They say that we cannot use present standards to judge the past…that we must look at the past in the past. But how do we do this if the present echoes the past?

To meet the requirement of the English internal assessment, each IB junior delivered a 10 to 15 minute oral presentation based on one or more passages from Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano's Book of Embraces. The passage I chose, entitled "Advertisements" appeared to be a simple page of historical advertisements describing slaves and products to be sold. However, the ad was rife with stereotypes, historically offensive material, and exploitive propaganda. I pondered the author's purpose of including this page of historic ads in a book of anecdotes. Then, my eyes were drawn to a footnote directly below the passage: " [This page of advertisements was taken] from Uruguayan newspapers of 1840, twenty-seven years after the abolition of slavery." Inserted by Galeano and spanning only a sentence in length, it nonetheless spoke volumes about human atrocities and the history of human progress. Clearly, the author's purpose is to inform, criticize, and incite. According to Galeano, we should not exult over any so-called progress. Rather, he wants us to step back and consider if there really was any progress made in the first place. I recall an oft-repeated saying of History of the Americas instructor Mr. Beck that sums up the theme that Galeano is setting forth: "Progress in history is two steps forward, then one step back."

For my oral presentation, I decided to take a "Galeanoistic" approach toward this issue in a modern timeframe. To meet this challenge, I collected ads from local newspapers, websites and periodicals as proof that the stereotypes, historically offensive material, and exploitive propaganda seen by Galeano in the 1840s still appear in advertisements today. I found more than a dozen of such ads-with both blatant and subtle examples.

• Consider the "Aunt Jemima" pancake and syrup label. Many African Americans feel that its trademark alludes to the slavery era, with its stereotype of the traditional Southern cook as a heavyset "mammy" with a headrag.
• Or what about a spa advertisement that portrays the typical Asian woman as seductive and mysterious? (It loops male customers by claiming that its Asian female staff will "unleash the secrets of the Orient.")
• How would you like to be exploited by companies just because you belong to a certain ethnic group? For example, a company makes a note of the stereotype that all Hispanics sniff a new product before purchasing it. Later, the company will turn this generalization into a surefire profit plan by marketing aromatic products such as fabric softeners toward Hispanics especially. The corporate term for the strategy, "multicultural marketing," is simply a euphemism for exploitive propaganda.
• Then there's the "wanted" ad posted online by the Council of Conservative Citizens. It bears Abraham Lincoln's mugshot, and touts him as a tyrant and enemy of the South. However, the ad, in reality, promotes bias against non-whites under a guise of upholding "traditional" Southern culture.

Enough said. With proof such as this, I am convinced that progress in history truly is "two steps forward and one step back."

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