Jerome D. Williams, a professor of advertising and African American studies at the University of Texas at Austin, says advertisers remain skittish about backlash from consumers over black-and-white couples in romantic ads. Still, he’s noticed more “ethnically ambiguous” models in TV commercials. “You’re trying to straddle the fence, to get someone to appeal to an ethnic audience while at the same time making sure you don’t turn off a mainstream, white audience.” One thing is apparent to Williams: The younger you are, the more likely you are to know someone who is multiracial and the more likely you are to accept people of different ethnic and racial backgrounds. Opposition to multiraciality, he says, is aging out.
The Associated Press
Attitudes Toward Multiracial Americans Evolving
June 15
