With a beautiful woman lying on a bed of rose petals, Air France’s ad in the November 17 Wall Street Journal promises to “surround you with thoughtful details throughout your flight:  considerate, personalized service, Champagne, unlimited beverages, newspapers, magazines, and varied appetizing menus.”

Sounds inviting, right?  Except that the rose petals are in the shape of an airplane (think chalk outline of murder victim, albeit filled in) in the middle of a green field…looking ominously like the outline of Flight 93 in the field near Shanksville, PA, killing all 44 people on board, among thousands who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.

Yikes…maybe the marketing department should have paid more attention during history class?  Be curious to know the response to the ad.  I for one am feeling a little afraid.

Lucca and I picked up this book, Drita: My Homegirl, by Jenny Lombard, on a recent visit to the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.  While understandably a book cover showing the back of two elementary-aged school girls was initially an automatic “no” from my 10 year old son, we (that as probably me) decided to get it after reading the back cover:

“Lombard has created two strong and distinct characters, sensitively explores the effects of war on one family, and illuminates the power of friendship to overcome obstacles.”

It’s never easy to explain (who even understands themselves?) how 1.5M children were killed in the Holocaust, or the images of war on TV and in the news today.

This book isn’t that “heavy” per se, but it is really.  Drita is a refugee from Kosovo, coming to the US with her Grandmother, mother, and baby brother, to reunite with their father who is already here.  Maxie is a 5th grader who lives with her father and grandmother, having lost her mother in a car crash.  

The two don’t become fast friends…at first.  We see insights into both of their lives, Drita adjusting to a new culture, her mom suffering from severe post-tramatic stress syndrome; Maxie adjusting to her dad starting to date again.

Whoa, with all of those serious topics, it’s hard to believe that it’s a kids book, but that’s what’s so great about it.  Things are “dosed” out, or explained, or come through a child’s eye, but in a supportive environment, so that they’re easier to understand, or so that we can see things through the characters eyes.   Each chapter of the story is told in first person, but alternates from one girl to the other, so we see the same story or situation through different eyes.

For us, it’s not a book I would have given to my son and said have a nice read…we read it together, a chapter or two at a time, at bedtime, over the course of a few weeks, and loved it.  But I always recommend broaching tough subjects together–so that we can answer questions, or look historical details up as we go, to learn together along the way.

And speaking of learning along the way, now that Lucca is 10, and we’ve been having these intercultural outings and discussions along the way, I realize pretty soon he may be the one leading the way…as seen from our first take of this review….I think my son just dissed my exemplary multicultural presence…

The short version of the review of Hop is that People Magazine gave Hop 3 (out of 4) stars and my son liked it.  It features a cute bunny and a cute leading man…something for the kids and for the moms…plus 100’s of adorable baby chicks.  How could you go wrong, right? 

But early on themes of engagement and inclusion, disparity, and feudalism started to bubble through. 

The first “cringe” moment was Carlos’ sad “Go on, enjoy your life of privilege” that he calls after EB (the Easter Bunny’s son, pre-ordained to fill the position when dad retires) as he hops off to go play, shouting “later” over his shoulder, in response to his father’s suggestion that it’s time to learn the family business.

Carlos, who speaks with an unmistakable Hispanic accent, is a giant yellow chic who runs the Easter Bunny factory, managing the day to day work of 100’s of yellow baby chicks, impeccably churning out millions of perfect chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, Easter baskets and more.  “Will we be ready for Easter?” asks the patriarchal Easter Bunny?  “Yes, boss,” answers Carlos, showing off the efficiencies and improvements he has implemented around the factory.  He clearly knows the business better than anyone, including the boss himself.

Yet when EB runs away to pursue his dream of becoming a professional drummer and Carlos suggests that perhaps he can fill in, he is brushed off without a moment’s consideration. 

“You need someone who knows the business to take his place,” hints Carlos. 

“But who could that be?” asks the Easter Bunny. 

“Me, boss,” says Carlos.

“You!?” the Easter Bunny responds, laughing uncontrollably at Carlos’ fantastic joke.  “Can you imagine the Easter Chick? A chick could NEVER be the Easter Bunny!”  Ouch.

At this point I thought there was a distinct Pro Engagement and Inclusion message.  Carlos clearly was a leader, hard worker, and with his strong accent in contrast to the patriarchal whiteness of the Boss, I felt the injustice of his situation.

But suddenly the propaganda machine swings into full gear, warning of the dangers of what would happen if minorities were allowed into leadership positions. 

The Easter Bunny leaves to search for his son.  Carlos stages a coup, taking over the factory. 

After years of careful attention to every detail of the factory, Carlos declares that now that he is in charge all of the kiddies will get baskets of dirt and worms.  Yellow furry bunny ears sprout from his head, two prominent front teeth pop out from his mouth, and his feet quadruple in size, as he becomes a gigantic fuzzy yellow evil monster rabbit-chick (you could argue this one for either side:  ANTI-if a minority gets in power they will destroy everything, or PRO-see what happens if someone is forced to emulate the majority population, just to be accepted?)

In the end, white privilege reigns.  EB and Fred, the human who befriends EB when he runs away—a white, male, 26ish out of work slacker, return to over throw Carlos, “save” the factory, and, after having demonstrated no effort or actual competency, take over as “co-Easter Bunnies,” one because he was born into the family, the other because he just “felt he’d be good at it.”

So in the end, when my son says, “did you like the movie?”   Where do I begin?

Did you see Hop?  What do you think?  More importantly, what did your kids think?

It’s not the first time I’ve dared to comment on a blog that was talking about bias and/or racial identity, and it’s not the first time I’ve been taken aback by the immediate and vitriolic response.

In this case it was an article by Dr. Boyce Watkins on the Black Voices blog, “CNN Fires Rick Sanchez for Speaking Out Against Racism.“  While he is right in recognizing bias and discrimination in media, I don’t see how one can expect to make a point about one group, while talking in a racist way about another group.

At any rate, I found the article itself to be confusing–there definitely seems to be a gap between Rick Sanchez’ connection to Jon Stewart (the ultimate comment was that he called Steward a bigot, after suggesting Jews controlled the media–a classic conspiracy theory designed to corral suspicion) and whether there was any actual connection to Stewart in this case, or he was just using Stewart as a representation of an entire group of people (can you say stereotype?). 

But the comments, 107 total, including a couple from me, are fascinating in the realm of competitive victimization–who has it worse off–blacks, Jews or Hispanics, with a sprinkling of racist hues, to simple opinions about whether Sanchez was a good reporter or not. They are interesting (or perhaps saddening is the better word) to read just to see where “real people” play out, regardless of the public dialogue.

In the end, I’m left feeling like I’ve just finished an exercise in futility.  No one has really connected to anyone else, it’s a little like a shouting match, and the vehicle doesn’t allow for any sort of greater knowledge or healing to emerge. 

At a bare minimum, it suggests to me that even with the infinite ability to connect to anyone, anywhere, about any subject, time spent interacting and building relationships in the “real world” might be more productive in the end.

Well, to get the final insight into Stewart’s reaction to Sanchez’ comments, I went straight to the source.  Here’s Stewart’s response to Sanchez on the Daily Show.

NPR’s Bill Chappell shares more on The Two-Way, NPR’s news blog.

This may be an attempt at the most politically correct ad ever….representatives of diverse cultures, underlying green themes, and low-sodium….as long as no-one takes offense to leprechaun jokes!

That’s how I feel after reading about Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, 18, a freshman at Rutgers University, who committed suicide after his roommate Dharun Ravi and fellow freshman Molly Wei secretly filmed a sexual encounter between Clementi and another man in his dorm room and broadcast it across the Internet.

Raise your hand if you are gay, but didn’t come out until college.

College is a time of incredible growth and discovery about yourself as an individual.  For many it’s the first time you are on your own.  It’s a time of incredible vulnerability, but also a chance to embrace or claim your true identity.

Bias is thinking that someone else’s customs are less than your own.

Bias is believing–consciously or unconsciously– that because a person’s lifestyle doesn’t match the majority norm it’s okay to ridicule.

Well, it’s not.

Currently Ravi and Wei are being charged with invasion of privacy.  If you ask me, it’s a hate crime (Bias-crime charges are being weighed in the case.)

Or, if you look at the case of Phoebe Prince, a recent immigrant from Ireland who hanged herself in response to cyber-bullying, perhaps murder is the better charge.

My deepest sympathies go out to Clementi’s family.

In intercultural communications, in the framework of Geert Hoftstede, it’s Individualism vs. Collectivism:  in individualistic societies, individuals look after themselves and immediate family first; in collective societies people are integrated into extended groups, where the benefit to the group comes first.

Over the past few weeks, gearing up for the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, (it was 9/25, 13 hours of free, live jazz at 13 venues across Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood), I kept finding myself saying to the objections of others who know me, “I’m just not that nice.”

Volunteers who would spend 12 hours on the “job;”  Volunteers bribing their friends to come move boxes on a moment’s notice; a volunteer who dropped everything on his lunch hour to help at the volunteer check-in desk, when he noticed it backing up when he came in to check-in; volunteers coming in to volunteer at 7 am because that was the only time to get respite from caring for an ailing family member later in the day…like I said, I’m just not that nice!

Or is it that I’m just a product of my cultural upbringing.  USAmerican society is built on the I.  Think of the rugged, “pull yourself up by the bootstraps, free market capitalism if I succeed all will succeed” mentality.

And yet surrounded by hundred’s of volunteers asking “how can I help you” last week, I took a different view, particularly when I tried it myself.  It seems there may be something to focusing on the ‘you’ to benefit the “I,” rather than the other way around.

Have you tried to look at things from another’s perspective, looking at how to make things easier for him or her?  I found it a huge stress reliever to step out of my own “I” orientation.  How did it make you feel?  What was the outcome?