“Mommy, do you think this is racist?

“Leaving the museum yesterday, as we were getting on the bus, there was a line of buses, and one was called the Latino Express, and only Latino and African American kids were getting on it.  The other students, and even my teacher thought it was racist.  I thought maybe it just went to a neighborhood that was mostly Latino, because when we got to Western, we turned right, and the bus turned left, to go south.”

I said, “it depends.  If it was intended as segregation, as in this is the Latino bus, where only Latino’s ride—like in the olden days there were whites only and blacks only facilities, then of course it would be racist.  But,” I imagined, “there’s no way that would happen, at least overtly–you couldn’t legally have a bus just designated for Latino’s.” 

How Our Own Lens Frames What We Think

“My guess is that perhaps it’s a not-for-profit designed to get exposure to the arts for kids from different neighborhoods, that perhaps targets kids of Latino heritage,” I said, looking at it through my lens and past experience of working in arts, education and not-for-profit programming, and familiarity with demograhics in the Chicago Public Schools.  “But,” I added, “if everyone in your group thought it was racist, it seems it is doing a disservice by inadvertently labeling all the kids getting on the bus.”

Or is one’s own cultural identity the lens that frames our reaction?  Lucca, who is Latino, thought that perhaps it was just a statement of fact, given the neighborhoods the company might serve; one blogger, who self-identified as African American, said “that’s like naming the school bus in the black neighborhood the Soul Train or the Freedom Ride;” and, while I hate to give it credence by even mentioning it, one White Supremacist* commentary that surfaced in a quick web search for Latino Express was angered by the moniker, seeing it as a sign of encroaching power.   

So does the Latino Express stand for?

In reality, it looks like the Latino Express is simply a plain old bus company, and possibly one that is not so careful nor socially conscious (based only on a YouTube video of poor driving, and reports from the Teamsters  that “Latino Express is doing everything it can to deny basic rights to nearly 100 Hispanic and minority school bus drivers in Chicago.”)

Why Don’t We Ask? Metaphor for Perpetuating Stereotypes

At the end of the day, I still don’t know why the company is named the Latino Express, and the reason I don’t is also a good parallel to why stereotypes can be perpetuated.

I was too busy and too afraid to call and ask.** 

It takes time to learn about others, and we have to overcome the fear of offending or exposing our own biases, to go for deeper meaning.

What do you talk about with your kids on the drive to school in the morning?  How would you have explained it?

* Sorry if you want to find the source, but not sorry that I won’t run a link to a white supremecist website–don’t want to do anything that would promote it in any way.

**Addendum—darling Lucca put me up to calling the company this morning, after seeing the movie “We Bought a Zoo” last night, which preaches “sometimes it just takes 20 seconds of blind courage” to get things done.  So, in less than 20 seconds I looked up and called the number.  But will try again, to try to get the real story behind “Latino Express.”

Photo Credit:  B.U.S.E.

I was a career day speaker at a Chicago Public School last year. This year I was disinvited.

Mr. Sims,

We would like to thank you for dedicating your time to this year’s career day. Unfortunately due to the nature of the content that you presented to our young warriors last year, we are going to decline your request to present at this year’s career day.

We hope you understand.

 I signed up for Marc’s email because he and I sort of tag-teamed at a Career day once a few years ago.  Okay, it was more like they had more volunteers show up than anticipated, so I got sent to the same room as Marc.  Our “assignment” as I understood it was to tell the students about our chosen career, and then share some general pearls of wisdom about staying in school and succeeding in life.

Marc went first and put up a video he had made and for the next 20 minutes told the high school students: Do not get pregnant.  If you get pregnant while you are still in high school, it will ruin your life.  His second message was don’t make the same mistakes I did, with images in the video as evidence of the results of his bad choices. 

As opposed to most of the speakers who came because they had some sort of sense of self-importance that they could share with the youth of tomorrow, Marc said, basically, I’m an idiot, and you shouldn’t make bad decisions like I did. 

Now I distinctly remember at the time thinking, “ooh, is he allowed to say that?” followed up by me thinking “ooh—I’m the only white person in this room and what do I really know from my position of privilege about what these students really need, as I prepare to tell them about careers in marketing, knowing full well that you need a college degree to be successful and suspecting the statistics for CPS students and 4 year college degrees is not good.”

Then, Marc finished, and sat in one of the desks along with the rest of the students for my presentation, and when it came time for questions, Marc was the first one with his hand up—he proceeded to tell the others to really listen to what I was saying. He asked really good questions to frame what I had to offer to really hit home the important parts of what I had to say, and engage the students in the content.

The bottom line, he really cared about the students and wanted to help.  Just, as he said, his message wasn’t conventional. 

Here’s Marc’s response to the letter he received, which also encapsulates his thoughts on his message:

I agree the content of my presentation is a bit much for your students, and for most African Americans in general. I know I’m like a Black Power-Race Man from the 1970’s. Also understand it is sometimes not what you say but how, when, and where you say it.

However, someone has to be the “bad cop”, and tell young African Americans about the challenges they will face as adults. The talented tenth, the Black Bourgeoisie, and the pseudo bourgeoisie cannot, will not, or are afraid to tell young African Africans the truth!

Here the truth; integration, assimilation, consumerism, deindustrialization, ignorance, selfishness, and self-hatred has rendered the African American community to Humpty Dumpty status.

You also know the truth! Only 8% of CPS students will obtain a four year college degree by their mid twenties. 70% of African American children are born out of wed lock. 70% of African American women are single. The list of challenges for African American men, women and children goes on and on in this “post racial” society.

As a people, African Americans will be around, but as a people we will be irrelevant. So the challenge for young African Americans is to figure out how irrelevant can they be as an individual. Young African Americans will, like all African Americans have, consciously or unconsciously make the choice to how much they will integrate and assimilate into the American main stream society. The choice is to become homogenized or to be marginalized.

I made the choice to tell truth and became marginalized.

Marc Sims
Chicago

But we haven’t solved student success in the CPS schools.  Who’s to say that Marc’s approach is wrong?

Caros Colegas,

Que tal juntar-se aos capítulos Illinois e São Paulo da Partners of the Americas e a Brazil in Chicago, em um novo evento nas Américas, na iciativa:

Transformação do Paradigma Racial: Discussões e Ação para inspirar a mudança nos EUA e no BRASIL (2012)

Previsto para meados de Novembro de 2012, este evento de uma semana vai incluir simpósios e eventos interativos em estados nos EUA e no Brasil, todos conectados através da rede do capítulo da Partners of the Americas. Projetado para adicionar um elemento de ação pessoa-à-pessoa para complementar o Plano de Ação Conjunta para a Eliminação da Discriminação Étnico-Racial e Promoção da Igualdade (JAPER) assinado em 2008 entre os governos dos EUA e do Brasil, este programa irá envolver alguns dos maiores pensadores e especialistas no tema, bem como os jovens que vão liderar a próxima geração, para terminar a frase: “O racismo não será mais um problema para a próxima geração porque … ..”

Nós projetamos o programa a ser realizado em universidades e locais públicos nos EUA e no Brasil. Estamos convidando cada capítulo conectado EUA-Brasil a hospedar palestras, simpósios, eventos e muito mais, combinando rigor intelectual, sucessos da vida real, e aprendizagem na prática, para um diálogo entre as Américas a mudar o paradigma racial para as gerações futuras.

Por que o Brasil e os EUA? Os EUA e o Brasil trazem diferentes perspectivas para a conversa. Na sociedade multi-racial do Brasil, não há “identidades-hifenizadas” e ainda assim as disparidades por raça ainda abundam na economia e na representação política. Nos EUA a conversa explodiu para abranger raça, etnia, capacidade, orientação, gênero, idade e mais, e ainda assim lutamos contra um paradigma bidimensional, preto e branco.

O que significa para participar? O que devo fazer a seguir?

Comprometendo-se a participar na Transformação do Paradigma Racial, você se compromete a usar suas conexões e contatos para projetar e hospedar um evento ligado ao tema, durante o tempo do evento (Provisoriamente 14-20 novembro de 2011). Vamos trabalhar em conjunto para promover o programa global a nível internacional, para trazer a consciência.

Se você estiver interessado em participar ou saber mais, favor contatar Deanna Shoss, Presidente do Capítulo Illinois-São Paulo através do email dshoss (at) comcast.net, para indicar o seu interesse, até 20 de novembro, e vamos agendar uma chamada de conferência para falar sobre os detalhes. Por favor, sinta-se livre para responder em português ou inglês.

Esperamos que você se junte a nós para esta jornada para para efetuar uma mudança na vida real.

Atenciosamente,

Deanna Shoss                       Marcelo Jarmendia                         Thom Hale
IL-São Paulo Capítulo          Brasil em Chicago                           IL São Paulo
Partners of the Americas                                                               Partners das Américas

How would you like to join the Illinois and Sao Paulo Chapters of Partners of the Americas and Brazil in Chicago in a new event across the Americas, committed to Transforming  the Racial Paradigm:  Discussions and Action to Inspire Change across the US and BRAZIL (2012).

Slated for mid-November 2012, this week long event will include symposia and interactive events in states across the US and Brazil, all connected via the chapter network of Partners of the Americas.  Designed to add a person to person action element to complement the Joint Action Plan to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Discrimination and Promote Equality (JAPER) signed in 2008 between the US and Brazilian Governments, this program will involve some of the greatest thought leaders as well as young people who will lead the next generation, to finish the sentence:  “Racism will no longer be an issue for the next generation because…..” 

We envision the program taking place at universities and public venues across the US and Brazil.  We are inviting each US-Brazil Connected Chapter to host lectures, symposia, events and more that combines intellectual rigor, real life successes, and hands-on learning, for a dialogue across the Americas to shift the racial paradigm for future generations.

In Chicago, we will tie into MOSTRA III, the third annual Brazilian Film Series taking place at colleges and universities across Chicago and Illinois.  Dubbed the Film Series with a Social Conscience, all of the films, all by Brazilian Directors, already deal with social issues.  To tie into the issue of racial equity and anti-racism, one screening and post-film discussion will be specifically dedicated to this theme. 

Why Brazil and the US?  The US and Brazil bring diverse perspectives to the conversation.  In Brazil’s multi-racial society, there are no “hyphenated-identities” and yet disparities by race still abound in economics and political representation.  In the US the conversation has exploded to encompass race, ethnicity, ability, orientation, gender, age and more, and yet we still struggle with a two-dimensional, black and white paradigm. 

What does it mean to participate?  What should I do next?

By committing to participate in Transforming the Racial Paradigm, you are committing to using your relationships and contacts to design and host an event tied to the topic, during the timing of the event (Tentatively November 14-20, 2011).  We will work jointly to promote the overall program on an international level, to bring awareness. 

If you are interested in participating or learning more, please send an email to Deanna Shoss, President of the Illinois-Sao Paulo Chapter at dshoss (at) comcast.net, to indicate your interest, by November 20, and we will schedule a conference call to talk about the details.  Please feel free to respond in Portuguese or English.

We hope that you will join us for this journey to effect real life change.

Sincerely,

Deanna Shoss                        Marcelo Jarmendia                 Thom Hale
IL-Sao Paulo Chapter        Brazil in Chicago                       IL-Sao Paulo Chapter
Partners of the Americas                                                        Partners of the Americas

Aside from the fact that Lucca’s grandma is a vegan animal rights activist (which is a whole cultural group in it’s own), bubbe’s chicken soup has been trumped by avó’s Brazilian cha, simply because it works better to fend off the common cold, or flu, or whatever that tickling in your throat signifies when you say, “uh oh, what can I do so I don’t wake up sick tomorrow!”

But how to get someone to try a new approach to problem solving? Imagine the parallel to engagement and inclusion at a business meeting.  Someone comes in, says “I won’t shake your hand; I think I’m coming down with a cold.” 

“Oh,” someone will say, you have to get in bed with some chicken soup,” or “O’Malley’s down the street has great soup specials for lunch.” 

What if someone said “in my country we drink a tea with garlic, cloves, lemon, and honey.”

You might hear a round of “that sounds disgusting!” as the new idea is dismissed.

But, it works! 

Ingredients:

3-4 Garlic cloves, peeled and cut into chunks (or smashed)
handful of cloves
couple of lemons cut into quarters and sqeezed
water to cover
honey to at least make the taste bearable

Put all ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil.  Steep for a few minutes, strain into a cup.  Get under the covers and sip, as hot as possible, last thing before you go to sleep.  And, Voila, you are ready for work or school or whatever in the morning!

According to the NYTimes Blog, Chicken Soup may have more medicinal value than over the counter drugs, but BBC-News cites an actual study suggesting documented proof of the power of garlic to stave off a cold.  According to UCLA, clove “contains eugenol which is an effective local anesthetic” which can help soothe a sore throat.  Lemon juice has vitamins to help boost your immune system, and honey is a great energy booster to wake up refreshed in the morning.

I still get the wrinkled brow ”I may try that” response when I suggest this old Brazilian tea recipe when someone’s coming down with a cold, just as I probably responded the first time my husbanded suggested it, but now I’m a proven follower, with documented proof it works!

Dear Mrs. Obama,

Wow, what a cool appearance on I-Carly (debuted January 16, “iMeet the First Lady.” How exciting to use such a popular platform to spread the message about how important it is to support military families.  It was a brilliant marketing idea (I understand it was yours) to reach the 5.5 million people who watched the episode, making it the week’s top telecast with all kid and tween demos.  The show served as a great Public Service Announcement to support military families.

On the other hand, I’m sorry you couldn’t have put in a plug for anti-racism and healthy relationships—in particular non-violent resolution to conflict.  Without denigrating what you did and the positive message you spread, I’m wondering if you’ve watched the show lately.  While we (me, my husband and our 10 year old son) have watched the show for at least a couple of years, (and we didn’t want to miss seeing you) 2012 is the year we say goodbye.

Why? First, we can’t swallow the promotion of violence as the first resolution to conflict, particularly for young people beginning to explore love relationships.   It was the “iCan’t Take It” episode in September, at the outset of Season 5, that did it.  Freddie and Sam are getting closer, Carly hates being in the middle, Gibby gets revenge by telling Mrs. Benson, Freddie’s mom, and all hell breaks loose.  But for every conflict, Sam reacts violently.  She gets mad at Freddie, she kicks him.  She gets mad at Gibby, she pulls out a 3” section of hair and scalp.  Gibby threatens Mrs. Benson.   And it’s all supposed to be funny. 

But it’s not.  You know why?  Because teen-dating violence is real, and it’s not funny.  According to the Bureau of Justice teen dating violence statistics , about one in three high school students have been or will be involved in an abusive relationship.  The show is following tweens morphing into teens, puppy love, learning about relationships.  According to iCarly—lying, beating, punching and kicking is the way to go.  To which I say no. 

And I did, until all of the promo for iStill Pshycho, the much hyped follow-up to last year’s iPsycho, where Carly, Sam and Freddie are taken hostage by an over-zealous fan.  We hadn’t watched since September, Sam and Freddie are no longer a couple; so, let’s try it again, right?

Except that, aside from the fact that untreated mental illness is not funny (think Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords), the violence has escalated.  IPsycho features torture, sword fights, and possibly worse, passive inaction at the suffering of others.  Freddie is attacked while Sam and Carly idly watch eating cake.  “It was really good cake,” they explain.  Gibby makes it to the top of the chimney to get help for the others imprisoned inside, only to get stuck.  The neighborhood kids, seeing his plight, instead pelt him with tennis balls.  

But the subplot is what really got me…over the top racism.  T-Bo, the manager of the Groovy Smoothie shop and only African American character on the show (On the good side, I suppose, it looks like his character is being integrated more centrally into the show) is now renting a room from Mrs. Benson, Freddie’s over-protective mom.  But, it looks like to stay there, he is being forced to act “white.”  To act “Proper” is the term used in the plot summary.  But to act “proper,” he changes from his bright clothes into a suit and neatly secures his waist long dreadlocks before heading ‘home.’  He speaks in a formal voice, and has to learn to play Mahjong (Note—my 10 year old son says this last point undermines my argument that he’s forced to act white, as Mahjong is a 2,000 year old Chinese game.)  Why does he do this, the kids ask him? “If my mom sees how he really is,” answers Freddie, “she’d never let him in my house.” 

“Let’s all pretend T-Bo doesn’t have feelings,” he responds.

In the end, after riding a motorcycle through the door and saving Spencer (Carly’s older brother) and the kids from an eternity in hell, he’s allowed to be himself and stay at Mrs. Benson’s, but when he goes in to join the group hug—they recoil in disgust, not wanting to be touched by him.

So, Mrs. Obama, I understand that Sasha and Malia are fans of the show.  My question to you is, are these the lessons you are planning to teach them?  For me and my ten year old son, the answer is no.

Perhaps the real answer is watching together to talk about the issues.  “How could that have been resolved differently?”  “What would/could you have done in that situation?”

What are you and your kids doing together, and what are you talking about at the dinner table?

Photo Credits:  Mrs. Obama on iCarly, Lisa Rose/Nickelodeon, T-Bo in Suit from Robs I-Carly blog, and T-Bo as himself, Sodahead

Presidential hopeful Ron Paul published four newsletters a month for 10 years.  That’s 48 newsletters a year—or close to 500 newsletters.  That’s a lot of content and a lot of work to go out in your name.  Why would you do that if you never read it—suggesting you really don’t care what it says.  Marketing 101 says that’s really stupid.  Or Paul is lying.

You may have heard that the newsletters were rife with racist propaganda.  Here’s the issue as outlined in the Washington Post Biography Fact Checker:  “The national media latched onto the issue during Paul’s 2008 presidential bid, after the New York Times and the New Republic highlighted derogatory statements about blacks and gays from the bulletins…The issue resurfaced as Paul moved to the front of the GOP pack in recent weeks.”    Paul has denied any knowledge of the existence of the racist content, saying “I never read the stuff.”

The stuff he is talking about is four monthly newsletters published by his company, Ron Paul and Associates, and included Ron Paul’s Freedom Report, the Ron Paul Survival Report, the Ron Paul Political Report and the Ron Paul Investment Letter.   The newsletters included constant themes of racism against African Americans, Homosexuals and Jews.  While I prefer not to reprint them here (I hate perpetuating racism by repeating it), here’s a sampling of the awful things about which Paul said “I honestly do not know who wrote those things,” (to CNN in January 2008.)

Marketing 101

So for exercise sake, let’s step back from politics and the content of the newsletters, to strictly look at Paul’s statement that he never read and was unaware of the content going out in his name, from 1985 to the mid-90’s, through a marketing strategy lens.

As Director of Marketing, Communications & Business Development for Jewish Child & Family Services in Chicago, I am 100% accountable for everything that goes out the door, whether internally to employees, or externally to the public.  Strictly from a CYA perspective, somebody is ultimately accountable for the content that goes out to the public.  Somebody does the final proofing to make sure there were no typos, inaccuracies, or errors.  The CEO signs things that come from him, be they the “Message from the CEO” or communications to donors.

 Your print (and now increasingly online) publications are the vehicle to create your brand and position yourself as a thought leader in your field—they take too much time and expense not to have a pre-determined return on investment (ROI), usually to increase your connection to your constituents or followers, your clients and customers. 

In this case it’s not even Paul who says he doesn’t know who wrote the articles, no one seems to know who wrote them, including one suspect, Lew Rockwell, citing seven or eight free-lancers who wrote for the publications.  At a bare minimum it’s poor management and irresponsible, not good qualities for a Presidential candidate anyway.  

Things Happen as a Result of Specific Decisions

Janet Reno’s taking full responsibility for what happened in Waco Texas was the ultimate statement of accountability.  Daniel Mendelsohn, in his book “The Lost:  A Search for Six of Six Million,” said  “The Holocaust is so big, the scale of it is so gigantic, so enormous, that it becomes easy to think of it as something mechanical. Anonymous. But everything that happened, happened because someone made a decision.”  His book traces the specific people, decisions, that led to his family members’ deaths.  

Ron Paul Knew That

But, wait, it looks like I’m preaching to the choir.  Here’s Paul in a 1995 interview talking about his newsletters and their purpose and intent and how he uses them to spread is ideas to his followers.  Okay, maybe he’s senile and just forgot almost 10 years of his life.  Possible.   But, again, probably not a good quality for a Presidential candidate.

Any other Marketers?  Ever see a publication be created and distributed by magic (I wish!)?  Your boss ever give you free reign to write what you wanted, regardless of company image or branding?

Photo credit ibtimes.com

Technically this could be construed as my fault, after Lucca went with me to a client’s art opening a few years ago.  The central piece of the exhibit was a beautiful, supersized hand, making the “okay” sign, the ultimate symbol of peace and spirituality in the artist’s native India.

Except that I had to laugh.  “Hmm, wonder what someone from Brazil would think seeing this?”

“Why,” asked Lucca.

“Well, the ‘okay’ sign means something very different in Brazil.” In fact, it’s the cultural cousin of the middle finger in the US.

Now fast forward four years to Friday night pick-up from school…

“I got sent to the vice-principal’s office today,” Lucca announced.

“Why?” I asked?

“I didn’t do anything.”

Of course.  “Just tell me exactly what happened.”

“It started with the book we were reading aloud in study group, that said someone was a ‘born artist’. My friend thought it said ‘porn artist.’ The other said ‘no, I said born artist,’ to which he said, ‘Oh, well that’s ‘okay,’ and made the ‘okay’ sign with his hand.”

Lucca continued, saying that he was only being helpful, by letting his friends know that the “okay” sign meant something different in Portuguese.  That led the boy of Italian heritage to show the Italian cultural equivalent (running one’s fingers from back to front under his or her chin), which caused the child of Russian heritage to pronounce, “Hey, that’s the same thing in Russia!”  Then someone asked the boy of Korean descent if he was familiar with the pinky sign, and he shared that was actually attributed by most to being Chinese, but in reality was Chinese-American.

Possibly after spying my smile as I listened to the story, Lucca, now indignant in defense of his innocence, proclaimed “there’s a religion in Southeast Asia where it’s sacred to read using the middle finger as a pointer…would you deprive someone reading in Southeast Asia because the middle finger is vulgar in the US?”

But herein lies the problem of thinking it’s funny. This is the same child who noted that curse words are a social construct…that words themselves cannot be right or wrong…it’s the intent with which the word is used that makes it “good” or “bad.”

To which I say yes and no.  While age 10 renders “because I’m the mommy” ineffective as the end all reason to stop discussion, I will say this:

We live in a pluralistic society where people agree to abide by certain rules to live harmoniously in society, and one of those rules is that we won’t make vulgar hand gestures to one another at school.”

End of story, right?  Until tonight, when he says “but they’re not vulgar in the US, the society we live in, so how can that be pluralistic if people haven’t agreed in the society where the incident took place?”

Help.  I’m in trouble.  Anyone?  Got anything?