You’re at a black tie event. You’re looking for the restroom. Who do you ask? “Me,” joked our new friend who spontaneously joined us at our table at a recent black-tie-event, jovially laughing at the third time in the last 10 minutes he’d been asked for directions. “It’s hard to be a black man in…
There’s an exercise that I’ve seen used in diversity trainings that has to do with labeling or cultural identification. On a piece of paper, create two columns. On the left, list the groups you would use to describe yourself, that you might identify with. For example I’m white, Jewish, Female, mother, social justice, close affinity…
On the Daily Show earlier this week, Senior Black Correspondent (his formal title on the show) Larry Wilmore pointed out Jon Stewart’s implicit assumptions: “So what you’re saying is in these times the new face of criminality is now white.” “I’m glad you’re finally admitting that you thought it was black,” is Wilmore’s response. The…
Call me crazy, but if I owned a company that had as many discrimination lawsuits against it as Denny’s, I don’t know that I would lead with an ad that purposely uses ethnic stereotypes to relay its message. Over the years Denny’s has faced suits from groups of African Americans, Muslim Americans, employees, women…perhaps they…
In today’s “politically correct” world, many advertisers want to include people of different backgrounds in advertising for products that reach across a variety of markets. The key is to make sure that the images are integrated into the ‘story-line’ of the ad, and to make sure they do not perpetuate stereotypes. One ad that gets…
