J Crew ad... "they're close enough to white"

racism example #2

This particular ad that J Crew put out really confused me. I see these two adorable little boys who are sharply dressed in their perfectly preppy little outfits but they are blatantly both non-caucasian but they are both bi-racial. The main issue I have with the ethnicity choice of both of the boys is that they are both half-white looking. They are neither fully asian or fully african looking and partially european looking which seems to try to please the white buyers of J Crew. It was almost as if J Crew wanted to diversify their advertising, but they still wanted their models to look somewhat white because that is what they believe their buyers want to see. It really bothers me that both boys are still european looking, when they are obviously not fully white. This was a horrible attempt of J Crew to add diversity to their campaigns because they are pretty much saying that the only ethnicities they will market to are people that are of some type of European decent.

I think it is obvious that I would change a lot of things about this advertising choice. I would have no problem with choosing a model that had no European descent at all and I would make sure to represent various different types of people in my advertising. I would never do something like this, and I feel extremely bad for the Asian-American and African-American buyers who had to see this and think that the only way they are model worthy is if they are less of their own descent and more European. It is completely degrading their ethnic identity and it is creating a culture of white supremacy which sickens me beyond words.