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Effects of Racism on Culture, Marketing, and International Trade

Student’s Name

Institution

Effects of Racism on Culture, Marketing, and International Trade

Racism is a major problem in society today. Its effects in society have profound effects on people, societies, and governments. It causes immense suffering; discrimination denies various opportunities, suppression of human rights, and general progression of the society. The impact of racism is felt in key areas such as marketing, culture, and international trade.

Effects of racism on culture

Culture is also an essential aspect of life, which is affected by racism. Dang (2018) defines culture as a collective believes, behaviors values, and rituals which are associated with a certain group of people. Culture is vital in society as it helps to create a feeling of belonging. Essential attributes of culture, such as religion, have played a major role in facilitating unity and inspiration to society. The United States is one of the richest countries in terms of cultural diversity. The country is comprised of ethnic groups that range from African Americans, Asians, Whites, among others. Cultural diversity plays a key role in enhancing human development. It helps in fostering unity, enhancing creativity, and providing a new perspective of doing things.

The differences in culture should be considered as a source of celebration and inspiration in society. However, its importance in society is constantly under threat due to racism. Racism negatively affects the role, impact, and the celebration of culture among people in society. The impact of racism in culture often experienced in the immigration sector. Lawmaking organs, lawmakers and political leaders develop policies which are discriminate against the immigration of people from certain cultures. The United States has been a country that embraces and is comprised of immigrants (Hutchison, 2018). Immigrants from different parts of the globe, such as Europe, Asia, and Africa, have contributed to the growth and diversity of American society. The United States continues to use immigration to improve its economic, political, and social identity. However, in recent years the cultural component of people in the United States has been the subject of suppression. The bodies in charge of enacting immigration policies have made regulations intended to suppress minority cultures in the United. The suppression of the cultures of minority groups is enacted through limited immigration opportunities for communities from specific regions.

On the other hand, immigration policies tend to favor people from the majority communities. Increasing immigration opportunities for people from majority cultures while reducing opportunities for people from minority cultures easily translates to racial discrimination. The racist policies are a means of slowly eliminating certain cultures with a view of promoting other cultures. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act is an example of a regulation that was racially used to suppress minority cultures while benefit majority cultures (Tourse, Hamilton-Mason, & Wewiorski,2018).  Although the law brought an end to immigration quotas that favored the European immigrants, it secretly created extra visas for Immigrants from Europe.

Another form of modern-day racism that has significantly affected culture is forced assimilation. Assimilation refers to situations where people adopt new cultures and make them their own. Voluntary assimilation is a vital part of society and enables people to learn about new cultures, ideas, and lifestyles. Forced assimilation, on the other hand, is dangerous and detrimental to the progress and success of society. Racism has, in the past and the present, been at the center of forced assimilation, which is directed towards eliminating certain cultures. The implementation of forced elimination among people often arises from government policies that force people to abandon their cultures. Forced assimilation-oriented policies force people to choose education systems and cultures without having an opinion or sat in the process. An example of forced assimilation is banning the use of minority languages in teaching and key government institutions. McCarty, Skutnabb-Kangas, & Magga (2008), assert that people in power view language as a major obstacle. Therefore, they tend to combat their use by enacting systemic changes such as banning their use in schools. Eventually, the language is faced out as people begin to pick up the mandatory languages used in schools. As a result, people from minority groups are unable to use their language a, factor that leads to its disappearance. Native Americans are some of the most affected cultures due to the systemic changes which limit the use of their native languages. They are then forced to adopt the languages spoken by the majority.

Another aspect of culture which is significantly affected by racism is religion. Religion is a controversial area that has been the subject of intense criticism and scrutiny by governments and people around the globe. Although it is an integral part of the culture among people, governments, and societies around the world have used it as an avenue of racially discriminating people. Muslims are some of the people whose religion has been negatively affected by racism. Racial discrimination of Asians, especially the Arabs, has had a profound impact on their religion. Their practice of Islam is often met by resentment and negativity (Shaver et al.,2016). The negative perception of religion causes people who practice them to change due to fear of persecution or rejection from society. Racism against Arabs is often associated with Islam. Thus, the fear of being racially abused causes people to abandon their religious culture for fear of victimized by racialists. In other instances, governments tend to limit the practice of certain religions as part of controlling their specific cultures. Thus, measures are put in place, which limits the construction of religious facilities such as temples. Such racial discrimination policies negatively affect the ability of people to enjoy and practice their culture. They are driven to become outcasts.

Effects of racism on Marketing

Another area that significantly affected by racism is marketing. Marketing is an essential aspect of society. According to Urbonavičius & Dikčius (2008), marketing plays a vital role in ensuring that companies maintain a close relationship between them and their markets. Marketing also allows companies and organizations to introduce new products into the market and bring consumers to changes in specific components of products and services. As a result, marketing is essential to both the business as well as the consumers. However, the effectiveness of marketing has, over the years, been affected by racism.

The issues of race in modern society have affected the operation of marketing agencies across the globe. Marketing agencies tend to deploy persons who check their advertisements to determine whether they fit the racial eye test. The steps taken by companies to identify independent advisers on their advertisements stem from the fact that various advertisements have, in the past, led to outrage from the public due to display of racially discriminative messages passed through the marketing agencies. The modern age of social media use and increased internet availability across the globe have heightened the scrutiny on companies in terms of their marketing activities. An advertisement for Pepsi, which was done by Kendall Jenner, is an example of a marketing activity that caused an outrage by the public due to the negative racial portray of the blacks (Friedman, 2017).

Marketing plays a vital role in influencing the perceptions, decisions, and ideas of people on certain things about people. Consequentially, it is often intended to influence purchasing decisions and also develop interests in certain products and services. Marketing has been the subject of racial profiling of certain communities. Organizations, societies, and the media have, in the past, used marketing to portray specific ethnic goods in a negative manner. The perception of African Americans, in particular, in marketing negatively affects the self-belief and confidence of the community. The media and marketers tend to only associate Blacks with marketing activities that involve sport or fast foods. However, advertisements that feature executive positions or positions of influence are mainly left to the whites. The media and the markers thus create a narrative which is passed on to the society. Marketing activities that tend to create specific narratives about the capabilities of certain races tend to lower the confidence of young people in society. Other instances in marketing, such as advertisements for soaps and detergents, which depict African Americans ‘change in skin color from black to white, are a further illustration of the negative perception of the African American communities. They demean their race and portray it as an inferior race. Marketing should be about passing ideas to consumers and the public about products and services. However, marketing often finds a way to veer off from its objects and end up undermining races and the ethnic components of the society.

Another effect of racism are the overrepresentation of the whites and the underrepresentation of people for other races. Racial discrimination leads to unfair treatment of individuals in the marketing field based on their racial background. Many companies in the United States prefer to market their products and services through white people as opposed to people from other races such as the Africa Americans and the Latinos (Robinson, 2019). This leads to the underrepresentation of the minority racial groups since most of the marketing activities are carried out by the Americans. Most American firms prefer white marketers because they argue that people from other races are not attractive enough to appear in adverts. The companies have the belief that American marketers have an attractive appearance that will attract a large number of customers during the marketing activities (Davis, 2018). They also argue that African Americans lack creativity, and therefore they cannot create an appealing marketing message that can attract the attention of the potential buyers. As a result of racism, only a few people from minority racial groups, who have shown appropriate capabilities, have been employed to carry out different marketing activities in the country. There are few African Americans and other minorities occupying senior positions in the marketing industry. According to Robinson (2019), individuals who are identified as blacks account for only 5% of those working in public relations, advertising, and other marketing-related activities.

The other impact is the failure to meet the marketing objectives of products marketed by people from minority races. The main objective of carrying out marketing activities is to increase customer awareness and enhance the demand for a particular product (Davis, 2018). Some of the companies in the United States market their product through people from minority ethnic groups such as the backs and the Latinos, to enhance the customer awareness of their brands. However, racism makes it challenging for these companies to attain their marketing goals since the consumers in the country are racist (Robinson, 2019). The consumers do not watch adverts aired by people of color because they argue that they are not appealing and attractive. They prefer viewing adverts presented by American marketers than those presented by people from other races (Davis, 2018). The adverts aired by people of color attract a small number of customers which makes the marketing efforts of the company to be unsuccessful. This affects the future sustainability of the company in the competitive market.

Effects of racism on international trade

International trade involves the exchange of products and services between two or more trading nations. According to Heakal (2020), international trade allows a country to expand the market of its products and services across the borders. It also allows a country to get products and services that it does not produce domestically. International trade is important because it provides a more competitive market that leads to an increase in the quality of products offered to the customers (Heakal, 2020). Global trade involves different countries from different parts of the world. These countries have different cultural and racial backgrounds. Therefore, racism is one of the factors that affect international trade.

Racism has various effects on international trade, which includes the following. One of the impacts is the discrimination of some countries in global trade. This happens when one of the countries refuses to carry out business with another country. The two countries have trading products and services, but one of the nations is unwilling to buy the products offered by the other country (McCluney et al., 2018). The bases of this type of discrimination are the racial background of one of the countries in international trade. For instance, the United States prefers to import tea from Argentina and India than from African countries. In Africa, there are various countries, such as Malawi, that produce high-quality tea. Racism influence the United States to buy tea from white countries than to buy from black countries. African countries are large consumers of American products, but America consumes a small number of products from Africa (Ashe & Nazroo, 2017). This type of discrimination reduces the market for one of the trading countries. It increases the amount of waste, which makes the country incur substantial losses.

The second effect is the reduction of the quality of goods offered in the international market. The products offered by a country in international trade are produced by local companies. Racial discrimination is common in most of the firms in the United States. Racism has various effects on the production activities and the quality of goods and services manufactured by a company (Ashe & Nazroo, 2017). It increases the internal conflict in the workplace. This makes it challenging for the employees to coordinate and work together with a common aim of producing proper quality products. Workplace racism also makes it hard for employees to work in teams. Teamwork is essential because it increases employee interaction, and they can work together to solve workplace issues to enhance the quality of the produced products (McCluney et al., 2018). Also, racism demotivates the affected employees, which reduces their performance in the workplace. Workplace racism reduces the quality of products and services produced by domestic firms, which affects the quality of products offered by the country to international trade.

The other impact of racism is the reduction of the amounts of products offered in international trade. The amount of goods and services provided in the global trade by a country depends on the production of the local firms. Racism has a significant influence on the productivity of domestic firms. Racial discrimination leads to unequal and unfair treatment of the employees from the minority racial groups, which acts as a demotivation factor to the affected team members (McCluney et al., 2018). As a result, it affects the performance of the discriminated employees, which reduces the firm’s productivity and the number of products offered by the country into international trade. Racism also makes some countries not engage in trade with other nations. This reduces the number of products in global trade since the discriminated country will not offer its goods and services (Ashe & Nazroo, 2017). The reduction in the number of products can have various effects on the customers in the international market. It reduces the level of competition since it is only a few countries that participate in international trade. Reduced competition can affect the quality of products and services and the prices charged to the consumers.

Racism can also lead to a decline in demand for products and services from a particular country. This happens when two countries engage in trading activities, but the consumers in one of the states refuse to consume products from another nation (Ashe & Nazroo, 2017). The main reason behind the consumers’ decision not to consume the products and services is the racial differences between them and the people from the other country. This leads to the loss of demand for the discriminated country’s products and services, which reduces its net sales (McCluney et al., 2018). For instance, a consumer visits the supermarket and refuses to buy a plastic product because it originates from China. China produces high-quality plastic products, but the racial differences between them and the United States can influence an American buyer not to buy the products. Racism will reduce the demand for Chinese products in the American market. As a result, it will reduce the net sales of the discriminated country in the international market.

Conclusion

Racism is common in the country. Racial discrimination occurs in different sectors and affects various operations in the country. One of the aspects affected by racism is culture. The United States set regulations that suppress minority cultures and favor the Americans. Marketing activities are also affected by racism. The minority races are undermined in adverts, and they are underrepresented in the marketing operations. Also, International trade is affected by racism because it involves the cooperation between various countries that have different racial backgrounds. Therefore, it is important to learn and educate the public on ways that racism affects crucial aspects of the society such as marketing, international trade and culture. Learning and acknowledging the existence of racism in theses areas allows people to speak against it and put measures which prevent its prevalence.

References

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