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heidireiss-blog · 6 years ago

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Branding Blackness

Simone Browne’s piece “Branding Blackness” describes the painful history of branding slaves in America in an effort to track blackness as property. Browne illustrates this practice in order to make a point about modern day biometric technology used for surveillance and the identification of bodies. The argument is that branding in the era of slavery was actually a form of biometric technology and the beginning of mass surveillance in the United States. However, branding in the transatlantic slave trade was particularly used to ascribe the meaning of a commodity onto the black body and then after arriving in the colonies, brands would maintain the enslaved body as black. A notable aspect of this branding would be the mark of the skin or the epidermalization, the inscription of race on the skin. The first thing that came to my mind when I thought of branding was The Scarlet Letter and the “branding” of Hester Prynne. As depicted below, she was “branded” with a red, felt A on her dress to signify her Adulteress status. Although this worked as a mark of meaning, the brand was not a permanent facet on her skin that gave meaning to her color but instead a superficially laid marker on her dress. In other words, her “branding” was not attached to her whiteness in the way that the branding of the slavery era attached meaning the the literal color of the skin. Understanding this distinction allows for a comprehensive analysis of remaining points Browne makes regarding the implications of branding.

Photo #1: https://sites.google.com/site/scarletletter520/hester

From using humans as resources to be bought and sold in the slave trade, to marketing in the colonial era, to modern day billboards, the concept of commodification of race has seen various forms throughout history. Browne notes one early version of the Banania brand package as having a carribean looking women pouring the product on a rejoicing French crowd. This marketing choice implies that the exotic region of the Caribbean is willfully giving the colonies and white people their resources. In reality we know this is not the case and that the nature of colonization was nothing but forceful. Similar representation has been seen today in billboard campaigns. For example, the picture below depicts a playstation advertisement promoting the release of the new white colored playstation with a powerful white women forcefully holding the face of a black person. This is overtly reminiscent of colonization and what Browne notes as the “white racial frame”. The frame which gives way to an anti-black frame categorizing difference where blackness is deemed unruly, needing to be tamed, as portrayed in the Playstation advertisement. As for the slave era, this was the justification for branding and characterizing blackness with negative characteristics in order to rationalize the violence.

Browne also brings up the point that certain memorabilia from the slave era has been commodified like the branding tool or certain historic photographs. As the amount of channels available for exposure has increased, commodity culture continues to show signs of branding blackness. For example, Nike’s campaign with Kaepernick and the various merchandise that came out of Angela Davis’ history as a power icon, show that branding the pain that black people endure is still relevant and pervasive and popular culture. To read more about the problematic act of branding black pain and these two specific cases, visit this site.

Photo #2: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-most-racist-ads-of-the-modern-era-2012-6#burger-king-and-mary-j-blige-got-blasted-for-this-fried-chicken-commercial-4

Branding blackness and the construction of prototypical whiteness also have consequence on surveillance and the practices of biometrics in regards to the recognition and verification that accompanies these practices.From the linear fashion in which artificial boundaries are regulated within biometric technology causing false identifications to the facial-scan system by video cameras being optimized for lighter-skinned users, I agree with Browne that as long as biometric technology relies on probability, surveillance in the US will remain racial and flawed. Once again reminiscent of the transatlantic slave trade when black people were separated by category of fit, people under surveillance are separated into stringent linear categories that deny subjectivity. From living in South Central Los Angeles, a predominately colored neighborhood, I know that this reality gives way to an inequality of surveillance as I note the frequently present helicopters technologically surveilling the streets from above. Will Smith’s quote in Browne’s article also notes that awareness of being under constant surveillance is an enduring condition of Black life. Furthermore, this article states that the government has reported its use of extensive surveillance resources to identify black activists they deem “extremists”. The article states that the “FBI thinks it can identify security threats by scrutinizing people’s beliefs and speech.” (Talbot, 2017) This is yet another example of people in power can socially construct someone’s identity and employ negative consequences in response. What frustrates me the most about this point is that surveillance technologies are known to advantage whiteness even though communities of color are surveilled more frequently.

To conclude these various arguments, Browne wants us to use these examples and realities of blackness to critically think about our history with punishment and torture as the borders of biometric technology increasingly close in on us.

#Epidermalization #branding #blackness #whiteness #brandingblack #biometrics #advertising

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