The Study of Racialism

javier

As a sports fan, I am now busy watching the NBA playoffs. Naturally there are various commercials dealing with things to attract consumers (sports programming commercials are geared for male consumers, with emphases on cars, beer, financing, air travel, cell phones, etc). Many of these commercials feature domestic scenes and scenes with young, trendy folks in sexually mixed company. In nearly 100% of the time, any visibly "black" individual is paired with an opposite-sex person who is also visibly "black". I have in the past mentioned this sort of thing on the way to making some other points, but rarely have I focused on it as I am now doing.

What is sociologically significant about this "black"-on-"black" pairing up is that the bases of these pairings, other than "race", is unknown. As these "black" individuals are speaking the same language as non-"blacks", are members of the same nationality as non-"blacks", seem to be roughly at the same economic level as non-"blacks" and seem to go in for the same sorts of cultural activities as non-"blacks" (e.g., watching sporting events, going to bars, etc.), the case could be made that there should be nothing stopping "blacks" being featured as romantic or marital partners of any number of a host of other sub-sets of people IN ADDITION TO BLACKS.

I am aware that there is a certain degree of U.S. comfort with this "black"-on-"black" dating and marital portrayal. If there were no such comfort, there would be no such portrayals, since they are generated by advertisers who would dread significant drop-offs in North American consumer receptiveness with advertising message formats.

What I am having trouble with is this: Notwithstanding the comfort U.S. folks feel with forced "black" endogamy in commercial advertising, that sort of thing has left me with a feeling that "blacks" are simply meant to be looked at as separate human beings. This generates in me about the same feeling as someone drawing fingernails on a blackboard--I can take it but it is slightly disconcerting. Moreover, I have never been able to shake the feeling that North American "blacks", when confronted with such endogamous-promoting commercials, should feel worse than I do (worse, because I identify with Latinos**, not "blacks", and I thus have a different reference group).

My query is simple: I would like for someone to explain to me in simple terms and in their own words the North American comfort with media-driven "black" endogamy. I don't think I will ever emotionally understand the North American point of view, but I would like for someone else to place it in their own language so that I can study it and possibly gain some new insights.