Shoulder Pads, Affirmative Action and Cliched Views of Race

Quick.  Gut answer.  If you see an African American and a Caucasian person debating Affirmative Action, which side of the fence  would you imagine each is on? As students prepare to return to college for the fall, an article on NPR last week explored “Affirmative Action:  How Far Have We Come?” reflecting on the case…

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Unconsious Bias Between Blacks and Whites: Friend or Foe?

I just spent 1/2 an hour watching Rhett and Link’s local commercials at ilovelocalcommercials.com,  which are absolutely wonderful snippets of middle America and small town businesses that have been nominated (by anyone…nominate your favorite business) to have a free local commercial made for them by Rhett and Link, sponsored by MicroBilt. Some local commercials beg…

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Shrek’s Donkey is Black?

Dillon came home from a great field trip last week with Northlight Theatre Camp to see Shrek the Musical, presented by Broadway in Chicago at the Cadillac Theatre in Chicago. “How was the play, I asked?” mostly thinking it was a cute and innocuous attempt by Broadway to engage younger audiences (although I heard gasps…

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The Race Test: I am White

White Tim White talks a lot about White Privilege, White Peggy McIntosh is well-known for “Unpacking the White Knapsack” about what it means to be white, and most recently, White Mikhail Lyubansky, professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois, takes a stab at the notion in his article on psychologytoday.com, “Going Where Glenn Beck…

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Gray Meets Brown: Older Whites and Young Diversity Boon for Intercultural Communications

  I saw an ad on late nite TV last night for a pharmaceutical promoted as critical to help men’s health as they age.  The patient was an older white man, and the doctor (also a man) was African American. According to a recent article by Ronald Brownstein in the National Journal Magazine, “The Gray…

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Finding the Value of Interculturalism in Every Day Acts: Jamie Foxx sings The Brady Bunch

What happens when you open yourself up to different interpretations of the same item?  That’s what intercultural communications does–it encourages you to see things through a different lens…to look at something through another perspective. In the workplace (or in real life) the theory is that it can explode the average white bread experience (aka The…

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Multicultural Marketing and the Origin of Asian Girl Stereotypes in Advertising?

There’s been much discussion of late about the dynamic between multicultural marketing agencies vs general market agencies–as the latter begins to expand its offerings, the former is prompted to justify its deeper insight and its superior positioning as an ethnic specific agency. And even within General Market Agecies there’s discussion about the “profile” of the multicultural marketing…

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