There’s a catch phrase in the environmental movement that says “Think Globally.   Act Locally.”  Global advertisers might be well served by doing  the reverse.

Of course companies selling internationally need to localize their messages to appeal to regional and national markets.  But they must also think globally. 

You have to assume that any ad, no matter how/where it’s targeted, can and will be seen by anyone, anywhere.

So, while Yum Brands (owner of KFC) pulled the ad in Australia, they seem to attribute the problem not to the content of the ad itself, but that  

“a KFC commercial being shown on Australian television has apparently caused offence, particularly in the United States, after a copy of the commercial was reproduced online without KFC’s permission.”

Indeed comments following the first ad, above, have said “you dont understand cricket or Austrialian Culture.”  Okay, so maybe you could give that one the benefit of the doubt, albeit a poor choice.

But, clearly not when coupled with this ad below, from Korea, featuring black, West Indian “savages” soothed by their civilized Korean captive, when he magically produces fried chicken for all.

Just a note about the ad content–while the lesson is that advertisers should anticipate response from anywhere to any ad, regardless of target market, that doesn’t excuse racist content to begin with. 

What do you think?

WIXX (101.1FM) rightly decided to stop airing a peculiar 1950s ballad about a love-struck Native American couple after listeners complained about the banter surrounding the song, “Running Bear.” Listeners told Menominee tribal member Richie Plass, a Native American activist, that whooping and inappropriate comments regarding Native Americans accompanied the song, which aired regularly on Fridays on “Murphy in the Morning” until last week.

Another recent event that screamed cultural ignorance was the students who dressed as the KKK to create a film for a history class in Lumpkin County, and caused concern and fear when they walked through the cafeteria at their school.  One response of the school district (in addition to putting the teacher on leave while the incident is investigated) was to “review all class films for approval before proceeding.”

I would love to create a “tool kit” sort of dialogue box that would be required any time an incident like this happens.  As the Greenbay editorial says, ignorance should no longer be an excuse for perpetuating stereotypes.  That said, the dialogue following an event like this usually gets stopped at”what were they thinking,” or in a contrast between “you’re racist” and “you’re too sensitive.” (If you’re not sure what I mean, read through the comments following reporting of any incident of this kind.)

And in the end, the solution is usually “we will never do this again.”  That sounds good–public institutions, media, etc. should not be perpetuating racism. 

But the unfortunate side is that in the absence of good, deep facilitated dialogue to understand the origins of the stereotype, the different cultural perspectives and how we can learn from this incident, we end up silenced. 

And it was silence and complicity that allowed racism to grow in the first place.

What conversations are you not having?

Intercultural Talk was delighted to catch up with Dr. Charlton McIlwain following his ‘appearance’ on DoctorRadio on Sirius/XM Radio earlier this week, talking about “Teaching Kids about Race.” 

1.  What are the top three pointers you have for parents when teaching kids about race?

2.  Does how one talks about race with their children change based on the race of the parents, e.g. will (should?) African-Americans teach it differently than Caucasians?  If a family is multi-racial, will that make it different?

That’s a good question. I think my first reaction would be to say no – that how one talks about race with children should be the same no matter your racial/ethnic background. That being said, it is certainly likely that the content of what one talks about will be quite different. When we look at the historical underpinnings of race and racism people of different backgrounds have played very different roles and groups of people have been affected differently. Thus, a white parent speaking to his or her children may find themselves explaining to their children what role other whites had in something like slavery, or having to answer a question like, “Why do Black people think I’m a racist because I’m White?” On the other hand, a  Black parent may find him or herself addressing comments or questions like, “Why are White people prejudiced? or Why are there so few people that look like me on Television or in my school textbook? A multiracial family may find themselves having to address all of these and more! The truth is, everyone from all backgrounds should probably confront all of these types of questions and issues, but some may be more salient than others depending on one’s background.
 

3.  How might parents avoid passing along their own unconscious bias when talking to kids about race?

Being able and willing to recognize them when they come up. Be willing to point out and talk about those biases when they are expressed by their children. Try to impress on children that when they express some bias or prejudice, the object is not simply to not say it or express it again. It’s to think through why those biases may or may not be true, hurtful, harmful, etc.. In this way kids learn to be aware of and be able to police their own biases and expressions rather than merely censoring them.

4.  Any tips for helping children respond if they are the recipients of a racist remark (or does even asking this question set up a defensiveness going in for the child) 

Try to teach them that they should not respond in kind. Try to teach them that they should not accept or internalize the underlying prejudices and sentiments of the remark. Try to teach them that in many cases they should seek out an ally – a parent, teacher, principal – who will be able to talk to the person who made the remark.

5.  What question am I missing? What final advice might you provide for parents?

I would say that point one under question one is by far the most important thing. Make sure you are willing, and that your children know you are willing to talk about race and racial issues any time – before something happens, after something happens, if nothing happens…

Dr. McIlwain is an Associate Professor of Media, Culture & Communication at New York University.  His expertise, research and teaching focus on race and media and racial discourse in the United States.  Intercultural Talk ( @cultureguru) recommends keeping up with him @cmcilwain) and @smcaliendo and their Project on Race in Political Communication on Twitter.

Any additional tips you would share?  What’s worked for you?  What hasn’t?

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 these moments (remember the children’s summer camp that was asked to leave the Country Club pool last summer).  These articles rightly so express the pain of the child/parent, who is black, and astonishment, denial and/or defensiveness of the offender or offender’s parents who are white. 

But what seems missing is the doorway to learning that this opens for the white child.  Without discussion, what the white child may glean is A) they’ve talked about race, B.) all the adults have freaked out, and, C) by the transitive theory in math, where if A=B and B=C then A=C…then talking about race freaks people out so don’t ever do it again.

And that, my friend, is the perfect formula for passing unconscious bias, prejudice, and funky racial dynamics onto the next generation.

Just as we would help our children learn to read, write, add and subtract, we need to teach them intercultural competence.  It’s generally not taught in school, and it’s something we might want to frame in the home anyway, right up there with morals and beliefs.

So we have to talk, even when it’s hard.

In the hand shaking incident referenced above, it was MY reaction that was wrong…the more Dillon refused to shake hands the more anxious and insistent I got.  I got nervous thinking “he’s going to think Dillon’s resisting because he’s black.”  He didn’t, but I think our mutual friend who introduced us did.   

The better answer (now with the luxury of months to think about it) might have been “Sorry, he has a touchy germ issue—it goes over really well when he shouts ‘No!’ at the sweet Jewish ladies who try to hand him cookies at synagogue on Saturdays!”  In fact at the time he wouldn’t even eat sandwiches if I had touched them. 

On the lesbian name calling (yes, that was my son, too).  It was more practical…and brief–we haven’t even explained heterosexual relationships yet, let alone homosexual ones–  1.)  You generally don’t have a relationship with someone in your own family whether you like boys or girls (a la the Sister reference); and some people are lesbians, and that’s okay, it’s just a natural way of being, so you wouldn’t want to use that as though it was an insult, because there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just different.

Most of these discussions are hard because they have to do more with our own “hang-ups.”  I’m hyper-aware of racial inequities, privilege and unconscious bias, but as an adult tend to lean toward “politically correct,” gender/race neutral language (aka euphemisms)—which doesn’t work with children who need simple, specific, actionable language.

All I know is when his class discussed war and the military in Social Studies and the topic of homosexuals in the military came up, Dillon said all of the other children giggled at the word homosexual.  He was the one who pointed out that the US policy was discriminatory.  You go, Dillon!

Will I get it wrong?  Probably.  Will I have a chance to notice that and try again?  As long as I’m a mom.

What has your child said that mortified you?  What did you do?

Photo credit:  Stuff White People Do

Dillon, bless his little heart, at only 8 years old had to get a root canal last week.  He had broken his tooth while playing last March, and unfortunately it had gotten infected.

But that’s not the real story.  My husband was in the room with him as the Dentist got started.  “Would you like some gas before I give you the novacaine?” he asked.  Don’t all Dentists offer that before a procedure?

“Is that the gas they used to kill the Jews?” my son, who is Jewish, asked.  Despite all reassurances otherwise, Dillon refused to let the Dentist administer the gas.

I know we’re not the only ones who have these moments.  Love Isn’t Enough is a blog devoted to ‘anti-racist parenting,’ and Stephen Caliendo talked about his experience of visiting the Lincoln Museum with his nine year old daughter, both in an edited version on Dawn Turner Trice’s blog at the Chicago Tribune, Exploring Race, and in a longer version on his own blog, This Week in Race at the raceproject.org.

Sometime’s we’re speechless because of the depth of insight from such a little person.  Sometimes we’re speechless because we’re not sure how the comment comes across to those around us.  In this case, the Dentist was the only Muslim in a practice with three other (presumably, by name) Jewish Doctors.  “Will this dentist think we are racist?” crossed my husband’s mind, as though Dillon really thought the Dentist meant to do him harm.

I imagine the context in this case is twofold:  We visited the Holocaust Museum in in Washington DC last month, and he also recently brought a book home from the library, Someone Named Eva, by Joan M. Wolf, about (per Dillon’s description, we haven’t read it yet) a blond haired, blued eye Jewish girl who gets taken from her family and adopted by a German Famly and forgets her family and that she is Jewish.

As a Jew, I felt obligated to do the former, when we were in DC.  Now, perhaps the latter, reading the book together chapter by chapter at bedtime, will give us a chance to help him process what he saw as we build discussion of his feelings and thoughts into our conversations around the book.

Just forgetting about it and hoping it won’t come up again is one way to respond, but I don’t think that works.  For me, my “MO” has been to remember what was said, think about it, and reapproach the subject when I’ve had a chance to frame the discussion.  Starting with a book or work of art as a prompt is helpful.

What do you do?  What has your child said about race that stumped you?  How did you respond? 

Photo credit James Glave

In the post “Beyond White Guilt: The Role of Allies in the Struggle for Racial Equality,” at This Week in Race blog, the authors point out sources of “latent racism, not of any conscious bigotry,” using the lesson of Rosa Parks. 

“As another example, school children who were educated in the second half of the 20th century, unless they were part of an Afrocentric curriculum, likely learned that Rosa Parks was an elderly woman who was too tired from a hard day of work as a seamstress to get out of her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955.” (Uh huh, I got that one right on the test…)

“Though Rosa Parks did work the day she was arrested, she was not old (42), and while she was, indeed, tired, her real fatigue was from injustice and frustration that her work with the NAACP was not yielding enough publicity for the cause. Rosa Parks was an advocate for racial justice and was participating in an act of civil disobedience when she refused to give up her seat.” (Ohhh….)

While I find the language of the article to be a little alienating “why white liberals are unable to grasp and take action to expose, challenge and provide alternatives to the racism spouted from the right” (it assigns a group responsibility and doesn’t acknowledge individual action, kind of like when people ask why moderate Muslims don’t stand up against extremists), and the concept of “white ally” to be a little counterproductive (a vision for a better world and the commitment and heart to work on it doesn’t need “permission,” as ally suggests, to proceed)  the example is right-on in terms of how we (white?) learn and understand the dynamics and history of race relations in the US.

I’m moved by this post from to ask my 8 year old son who studied this in school last year, “why” he thinks Rosa Parks gave up her seat, in an act that led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.   As I consciously work to raise an anti-racist child, am I (or his school, society, etc.) teaching him the same unconscious bias with which I was raised?

Photo Credit:  AP on bbc.co.uk

We got to the page where Momma Cat told Tom Kitten to put on his blue suit, only to discover it was too small.  As we looked at the drawing of an orange tabby bursting out of his blue knickers and top, Dillon says in a successful attempt to make his cousin laugh, “He looks like a nigger!”

 ”Whoa.  Guys… where did that come from?”  When he saw my reaction he said “I didn’t know–it’s just us.” 

Back in December I posted about explaining the power, racism and history of the word ‘nigger’, when Dillon first learned it.  “Well, we’ve had that discussion, I’m glad we’re done with that,” I had thought.

Where had it come from tonight?  I thought of some of the conversations in the car on the way home from dinner:

• Reading Tom Sawyer-Tom Sawyer Huckleberry Finn-Huckleberry Finn-Nigger;
• Comparing summer camps-both camps had bullies-Noah had been called a “honkey” and “cracker”, discussed possible responses and adult/counselor responsibility;
• Getting ready to go back to school-talking about diversity in their classrooms (Noah’s school is more diverse, “most of my friends are black,” Dillon’s school primarily Caucasian, with Hispanic the second largest group);

But back to the “it’s just us” idea–there’s a subtle distinction that we hadn’t discussed last time.  

In diversity training and inclusion, often it is about what to say when someone else is listening.  In ‘real life,’ it’s racist not ONLY if you say it in earshot of someone who is African American–use of the word itself is racist, regardless of who is listening.  It’s something you carry in your heart.

Anyone else with sweaty palms?  What was your (gift of a) most uncomfortable conversation about race with your child (or co-worker, friend, etc.)?  What are you saying when no one is looking?

I’m nervous about the “Beer Summit” tonight.  It actually could be a great opportunity to have a meaningful conversation about how stereotypes and bias play out in the media, and how that, in turn, influences perception and even behavior.

But I’m afraid the framework for tonight’s meeting isn’t right.  With the focus on “who’s drinking what” the power of the moment is turning into simply a photo op-probably of Gates and Crowley reluctantly shaking hands, with Obama smiling in between.

It feels like a train wreck waiting to happen.   Why?

1. There should be other people involved for a real discussion.  With just President Obama, Gates, and Crowley…if/when they don’t agree on what happened, will they just glare at each other coldly in uncomfortable silence?  Certainly the President should not be taking sides in a he said/she said (okay, he said/he said).

2. I’d love to see Lucia Whalen there, too.  Why does it feel like, once again, the woman is marginalized, off in the corner having to defend herself, and not brought to the table for discussion?  After all, it was the misrepresentation of her as privileged white woman reporting break-in by black men (she’s Portuguese-American, and did not identify the race, saying only ‘maybe Hispanic’ when pushed) that initially fueled the cut-and-dried view of the story.

3. Needs some balanced, comic relief, to help the conversation move forward, and hopefully get to a deeper level of understanding.  Perhaps now that Jon Stewart is the “most trusted man in news” he could be involved, and bring with him Larry Wilmore, the Senior Black Correspondent on The Daily Show.

I really do think a mature conversation about institutional racism (e.g. racial profiling in the justice system) and how it affects people’s lives, how media reports perpetuate stereotypes, and perhaps even how technology (e.g. the ability to play tapes and record actual events) can ultimately help would be really interesting.

Finally, as long as I’m making this up, I’m going to suggest that my colleague Tracie Hall, Founder of GoodSeed Consulting, and I head over to facilitate the conversation, and I’m sure Tracie also would have a couple of thought leaders to involve.

“Dear Mr. President, You’re on the right track, but you’re making a grave mistake.  I think we can help…”

 Who do you think should be there?

Photo Credit:  defekto on flickr