What To Do When Your Child Mortifies You with a Racial Remark

Your 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…

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Can you be a Chicken and still be a good intercultural communicator?

Can 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,…

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Intercultural Competence, Socrates and Charlie Chan

US 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…

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Dillon’s Pick: Confederate Insurance Company? Ouch!

Dillon’s pick this week is the ad above for “Confederate Family Insurance. It was so offensive, that we realized it couldn’t possibly be true.  Indeed, it is from Spike Lee’s faux documentary “Confederate States of America,” that looks at the US as thought the South had won the Civil War. It’s extreme representations, however, provide perfect…

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Leo, Conan, and Representations of Americans in Ads Outside of US

There’s so much fodder just looking at stereotypes and unconscious bias in US advertising, that there’s not much time to take a look at ads in other countries, but this ad (thanks to Larry Kolb in Rgober Ebert’s Journal) is a fun peek into advertising appearances by Hollywood stars in Japan. Having been asked at a park in…

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I’m not Prejudiced, My Best Friend is White

David Giantasio questioned on Adfreak, why, after becoming an ex-smoker, the “hero” of the ad (from Amercian Legacy, the NATC, the Ad Council and GSD&M Idea City) didn’t shoot higher than bowling (above) or operating a fork-lift.  As an ex-smoker (June 24, 1986, but who’s keeping track?) the week you quit smoking  really is not the time to take on…

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