I’ve traveled a fair bit, though mainly in Asia.
In Cuba I saw a fair number of grotesque charactures of Africans, despite the large proportion of the population having some African ancestry, used in advertising. Not unusual if you consider the logos/mascots used here by businesses. However, these were emphasizing physical attributes to create the character. Exaggerating features is a fairly common behavior in creating the idea of “others”, making them more animalistic and easier to consider inferior. This becomes an issue as Cuban society is highly stratified based on skin tone. It’s perfectly acceptable to have a stereotype of a black savage as the mascot for your bar in a society that considers dark skin inferior.
Undermines my previous idea about lack of exposure, but it’s the first example that came to mind. More of an example of how these symbols can be open and still racist.
