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Mainstream Advertising: Hispanics Missing In Action
By Allen
Best
Just after Barack
Obama announced his candidacy, I ran into Gil Morales in the
library in Eagle, 
new books. Gil is an immigrant, from
My answer surprised myself. I didn't hesitate.
"Yes," I said. "Look
how many people wanted Colin Powell to run for president. He
would have been the leading candidate," I said. And I do believe
that was the case in 1999, when a couple of other Republicans
named George W. Bush and John McCain were similarly mounting
runs.
"Yes, race still matters, but not that much," I told Gil.
Thank God I was right. Yes, it took an exceptional
individual. Can there be any question that Obama's intellect and
temperament are anything less than extraordinary? And, in fairness, his
success likely resulted from the most significant economic downturn in
75 years. But it happened. We elected an Africa-American, one who fully
embraced his background. He not only won a major party nomination, but
was elected president. There was no way that could have happened 20 or
30 years ago. What has changed?
One argument has been made that it was Bill Cosby, as the Dr. Cliff
Huxtable in the television sitcom from the 1980s, who paved the way for
Obama's rise. Cliff Huxtable and his wife were, it has been remarked,
urban professionals, competent but also very ordinary in the sorts of
problems and solutions of their family. They were the family next door,
even if all your neighbors were actually white.
That's a good argument, but I would
point to something even more pervasive: the presence of
African-Americans in advertising. When I was a boy, there were
no black people in advertisements, at least those that I saw.
Television advertising was all white, all the time. Ditto for
magazines. And blacks noticed the absence. They protested, and
finally - first in a trickle, and in recent years, a flood
outsized beyond their demographic cohort - there have been
blacks. Yes, they must be middle-class folks. But they're at the
breakfast table, they're buying cars, eating fast food. They're
primping in their underwear in clothing advertisements, drinking
Coors beer, and all the rest. They are, say the advertising
messages, just like you and me. Yes, it took Lyndon Johnson and
Civil Rights legislation, and it took Bill Cosby and Magic
Johnson, and it took Julian Bond and even Jessie Jackson and
Shirley Chisholm and Barbara Jordan. It took lots of people,
both celebrities and politicians. But that advertising barrier
was one giant wall that fell.
Are Hispanics in advertising? I haven't
noticed them. Granted, it's harder to tell if an actor is
Hispanic, because the differences are sometimes more subtle.
Lots of Hispanics are white, but with brown eyes. Just like lots
of non-Hispanic whites. Yet what I see on television has not the
slightest inflection from what we call standard English. Ken
Salazar, had he been an actor instead of a lawyer, probably
couldn't have gotten work, because he speaks with the inflection
of his native
Yes, we have Hispanics as celebrities. There
are Jennifer Lopez and Eva Longoria, among others, and for
politicians we have Bill Richardson, if now tainted by the
possibility of scandal, and in
One of these days, though, we will. It's just
a matter of time - just as it's only a matter of time before
there is a person of Hispanic descent who becomes president. But
before that happens, Hispanics need to be more on the dance
floor of public life. Obama arrived in
Allen Best is a
freelance writer living in Arvada,
