I found out from my Chinese-American friend (my designation-not sure how he self-identifies) on his Facebook update today that he felt misled by what he thought was a traditional Mexican holiday.  However, he discovered and shared that:
Cinco de Mayo is only a big deal in America. It’s not even a holiday in Mexico…It’s actually a Hallmark Holiday!!!
Is Cinco [...]

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When 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, [...]

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Have you heard the old joke that plays on the philosophical question about a tree falling in the forest?  You know the one… “If you’re in the forest and you say something wrong and your spouse (of course I’m going with the gender neutral version!) doesn’t hear you, are you still wrong?”
While seemingly innocuous, it [...]

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I’m used to the anthropological idea of cultural equivalence when talking about things like translation or  kreplach versus tortellini, but I found the presumably viral listing of 32+ versions of the Jewish prayer song “Adon Olum” that showed up in my in-box today fascinating.  For a ‘people’ who were almost eradicated by the Holocaust and who have only had a homeland for 60 years, [...]

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 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 Daily [...]

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 I took Dillon and one of his classmates to the Chinese New Year parade in Chicago’s Chinatown yesterday.  You have to love culture in an urban environment:  there were dragons and lion dancers and colorful floats from various Asian-American Chambers of Commerce, but also the Irish Shamrock Rovers and marching bands and drill teams from [...]

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I got an unexpected lesson in Cross-Cultural Communications last week at the “Almost Home” celebration at Kegel Harley Davidson in Rockford, IL.  Looking across the field of hundreds of ‘bikers’ wearing faded Levi’s and t-shirts, I felt consciously aware of my striped Capri pants and tailored shirt.  “There are no other children here,” I also [...]

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 I’ve been pondering this issue of “Cultural Tourism,” and realize that the better term for what I am talking about, experiencing and appreciating other cultures in a way to diminish prejudice, is more accurately named Urban Anthropology.  A tourist, by definition, is “someone who is traveling for pleasure.”  It is a passive view from the [...]

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I know, I know, many an ‘anti-racist’ will say that simply enjoying the foods and traditions of another culture as a ‘tourist’ does nothing to combat racism.  But, honestly, I disagree.  I’m raising a 7 year old, and for now I’m not going to go into in-depth history to explain why there is racism and [...]

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