Modern Day Stereotype Essay

The photograph that is being analyzed depicts a modern day stereotype that the race a person is born with will predetermine the future that he/she has. Three babies show this: two are Caucasian, wearing diapers, and getting to be normal babies; the third baby is of a darker skin color, maybe Hispanic, and is wearing a housekeeper’s uniform and displaying an expression of tiredness. The group that put this add out is from France and is anti-Semitist and against racism. The text that appears on the photo says, “Your skin color shouldn’t dictate your future.”(Huntington)

“LICRA is fighting against the dangerous casual day-to-day trivialization of racism and tries to speak out for what a discriminated person has to experience in silence.

It calls upon the authorities to become alert to the affront to dignity that victims may experience every day, because of their real or perceived origin, through repeated identity checks, the rejection of a CV or problems finding housing etc.” (“Cleaning Lady (French)”) LICRA played with people’s moral emotions by releasing a photo that used infants. Many people feel that it takes advantage of the child because they are unable to give consent. Using infants to portray the idea that you should not “judge a book by its cover” is ingenious though because people will stop to look twice at a controversial picture that contains infants. Unfortunately, stereotypes are a typical thing that all races have put on them. This picture could have been easily changed to an African American male with handcuffs on, a gun beside him, and a tombstone over his head. This stereotype is that most African American males will go to jail or be killed in their lifetime. Another stereotype that this could have been changed to would be an Indian baby wearing a gas station uniform. This stereotype would show that most Indians would own or work at a gas station. Stereotypes are often portrayed in TV shows today for comedic pleasure but that does not mean that it is okay for a person to judge people for their skin color.
The design of this picture sets the audience up to immediately draw their attention to the ethnic baby.

The artist does this by making all of the elements in this photo a neutral color. The Caucasian babies are wearing white diapers in a white and clear crib. The Hispanic baby is also in a white crib but her housekeeping uniform is tan and she has a blue feather duster, yellow cleaning gloves, and a red bucket of cleaning solution below her crib. This brings focus to the Hispanic baby and allows the audience to see that because this baby is Hispanic, the stereotype of being a housekeeper is being put on her. These design elements work together to get the point across because they allow the audience to see the Hispanic baby first and to see that the stereotype that “race determines your future” is morally incorrect.

The picture layout also suggests that Caucasian people want to stay away from Hispanics or judge them. This may not be seen automatically but if a person were to take a look at the other two babies, one is in the farthest corner away from the Hispanic curled up and the other is looking in on the Hispanic baby which can be portrayed as a Caucasian judging and being disgusted with the third baby. This idea also brings another stereotype into the picture; “Hispanic people are dirty.” The housekeeper’s dirty shoes, dirty bucket of cleaning solution, and a dirty feather duster show this second

stereotype.
The audience for this image would be anyone with a racist mind. This advertisement was put out to speak to people who are okay with stereotyping other races. This is the known audience because LICRA prides themselves in being against racism and anti-Semitist and they use advertisements that portray racism to speak to these people. They put this picture out to draw attention to the issue of stereotyping. The thought that LICRA wants a person to have when seeing this picture is “Why is this Hispanic baby wearing a housekeeping uniform?” The artist who put this photo together was smart because most people would not take a second look if the composition of the photo contained adults. This is because people are more okay with putting stereotypes on adults than putting stereotypes on a baby or child.
The text on the picture draws the attention of the audience as well because the first part “Your skin color” is in white font, which seems noninvasive, or not threatening and then the second part “Shouldn’t determine your future” is in black font and is aggressive. This shows the audience that they need to take a stand and make a change so that babies and people do not have to feel like they do not have a choice in their future because of the skin color they were born with. The Caucasian babies are a blank slate. They are able to be whatever they set their mind to. That is the idea that should be portrayed to all children. No matter what skin color he/she may have, they can be whatever they would like.
LICRA has established a reputation in France and uses this credible reputation to push the issue of stereotyping. The picture that is being analyzed is not the only picture that this organization has put out about this issue. They