Deconstructing Racist Humor: How Archie Boston’s Advertisements Provoke Institutionalized Racism

  • Shaheila Valmai Kalyana Roeswan English Studies Program, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424
  • Yasmine Anabel Panjaitan English Studies Program, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia, Depok 16424
Abstract views: 3391 , PDF downloads: 544
Keywords: Archie Boston, Advertisements, Critical discourse analysis, Incongruous humor, Institutionalized racism, Visual grammar

Abstract

Humor is one of the most used mediums for overcoming the dominant power in society. One type of humor, Black Humor, was initially used by the Black community to speak their voice regarding the racism they face every day. However, it showed that even the most powerful tool could also act as a double-edged sword for its users. In this research, we analyzed three advertisements made by Archie Boston circa the 1960s that took the symbolism of the Ku Klux Klan, Uncle Sam, and slavery and turned these symbolisms into objects of humor. Using Kress and van Leeuwen’s Grammar of Visual Design, Barthes’ visual semiotics, and incongruity theory by Goldstein and McGhee, these advertisements were analyzed and then critically associated with the theory of Institutionalized Racism. The results revealed that these advertisements showed affiliation with how stereotypes are identified through symbolism by using humor and visual images. Therefore, these advertisements perpetuate negative stereotypes of the Black community by making Black people seem complicit in and supporting the racist acts that the symbols perpetuated.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Anti-Defamation League. “Ku Klux Klan Robes.” Anti-Defamation League, 2021. https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/kkk-robes.

Baig, Fatima Zafar, Saima Umer, Muhammad Zammad Aslam, Muhammad Shehzad Razaq, Samina Khan, and Tauseef Ahmad. “Humor as Monotony Breaker in Funny Ads: A Multi-Modal Discourse Analysis of Ads of Pakistani Ufone & Jazz Cellular Companies.” International Journal of English Linguistics 10, no. 1 (2019): 69–80. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v10n1p69.

Banjo, Omotayo. “What Are You Laughing at? Examining White Identity and Enjoyment of Black Entertainment.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 55, no. 2 (2011): 137–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2011.570822.

Castelar Orteu, Clara. “The Ethics of Intercultural Translation: Analysing the Figure of the African and African- American in Contemporary Spanish Television Advertising between 20th and 21st Centuries.” Dissertation, Universitat de les Illes Balears, 2020. http://dspace.uib.es/xmlui/handle/11201/152507.

Cooperrider, Kensy. “Fifteen Ways of Looking at a Pointing Gesture.” Preprint. PsyArXiv, April 3, 2020. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/2vxft.

Editors of History.com. “Ku Klux Klan.” History, November 2, 2020. https://www.history.com/topics/reconstruction/ku-klux-klan.

Elliot, Mary, and Jazmine Hughes. “A Brief History of Slavery That You Didn’t Learn in School - The New York Times.” The New York Times Magazine, August 19, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/19/magazine/history-slavery-smithsonian.html

Encyclopedia Britannica. “Ku Klux Klan | Definition & History.” Accessed April 13, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ku-Klux-Klan.

Encyclopedia Britannica. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin | Summary, Date, & Significance.” Accessed April 13, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Uncle-Toms-Cabin.

Engs, Robert F. “Historical Perspectives on the Problem of Black Literacy.” Educational Horizons 66, no. 1 (1987): 13–17. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42926188.

Goldstein, Jeffrey H. The Psychology of Humor: Theoretical Perspectives and Empirical Issues. Cambridge: Academic Press, 2013.

Hart, Marjolein ’t. “Humour and Social Protest: An Introduction.” International Review of Social History 52, no. S15 (2007): 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859007003094.

Junco, Manuel Alvarez. “Designing the Incorrect. (Design and Graphic Humor.” Design Discourse 3, no. 2 (2008): 1–16.

Kress, Gunter, and Theo van Leeuwen. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2006.

Leeuwen, Theo Van, and Carey Jewitt. The Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: SAGE Publications, 2001.

Martin, Michel. “Why African-Americans Loathe ‘Uncle Tom.’” NPR.org, July 30, 2008. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93059468.

Mason, Cheryl Banks. “The Dynamics of Black Humor from Africa to America and the Transformation from Slavery to the Twentieth Century.” Thesis, Clark Atlanta University, 2008. https://radar.auctr.edu/islandora/object/cau.td%3A2008_mason_cheryl_b/.

Murji, Karim. “Using Racial Stereotypes in Anti-Racist Campaigns.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 29, no. 2 (2006): 260–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870500465488.

Nordquist, Richard. “What Is Eye Dialect?” ThoughtCo, February 12, 2020. https://www.thoughtco.com/eye-dialect-spelling-term-1690700.

Rapp, Alan. “Archie Boston’s Design Journey.” AIGA | the professional association for design. Accessed April 13, 2021. https://www.aiga.org/design-journeys-archie-boston.

Richards, Delgado, and Jean Stefancic. Critical Race Theory: An Introduction. 3rd ed. New York: New York University Press, 2017.

Saucier, Donald A., Megan L. Strain, Stuart S. Miller, Conor J. O’Dea, and Derrick F. Till. “‘What Do You Call a Black Guy Who Flies a Plane?’: The Effects and Understanding of Disparagement and Confrontational Racial Humor.” Humor 31, no. 1 (2018): 105–28. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2017-0107.

Shaffer, Donald R. “‘I Do Not Suppose That Uncle Sam Looks at the Skin’: African Americans and the Civil War Pension System, 1865-1934.” Civil War History 46, no. 2 (2000): 132–47. https://doi.org/10.1353/cwh.2000.0049.

Shierholz, Heidi. “Likely That Nearly One in Five Black Workers was Unemployed at Some Point in 2013.” Economic Policy Institute (blog). Accessed April 13, 2021. https://www.epi.org/publication/black-workers-unemployed-point-2013/.

Snape, Jason J. “Humor as an Element in Graphic Design.” Thesis, Rochester Institute of Technology, 1993. https://scholarworks.rit.edu/theses/4746.

Sorensen, Majken Jul. “Humor as a Serious Strategy of Nonviolent Resistance to Oppression.” Peace & Change 33, no. 2 (2008): 167–90. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0130.2008.00488.x.

Southern Poverty Law Center. “Ku Klux Klan,” 2021. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Uncle Sam | History, Artist, Drawing, Propaganda, & Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, May 5, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Uncle-Sam.

Tricomi, Albert H. “Dialect and Identity in Harriet Jacobs’s Autobiography and Other Slave Narratives.” Callaloo 29, no. 2 (2006): 619–33. https://doi.org/10.1353/cal.2006.0125.

Turchiano, Danielle. “Two in Three Black Americans Don’t Feel Properly Represented in Media (Study).” Variety (blog), September 17, 2020. https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/representation-matters-study-nrg-black-americans-media-1234772025/.

Weaver, Simon. “Developing a Rhetorical Analysis of Racist Humour: Examining Anti-Black Jokes on the Internet.” Social Semiotics 20, no. 5 (2010): 537–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2010.513188.

Weissenrieder, Maureen, and Norman Fairclough. “Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language.” The Modern Language Journal 81, no. 3 (1997): 428. https://doi.org/10.2307/329335.

Yoon, InJeong. “Why is it not Just a Joke? Analysis of Internet Memes Associated with Racism and Hidden Ideology of Colorblindness.” Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education 33 (2016): 62–123.

Published
2021-05-31
How to Cite
Roeswan, S. V. K., & Panjaitan, Y. A. (2021). Deconstructing Racist Humor: How Archie Boston’s Advertisements Provoke Institutionalized Racism. OKARA: Jurnal Bahasa Dan Sastra, 15(1), 40-55. https://doi.org/10.19105/ojbs.v15i1.4522