one constant: Blacks, browns and Orientals have scant representation in the elite crowd of online marketers or marketing imagery, which is not so different than in all vocations and social strata.
This seldom-discussed glass ceiling must be blasted out of the water. The white American dream is but one of many life choices. In itself, that dream is admirable and worthwhile.
Yet something is seriously flawed with this American paradigm. That something is an implicit, inbred racism which needs to be addressed…pronto!
There seems to be an unwritten rule floating through the cosmos that if you are not a WASP or a similar breed, you can only aspire to be a bit player online or offline. Sometimes a token black, Oriental or Third World refugee is allowed to shine and take center stage in the business world, but those cases are as rare and unproven as Elvis sightings.
The information age we live in presents each of us with a fertile chance to overcome our blind prejudices and start imagining that divinity comes in all stripes and colors.