Melting whut?!: Misrepresenting Minorities in Media

The other day I was going through some web advertisements and I found something quite disturbing to say the least. It was an hotel’s webspage which name I don’t recall, though the name is not important. What caught my eye about the ad was the special offer of the site; it was advertising the hotel as a place for the whole family to have fun. They had a picture of some happy kids running towards a paradisaical beach, you know, to appeal to the whole idea of family friendly. And man, this beach was the bomb! Perfect blue skies, whitish sand, perfect water, you name it! So no wonder the group of little kids were so happy and having that much fun. Thing is, all of them, and I mean ALL of them, were as white as the sand. What the hell I am saying, they were as white as snow!

Why this was disturbing, awkward, etc.? I mean, we should all be like Stephen Colbert and “don’t see race”, right? But that only happens when the “blind” happens to be white, like Colbert himself. Needless to say I thought the ad was kind of offensive. Why? Not that I got anything against whites or any other race but, what about diversity? I mean, isn’t America supposed to be about that? You know, different states, cultures, accents, origins, languages and colors in the mix and “in the pursuit of happiness”, right? That’s the idea of the United States (in theory, whether in reality it’s different is another thing but I am thinking here only in abstract terms versus the reality of the ad) and what made it and still makes it appealing to different people from all over the globe. Heck, Obama is supposed to be the perfect icon of this idea. So, where was the black kid in the ad? Taking the picture?! Where was the latino (or brown) kid? Where was the Asian looking one? Was this hotel only interested in attracting a specific audience (a white upper middle-class)? Or is this the image we are still buying in the 21st century about “normality”, “happiness”?....beauty? In other words, where is that “melting pot”? I mean, it’s a reality in every day America, like it or not. It used to be about diversity of white European cultures getting together to build this nation, but that idea has transcended to a better and more heterogeneous ideal (again, only talking in abstract terms here). However, TV and media keep insisting on a one-face America, which it’s blond and white. Granted, the majority of Americans is white; but go to the cities and walk around and tell me what you see.

I am afraid it is all about “the image we are still buying in the 21first century” of what is supposed to be beautiful and normal. There is a lack of presence of the so-called minorities, not only in the hotel ad, but in media in general. Take TV for example, there is usually one, two at the most, of any minority representation-black most of the time-and that’s it. Even South Park makes fun of this when they only have the one black character. Check advertisement and tell me how many Americans with Indian characteristics you see. Asian? No way! Black. Maaybe (one…suffering from the Bill Cosby syndrome a.k.a. Carton syndrome). Latino? Apparently the only border they can’t cross. Native-american? Only in Westerns.

So, either media is a little behind in catching up with America’s new demographics, or it’s using their I-don’t-see-color-eye while leaving, well, some color behind. I say, bring them all together! Lets’ stir diversity in the pan! Let’s try to leave up to that promise of “all men created equal”. Let’s show it and let us reflect it in the media mirror in three, two, one…