Feona: Black mother white baby

Black and Quaade 1989
It is typical to this particular phase of the campaign that Blacks are depicted as black, Asians have slanted eyes, whites are blond. According to Back and Quaade, in Family of the Future the races appear distinct, not intermingled. This picture shows a black woman nursing a white child. Benetton was forced to withdraw the adverts from the U.S. market due to the controversy they caused. The breastfeeding picture was seen as a reference to slavery, with black women as wet nurses, and also to black women’s position as the object of white men’s desire. Moreover, the handcuff advert caused a brouhaha on both the old and the new continents. The black man was interpreted as a criminal and the white man as a representative of law. Many saw the picture as openly racist. However, at the same time in France neo-fascist and racist groupsthrew a tear gas grenade into a Benetton shop. In other words, the pictures aroused, de facto, reactions totally contradictory with each other. Back and Quaade expound on the interpretations sparked off by the adverts.
In Back and Quaade’s view, all Benetton campaigns restore racial prejudices in a more subtle way than ever. “Images of cultural difference become crass caricatures, and stark racial stereotypes are reinforced to generate crude oppositions, reducing the complexity of cultural and racial identities to essences. While advocating harmony, Benetton produces images of racial and cultural purity.

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