Race, branding and marketing in Colson Whitehead’s Apex Hides the Hurt.

What is it about?

Capitalism is inherently linked to marketing, branding, advertising, and other strategies that intend to show specific products and services from their most alluring side. This has increasingly often led to situations, in which the marketing is increasingly divorced from the truth. This article discusses the case of Colson Whitehead's novel Apex Hides the Hurt, which sees a Black "nomenclature consultant" - a person who comes up with product names - come to a historically black town to rename it to accommodate a big tech company. The essay analyzes the relationship of the town's history to the proposed names, particularly in terms of race relations and corporate exploitation.

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Photo by Melanie Kreutz on Unsplash

Photo by Melanie Kreutz on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The chapter touches upon the intersection of race and the economy in a neoliberal setting, both timely topics. Crucially, it goes into the issue of greatly oversimplifying complicated matters into mere marketing slogans, Ignoring such aspects as race, community and the desire for increased profits without consideration for their social cost.