How Hybridity Benefits Marketing

Danzy Seena captured the notion of hybridity, as she calls it, the best in her book Half and Half (see last blog post). She predicted something that we see every day in commercials, movies and in the entertainment business. Marketing companies have realized the changing racial composition and present us ads with racially ambiguous faces. For example, Arabs, Indians, Hispanics and Whites are more than likely to identify with a tanned brunet ad presenter. If she appears to have hints of Black genes, African Americans and Africans are covered as well. The Kardashian sisters, Halle Berry, Christina Milian and Freida Pinto are the best examples for racially ambiguous faces. This strategy saves the (multinational) companies time and money because they only have to cast one product presenter, shoot one ad and simply dub it into all the different languages. From the companies’ standpoint, it makes everyone happy because no ethnicity was left out. However, this strategy does not promote understanding of the various groups to the vast majority which tends to group all the different ethnicities into one. Arabs and Indians have a distinct cultural and racial identity from each other; the same applies to African Americans and Africans.

Mixed is the New Normal!

Last week the Associated Press released the news that interracial marriages are getting more and more common. According to the Pew Research Center Study, 1 in 12 US marriages are interracial marriages and the number is even higher in certain states, such as California and New Mexico, where 1 in 5 marriages are interracial or intercultural. The article also states that due to the increasing number of interracial marriages, multiracial Americans are a small but fast-growing demographic group, making up 9 million of the American population (read the full article by Hop Yen here).

The news was broadcasted as groundbreaking news but seemed overdue to me. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that Blacks, Hispanics and Asians will make up the majority of the U.S. population by 2050, years ago. However, to me the most compelling prediction was made by Danzy Seena in her book Half and Half that appeared in 1998. In one of the book’s chapter named The Mulatto Millennium, she writes: “according to the racial zodiac, 2000 is the official Year of the Mulatto. Pure breeds (…) are out; hybridity is in. America loves us in all of our half-caste glory”.

Europe is facing a similar trend. Roughly, 20% of the German population is of immigrant background. That means 1 in 5 Germans have at least one non-German parent. Today, most of the newborn babies are of mixed ethnicity or children to immigrant parents in Germany. That Same goes for countries like France and the Netherlands. It is safe to assume that the industrialized world is going to be made up of a heterogeneous demographic landscape, advantaging people of mixed heritage; from being mixed and being the odd one out to being the new norm!

Can you relate to me?

 

Eddie Murphy and Cliff Curtis in A Thousand Words ( Image via fandango.com) 

Personally, I have never been a big fan of movies starring Eddie Murphy. The last movie I remember seeing with him in it was Daddy Day Care years ago. However, I am pretty sure I will go watch A Thousand Words. Why? Because there is an Indian character in the movie! Cliff Curtis (who is Maori and not an Indian in real life) is playing ‘Dr. Sinja,’ the role of a spiritual guru who will have a Bodhi tree rise up in ‘Jack McCall’s’ back yard (Eddie Murphy). Same thing happened to me with Immortals and Planet of the Aps. I have no interest in Science Fiction or Greek Sagas but my husband was able to drag me to the movies for those films because, (yes you guessed it right) it starred the Indian actress Freida Pinto! That leads me back to the subject of what I call relate-ability, to be able to relate to or identify with someone in a personal way that you make an emotional connection. A lot of times, we do not make any friends or a connection with people who are different, especially culturally different from us because we have no relate-ability to them.

For instance, when my husband was stationed in Kuwait, he used to supervise Afghani and Pakistani cooks. After their work was done the cooks would cook their own meals. The curries they cooked reminded my husband of the Jamaican food and curries he grew up eating, especially the goat curry. My husband’s genuine interest in the Afghan and Pakistani cooks’ food made him more cordial and sympathetic in the cooks’ eyes and definitely improved their work relationship. Before he showed interest in their food he was just an American soldier supervising them with a superficial work relationship. Fast forward to a few years later, qua si the same thing happened again. My husband now working in America, only became friends with one of his colleagues after showing him my last name on an envelope. The colleague was very surprised to see a Pakistani/Indian last name there and even more so had overlooked the fact that his colleague (my husband) was married to someone from his region (btw I have a very common Pakistani/Indian name). And yes you guessed it right, the colleague is Indian.

So next time you are facing someone or something you think you have nothing in common or you cannot relate to - look closer and be open. You might just have something in common with them or something that will spark your or their interest. Or be the SPARK. And in the end you will come out with a deeper knowledge and insight about the other. It’s all about relate-ability! Even though, I resisted Science Fiction and Greek Sagas for a long time, Freida was my spark to go to the movies. Now, I at least know what the epic movies are about and I loved them both.

Can you relate to me?

 

Freida Pinto & James Franco in The Rise of the Planet of the Aps (Image via moviefanatic.com)

Freida Pinto in Immortals (Image via fashioncirqle.com)