It was the big, burly, African American football player gushing on and on about caring for his Yorkie post surgery for a hurt paw that really opened my mom’s eyes. “I figured he wouldn’t be interested,” said my mom, about signing her petition to end puppy mills in Missouri, “but I needed the signatures.” Not…
DetailsWhen I was growing up, every year on Passover our tradition was that my sisters and I could each invite one non-Jewish friend (aka Gentile) to join us at Seder. It was only in reinstating that practice as an adult, did I realize there might be some angst involved on the part of the guest,…
DetailsIt’s day five of Spring break, and my 8 year old is challenging my intercultural (aka intergenerational) communications competence. While we have disagreed on a plethora of other things this week (I love my child, I love my child) we both agreed yesterday that “how can I claim to be a great arbitrator,…
DetailsMy Aunt used to stand near people at the big art shows and just eavesdrop to see what they thought the artist was saying. Another Uncle just used to waive away all modern art as something a child could create. And who hasn’t produced a piece of white paper and called it “Ghost in the…
DetailsWhat does this American Airlines’ ad have in common with the movie Monsters, Inc? Both envision a workplace with no women in it. Oh, wait, there was the young ‘un wanting to get married and the tough old broad in Monsters, Inc.—the same two archetypes in “The Absent Minded Professor” and probably most other movies…
DetailsYour 7 year old child who is white hesitates to shake someone’s hand who is African-American. Your first grader tells another student she’s “a lesbian with her sister.” You were there. You weren’t there. You are the most open, anti-racist, multicultural person you know. Where did your child get this from? I’ve seen stories about…
DetailsMy 8 year old son made his own dinner the other night. We were at the grocery store, he saw a bagged frozen entree of sauteed shrimp, pasta and vegetables, asked if we could buy it, went home, read the directions and cooked it all by himself. Yes, I stayed nearby to make sure he…
DetailsCan you be a chicken and still be a good intercultural communicator?* The short answer is “no.” I was having an amazing conversation today (or as I said, let’s talk about something really interesting, let’s talk about me!”) with Marti Barletta of Trendsight today. Marti is the premier provider of ‘marketing to women’ insights and ideas,…
DetailsI remember taking an improv class years ago, and we used to play a pantomime game called “What Are You Doing?”. It involved acting something out so the class could guess, and whoever guessed would then go up and start a new action for the class to ask, “what are you doing.” At one point,…
DetailsUS business culture norms today are all about action and the bottom line. “Show me the money!” Think about it. If Socrates were working at a corporation in the US today, with all of his thinking and pontificating, his boss might say “he’s full of baloney…what has he actually DONE?” (or more likely, “Socrates, stop…
Details
