In the United States, the White Supremacists may feel that they are back in the reckoning since Donald Trump entered the White House and in our very own India, a casting director may think that a fair-skinned heroine won’t fit-in with the dark-skinned hero, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, the world is slowly and surely adopting multiculturalism.
Although multiculturalism can be observed in the daily lives of people in the world, racial, ethnic and religious diversity is yet to enter the mainstream in a way that is fully representative of the demographics in the continent. Companies are beginning to realize that their services and marketing techniques are not as diverse as global demographics are, and are introducing new multicultural brand initiatives to slowly combat this fact.
Google’s ‘Code Next’ coding lab in Oakland was introduced to target minority students. The lab is aimed specifically at young black and Latino students and was created to help counter the lack of gender and cultural diversity in many STEM fields and industries.
Fashion is slowly adopting a less rigid standard of beauty, with both large companies and small emerging businesses seeking to accommodate people that fit outside the non-inclusive standard of attractiveness that for a long time, the fashion industry viewed to be the epitome of beauty. This can be seen in the emerging business ‘TruNude,‘ which offers nude bras that come in a range of shades rather than the pale beige colors that most larger companies offer — which are not considered nude for people with darker skin.
Makeup brands are coming out with products designed for women of colour, college campuses in America are celebrating festivals like Holi and even doll manufacturers are making dolls of Latina and African look. The most ground-breaking effort was seen when Hijab was allowed as a permissible uniform for beach-volleyball.
Wether it is moral consciousness that is driving brands to initiate inclusive marketing strategy or it’s sheer dynamics of demand and supply is yet to be tested. Whatever it may be, it is applaudable.