Posters of the advertising campaign "Racismo Neon".@RacismoNeon (RR. SS.)
"I have suffered discrimination all my life, but it was never as obvious as that time," says Talia Loaria, while describing that audition in which she was told that she did not represent the profile they were looking for.
“When I asked what they were referring to, they told me that I was of another type, that I was not like the others, I was not pretty.
They only lacked to add: “It is that you are dark”, recounts the Mexican actress, dancer and choreographer;
She is also “Afro-descendant and mestizo”, as she defines herself on her social networks.
That episode to which Loaria did not know how to react, “because neither she nor she knew that she had the right to say something, it happens in all areas.
But there are some in which it is more evident, "says the actress.
It refers, of course, to the discrimination based on skin tone that exists in Mexico and that the statistics collect in an unappealable way.
“In a country where we are the majority, they treat us as if we were the minority.
If dark-haired people represent 80% of the population, why aren't we in that percentage of the ads?" the actress questions.
Her question replicates one of the headlines of the 4,000 posters that, during the first week of July, covered the walls of some of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Mexico City, such as Roma, Condesa, Polanco and Santa Fe.
The initiative, a
Racismo Neon
campaign , "aims to make visible how the advertising industry in Mexico uses negative stereotypes to represent its citizens, challenging advertising agencies to produce less racist messages and content," explains its author, Carl Jones. , publicist and researcher at the Royal College of Art in London.
According to the perception results of the Survey on Discrimination in Mexico City (EDIS), poverty and brown skin are the main causes of discrimination in the Mexican capital.
“And the advertising that is done continues to have a bearing on how we are doing in life, on social mobility and inequality in the country.
The skin phenotype defines the opportunities for access to education, to decent work... That is why this campaign that puts the finger on the sore spot is so timely!”, says José Antonio Aguilar, executive director of Racismo MX, an association that, through education, combats this type of discrimination in the country.
“When it comes to showcasing their products, be it from beer to designer clothes, most brands choose to feature light-skinned models, creating aspirational advertising that has become common practice for most agencies here” , says Jones, who became aware of the phenomenon when he first arrived in Mexico in 1994. “I didn't understand why advertising didn't reflect people on the streets.
At that time, clients selected models with European features and fair skin to appear in their ads: a non-real Mexico, based on a fantasy or myth created to sell products.
And it is still like that”, says the British publicist, who has lived in this city for more than 20 years.
For Aguilar, it is a systematized racism: "They justify the use of white models alleging that their ads are aimed at a medium and high socioeconomic level, but when commercials focused on lower levels are reviewed, you do not find people of dark tones either," he points out. .
The strategy behind the neon cardboard
The neighborhoods where Jones' campaign banners were displayed were not chosen randomly.
"We paste the messages in the areas where the advertising agencies and their clients are located," he explains.
The campaign is made up of seven different letters that reproduce some of the most common messages that society receives through advertising.
One of the chosen phrases - "I want clear eyes, then I'm going to buy these potatoes" -, was extracted from the book
The color of privilege,
published in 2020 by the Mexican journalist Hernán Gómez Bruera, who interviewed professionals from the sector for his essay analytical.
"In one of the chapters of the investigation, many of the 2019 commercials were analyzed, concluding that 70% of their models were white," says the director of Racismo MX.
The remaining percentage of commercials, in which dark-skinned people appeared, almost entirely comprised advertisements from the Government or civil organizations.
"Evidence of another normalized practice in the world of advertising: racialized women are only exposed when they are papers that symbolize poverty and charity," explains Aguilar.
This phenomenon is also replicated in another of Jones' campaign messages printed on neon paper: the advertising only shows indigenous culture in charity ads.
The person in charge of the initiative says that "the posters and their dissemination on social networks are designed to generate conversation among workers in the advertising industry and make them discuss ways to eliminate colonialist and racist thinking."
These are not isolated acts of discrimination, but "a structural problem," Aguilar clarifies.
According to the activist, such normalized sayings as
marry someone whiter to improve the race
, "encompass all Mexican racism, with so many repercussions on the lives of citizens, attacking well-being and human rights."
“Because racism ranges from advertising to directly claiming lives.
And sectors such as advertising, cinema or fashion constantly reinforce these negative connotations associated with people of color”, adds Loaria.
According to the actress, to combat "this social disease that we don't know we suffer from, we must start by recognizing the privilege they have over each other just because of skin tone."
A reality that Poder Prieto fights against, a movement to which Loaria belongs and whose objective is to change the normalized racist narratives and practices, reproduced and perpetuated in the audiovisual and entertainment industry.
"This initiative that emerged within Racismo MX is doing an incredible job of making visible the discrimination that people with dark complexions suffer in some sectors," says Aguilar.
Among the personalities that have promoted this movement, names such as Tenoch Huerta, Maya Zapata, Yalitza Aparicio or Michelle González stand out, who make up the cast of Mexican actors who take advantage of their fame to do activism.
“The positioning they have gained is essential to fight against racism in Mexico.
Only through the spaces that we dark people occupy
in
the mass media can we change the entrenched conceptions that exist in the collective imagination.
Their visibility teaches us that we can belong to that world and have the same rights as white people.
It allows us to dream of equal opportunities”, confesses Loaria.
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