Racist Marketing in Postwar United States

In the Postwar era of marketing, advertisers slowly became to be more sensitive to African Americans.  There were several marketing related articles posted about what words should or should not be used to describe black people.  This can mainly be attributed to the purchasing power that the blacks had manged to use for their gain.  While advertisers became more aware of black purchasing power though, it did not stop them from making blacks seem primitive as can be seen by this picture.  

Blacks were still treated as inferiors and also were often portrayed as servants for whites.  However, in order for Americans to trick themselves and possibly try to trick the blacks into accepting their status in advertising, they would often place black servantile roles into them having jobs such as being a waiter or being a bellhop.  Despite this, they employed the use of black caricatures such as wide grins especially.  

Another piece of racism in Postwar America history was found in the tv show Tom and Jerry.  During the show there was a character named Mammy Two Shoes who (early on in the show during the 1940s) would often be involved in Tom and Jerry's shenanigans.  Often it would feature her in pain or getting slapped on her abnormally large buttocks.  It would also feature her using an extremely racist sounding voice.  

The Post War era also issued a new era in housing.  This era was called the suburbs and was heavily marketed by the U.S government.  It was marketed mainly toward white people as a cheap and affordable way to live, especially with benefits given to World War II GIs.  Many of these advertisements were like the one on the right.  It would often feature a middle class, white American couple who are told that the house is for them and their way of life.  The fact that none of these featured black people were troubling and helped divide the gap amongst the blacks and the whites by reinforcing that the houses were for whites and not for blacks.  While blacks did move into the suburbs, many of them were steered towards poorer quality neighborhoods and when many tried to move into wealthy neighborhoods they were often driven away due to being seen as a way that property could depreciate.