What is it about?
The paper shows that marketing practices and institutions have been instrumental in creating systemic racism and inequalities for Black and racialized communities. These practices started in support of European imperialism and colonial expansion. We propose the need for transformative change in the way marketing is practiced, governed and propose a research agenda that can provide guidance.
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Why is it important?
We continue to see the effects of marketing's colonial and racist roots in racist brand imagery, marketplace discrimination and in inequalities in global trading patterns and wealth distribution. This research point to the ways in which marketing was pivotal in supporting colonization, imperialism and slavery, forces that were the very foundation of racism and inequalities, rather than just being a reflection of wider societal forces, as marketing is often portrayed.
Perspectives
As a Black Academic, I have found it difficult to find journal editors willing to address these important issues, yet I and others continue to experience marketplace racism on a daily basis. I believe change starts with acknowledgement and that marketing needs to start with historicizing and acknowledging its own racist and colonial roots. I hope this paper triggers more research papers that daylight how inequalities are embedded in the marketplace to ensure that Black Lives do Matter and that racism and inequalities in all its manifestation are addressed and redressed in practice to ensure a more just society.
June Francis
Simon Fraser University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Rescuing marketing from its colonial roots: a decolonial anti-racist agenda, Journal of Consumer Marketing, February 2022, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/jcm-07-2021-4752.
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