The “Other Side” of Intercultural Parenting

Just like a website has the public face and then the ‘behind the scenes techinical side,’ so for Intercultural Parenting there is the social side of raising a child with intercultural awareness and sensitivity, and then there’s Intercultural Parenting–two parents of different cultures parenting together…or more like side-by-side…or is it one after the other? I…

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Hey Ladies, How About Some Shoes and Shopping to Go With Your Yogurt

I’m always quick to jump on images OF women in media, but here is a great series on breaking down ads targeted to women.  In this critique of yogurt ads, feminist and comedian Sarah Haskins highlights every stereotype of women’s desires/habits possible, from dieting to shopping to shoes.  If you already knew Sarah Haskins…why didn’t you…

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Defying Assumptions: Samasource Provides Internet Jobs to Refugees in Kenya/Somalia and Beyond

  I’ve seen “Blood Diamond.”  I’ve seen the “Migrations:  History in Transition” photography exhibit by Brazilian photojournalist Sabastião Salgado.  I’ve walked through the “Doctors without Borders” traveling “model” refugee camp.   I’ve even cried looking at the static images of suffering of those poor, poor people displaced and ravaged in far away lands by war and…

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Culture Shock: Still Can’t Adjust to Eating Bugs, but Doesn’t Stop Passion for International Volunteerism

  Bug Buffet, source foodista.com Sorry, I know it’s sophomoric, but when I wanted an image to communicate Culture Shock (from a United States/Western European perspective) I couldn’t resist the photo of basically a ‘bug buffet.”  I know I’ve heard they are full of protein, even tasy, but from my own cultural perspective, I don’t…

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Intercultural Communications as Antidote to “What Do You Do” Courtesy Nod

I was at a dinner party the other night, and I found myself leaning in when the gentlemen with whom I was speaking said he did “communications infrastructure” for a living.  It’s one of those terms that you kind of know what it means, but not really.  You know it’s really important and helps the…

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Unconscious Bias #44 Revealed: Skinny, White, Beautiful Blondes, aka “Shiksas”

    Let me clarify two things upfront, before explaining my most recent revelation of unconscious bias: 1) Self-revelation of an unconscious bias is the best way to address it and overcome it. It’s like the old AA adage. You have to acknowledge there’s a problem first. 2) I was about to defend my use…

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Happy Halloween. I’m Going as a Brazilian. Or a Jew. Or a Brazilian Jew.

Doesn’t everyone have that one friend who doesn’t dress up for Halloween, but likes to come up with ways to describe his/her costume anyway, as in “I’m dressed as a pedestrian.” At first I declared I was dressed Brazilian, after deciding not to change my shirt in response to my 8 year old’s announcement that “I…

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