Essay 3053

From The New York Daily News...

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Thugs make a killing at society’s expense

By Stanley Crouch

When we look back on this era of especially muddled thinking we will celebrate Harlem’s Geoffrey Canada for not being afraid to step out by himself and pin the tail on the donkey of hip hop for aiding and abetting the criminal culture that oppresses so many so-called minorities in our country.

I was most impressed when Canada came out against the way that hip hop celebrates those who refuse to inform on criminals, otherwise known as snitching.

Kansas City journalist Jason Whitlock says of this trend that the most popular hip-hop recordings now promote what he calls “prison values,” or the criminal vision that comes from the dark world behind bars, where the siren song of those who make the streets so mean was once heard most clearly and influentially.

As Canada told Anderson Cooper on television recently, advocating the refusal to cooperate with police is saying something very destructive to black youth.

“It’s like we’re saying to the criminals, you can have our community. Just have our community. Do anything you want, and we will either deal with it ourselves, or we will simply ignore it,” Canada said.

If one looks at the level of urban oppression that is shown in the national rise of homicides committed with guns, Canada must be taken seriously. The black and Latino victims constitute the largest numbers of the murdered. The epidemic rise of murders with firearms in Newark prompted James Ahearn to write, “Typically, shooter and victim are both black, male, young, with arrest records, uneducated, with dim life prospects. The killers act with careless indifference to the enormity of what they have done, or to the likelihood that they in turn will be cut down, in retribution.”

As they display the gilded imbecility of “bling” while riding in the most expensive cars and living in gated communities, the rappers who promote the idea that informing to the police is some sort of sin have become another menace to society.

They have expanded upon their identities as buffoon thug minstrels so that they could now easily be considered the most dangerous Uncle Toms of the moment.

This may be hard for those who can never accept the idea of black people having anything at all to do with their group’s oppression. The young are dazzled by the vulgar finery of the rappers while the black middle class is overly impressed by the riches of these young men.

Once again it is obvious that the civil rights establishment has fallen asleep at the wheel by failing to stand up for the rights of those they purportedly represent. The civil rights establishment should be no more concerned about being called old-fashioned than those whom Southern white racists accused of being “outside agitators” during the 1960s.

Ironically, what we now have is an urban version of the Southern violence that gave such a bloody reputation to the members of the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizen’s Council. Gangs like the Crips and the Bloods are exactly the same — ever ready to murder and intimidate the witnesses to their crimes.

Albert Camus once wrote that he preferred to look his fate in the eyes. For too many in the black lower class, their fate is to be murdered, mutilated and brutalized by contemptuous street gangs and by the criminals who have been made into an elite by the worst of hip hop. It is time for all of us to look that fate in the eyes and move to change it by whatever means are as legal as they are necessary.

Essay 3052

Essay 3051

Pimp My Infant—the morons at Munchkin actually trademarked BLING™

Essay 3050

Trash talking in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Former President Jimmy Carter called the current administration “the worst in history” in international relations. “I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history,” said Carter. “The overt reversal of America’s basic values as expressed by previous administrations, including those of George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and others, has been the most disturbing to me. … We now have endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that some time in the future our security might be endangered. But that’s been a radical departure from all previous administration policies.” Carter appears to be launching a pre-emptive war of words.

• A lawmaker in Massachusetts is introducing legislation to protect fat and short folks. “This is one of the last physical aspects of people that you can acceptably laugh about,” said the Massachusetts Democrat. “You can be a shock jock on the radio and talk about fat people for a solid week, and no one would ever think of having you lose your job. It’s still acceptable.” The proposal applies mostly to the workplace, but also deals with landlords and real estate. This could mean trouble for Donald Trump and his constant trashing of Rosie O’Donnell.

Essay 3049

Your eyes will think it’s a shitty ad. Your stomach will turn.

Essay 3048

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

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Playa hatin’

Why do women take it when Hip-Hop insists on ‘keeping it real’?

BY AMY ALEXANDER

Here is a cultural paradox for you: Young, smart, seemingly self-confident women of color who put up with even the most raunchily misogynistic rap and hip-hop music. We're all familiar with the commercial and cultural trajectory of the music and how, since its emergence in gritty New York neighborhoods 25 years ago, it has become a global phenomenon, generating billions of dollars in sales and spawning fashion, linguistic and sociopolitical trends that have entered the mainstream.

Along with all the bling and snap, the rise of the Hip-Hop Nation also has earned negative attention for its more unsavory behavioral byproducts, including violence in the name of “keeping it real” and a normalization of a “get rich or die trying” ethos.

But more troubling than the mainstreaming of violence and acquisitive values has been the rise in misogynistic attitudes among performers and their acceptance by fans of both sexes, according to Pimps Up, Ho’s Down, by T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting.

Director of African-American and diaspora studies at Vanderbilt University, Sharpley-Whiting argues, with mixed results, that a general coarsening of hip-hop culture -- in its lyrics and the videos and marketing built around the music -- claims women as its biggest victims. She observes that some of the women who subscribe to the culture do so willingly, even as they are denigrated and abused onstage and off. It is not a new observation, but in this slim volume, she gets at the heart of the paradox.

“As much as the sexploitation of young black women is necessary to the ‘keep it real’ mantra of hip hop artists, corporate bottom lines, and marketing strategies, we must acknowledge our own role in this troubling relationship.”

Sharpley-Whiting tosses off an incendiary notion that requires more exploration than she provides: Young black women you see shaking their nearly naked rumps in all those videos or who serve as groupies to male rappers or who appear in increasingly popular underground hip-hop porn films are willing, if misguided, participants in their own debasement.

They are not alone, Sharpley-Whiting argues, in falling into the cesspool of rot that is laying waste to many aspects of American pop culture. It’s just that few of them believe they have other options for artistic or commercial success, and fewer still see themselves as taking part in third-wave feminism, the “sex-positive” movement that has made public displays of sexuality more acceptable for white women. In stating her case, Sharpley-Whiting cites a wide range of sources, from the black intellectual Frantz Fanon to journalists Greg Tate and Stanley Crouch to Pamela Des Barres, author of I’m With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie. But, like many academics who write about pop culture, Sharpley-Whiting fails to connect with readers in clear, layman’s language:

“And even more mind-bending than the length, girth, and bland performances of the churlish cabal of male hip-hop stars are the motivations articulated by the women in ‘Groupie Confessions,’” she writes, all but defying readers to make sense of that sentence. The result is a frustratingly enigmatic discussion that encapsulates a grand theme without coaxing forth the emotional punch that might allow readers to grasp it.

Surprisingly, it is left to a rap performer to point out the paradox that underlies Sharpley-Whiting’s premise -- how successful, “respected” black women like Oprah Winfrey, Condoleezza Rice and Halle Berry exist on the same continuum with Karrine Steffans, author of the best-selling roman a clef, Confessions of a Video Vixen, and her numerous nubile counterparts who are seen shaking their moneymakers in videos.

In a 1989 interview, former 2 Live Crew frontman Luther Campbell said, “Traditionally black people are really conservative. They’re more conservative than whites are, in my opinion. … With this whole tradition of sexuality (in hip-hop) most black people are nervous about that.”

So how do black female hip-hop consumers reconcile their love of the genre? And what can be done to bring them to a healthier place, in terms of their own self-image and to erase their vulnerability to hip-hop’s less savory side? Sharpley-Whiting doesn’t have the answers, and maybe no one does, but at least she’s put the discussion on the turntable.

[Amy Alexander is a free-lance writer. This review first appeared in the Washington Post.]

Essay 3047

Method to the madness in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Method Man was busted for smoking and possessing marijuana after a cop pulled him over for an expired car sticker. The arresting officer caught the rapper with two blunts and about 28 grams of dope. Doesn’t that stuff come standard with rapper rides?

• NBC announced its prime-time fall lineup for next season, and “The Apprentice” was not on the list. Donald Trump responded by telling NBC he’s quitting and “moving on from ‘The Apprentice’ to a major new TV venture.” Um, somebody explain to Trump that you don’t quit after being fired.

Essay 3046

Massachusetts: Committed to Diversity. But not committed to competent art direction.

Essay 3045

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

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Frivolous ad trivializes heart-rending decision

BY PATRICK T. MURPHY

For the past two years, I have been hearing divorce and domestic violence cases. Divorce lawyers sometimes get a bad rap. However, I have been impressed by most of the lawyers who have appeared in front of me. Most attempt to shepherd their clients through difficult and painful times with minimum stress and rancor while charging a reasonable fee. Most.

Recently two divorce lawyers sponsored a billboard in Chicago that gained nationwide notoriety. The billboard gave the names and phone number of the attorneys and stated: “Life’s short. Get a divorce.” The billboard contained two enormous photographs -- one of a nearly naked young woman with apparently surgically enhanced breasts and one of a nearly naked young man with an apparently steroid-enhanced body.

Some critics have inferred that the message of the billboard was: Get a divorce, and if you hire these lawyers you most certainly will end up with a much more exciting companion. And I suspect that the subliminal message had this or some equally sleazy message. But anyone who actually believes this drivel deserves the lawyers, and their spouse is most certainly better off without him or her. The real problem with this frivolous ad is that it trivializes one of the most painful and momentous events in the lives of many people.

Often couples find that they cannot continue in the relationship. They grow apart. Finances, children, in-laws and debt pick people apart. Arguments increase. Words become vicious. Children cower in corners. The pain becomes overwhelming, and the parties must separate and divorce, for their own sanity and that of their children.

Recently, I dealt with the case of a wonderful young couple and their five beautiful and intelligent children. Divorce was inevitable. But the children were torn, as were the parents. The kids obviously want their parents to stay together and to be happy, but at some level recognized that this was impossible. One child, a 10-year-old boy, wished to live with his dad although he loved his mom and wanted to see her. The others were ambivalent but wanted to remain together.

The parents desperately loved all their children. In the end, one will become the residential parent while the other will visit three or four days every two weeks but miss much of the excitement that goes with having the children every day. And even the residential parent will suffer by not having the children on a daily basis.

The parties will also have to sell their home because neither can afford to keep it up without the assistance of the other. Nothing frivolous or trivial here.

Every day, men and women step up in front of me with tears welling up in their eyes, even sobbing, while becoming divorced. They are recalling the courtship, the first kiss, the wedding day, the news of the first pregnancy, the sacrifices to purchase the first home, the day one of them lost a job, the serious illness suffered by one of the kids, the great report card, the day the son got suspended for fighting in school, the picnic in the park, the trip to Disneyland, the cold nights in a warm bed together. In most divorces, there still is a great deal of love, appreciation for what was and warmth for the other party.

Yes, there are the recriminations, pettiness, jealousy and hatred. But most frequently, the good and the bad emotions are all swirling around together. And that is what creates the pain and misery in even the most inevitable of divorces.

Most who are muddling through a divorce need the help of an attorney dedicated to his or her needs and sensitive to his or her pain. The billboard in question did little for the dignity of the divorce bar. Worse, it gives those going through divorces little confidence in finding an understanding attorney to help them through this most complex and emotional of times.

Patrick T. Murphy is a judge in the Domestic Relations division of the Circuit Court of Cook County and hears divorce and domestic violence cases.

Essay 3044

From The Chicago Tribune…

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Racial demons rear heads

After months of unrest between blacks and whites in Louisiana town, some see racism and uneven justice

By Howard Witt
Tribune senior correspondent

JENA, La. -- The trouble in Jena started with the nooses. Then it rumbled along the town’s jagged racial fault lines. Finally, it exploded into months of violence between blacks and whites.

Now the 3,000 residents of this small lumber and oil town deep in the heart of central Louisiana are confronting Old South racial demons many thought had long ago been put to rest.

One morning last September, students arrived at the local high school to find three hangman’s nooses dangling from a tree in the courtyard.

The tree was on the side of the campus that, by long-standing tradition, had always been claimed by white students, who make up more than 80 percent of the 460 students. But a few of the school’s 85 black students had decided to challenge the accepted state of things and asked school administrators if they, too, could sit beneath the tree’s cooling shade.

“Sit wherever you want,” school officials told them. The next day, the nooses were hanging from the branches.

African-American students and their parents were outraged and intimidated by the display, which instantly summoned memories of the mob lynchings that once terrorized blacks across the American South. Three white students were quickly identified as being responsible, and the high school principal recommended that they be expelled.

“Hanging those nooses was a hate crime, plain and simple,” said Tracy Bowens, a black mother of two students at the high school who protested the incident at a school board meeting.

But Jena’s white school superintendent, Roy Breithaupt, ruled that the nooses were just a youthful stunt and suspended the students for three days, angering blacks who felt harsher punishments were justified.

“Adolescents play pranks,” said Breithaupt, the superintendent of the LaSalle Parish school system. “I don’t think it was a threat against anybody.”

Yet it was after the noose incident that the violent, racially charged events that are still convulsing Jena began.

[Click on the essay title above to read the full story.]

Essay 3043

TGIF MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• The New York Post reported fired shock jock Don Imus is trying to get back on the air. Imus’ lawyer is seeking to use the threat of a lawsuit to compel CBS to reinstate the radio personality. CBS allegedly won’t budge, and the company is prepared to counter any legal action Imus initiates. Now this is a showdown between pimps and hos.

• Paris Hilton’s jail sentence was cut in half after she was given credit for good behavior. If Don Imus consults with Hilton’s lawyer, he’ll be back on the air tomorrow.

• Applebee’s has cut trans fats out of its menu. “After extensive testing with our guests, we found that our foods cooked in zero trans fat oil still have the great taste out guests have come to expect from Applebee’s,” said the company’s chief executive officer. “In some cases, the oil even enhances the flavor of the menu item.” Now let’s see if the restaurant chain can cut the lame advertising.

Essay 3042

Essay 3041

Diversity—many viewpoints with a singular vision. Inspiring many diversity ads with a singular layout.

Essay 3040

From The Chicago Tribune…

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FROM SOCIETAL CRITIQUE TO SOCIAL EMBARRASSMENT

Feeling betrayed by hip-hop

By Lolly Bowean, Tribune staff reporter

When I was growing up, there was never a time in my life when hip-hop music wasn’t in the background.

During my childhood in Queens, New York, the music was everywhere: blaring from the radio, being performed in the parks and perfected on street corners as wannabes faced off in freestyle battles.

Most people of the hip-hop generation have stories about the time they were first moved by the music. Or the time they started their own group or started to jot down their own raps.

For me, the music was about freedom. It was about disenfranchised, voiceless people making themselves heard through a new medium. The music gave us a way to earn respect creatively by playing with words and sounds.

Before newspapers, magazines and news broadcasts were intensely reporting on violence, injustice, teenage pregnancy and domestic abuse, rappers were spittin’ about it. They were telling deeply personal stories in a clever way.

One rhyme would decry social injustices and express the rage resulting from living in violent surroundings with no access to economically sustaining work. Other rhymes would celebrate dance moves or brag about cheap sneakers worn with so much style.

The music combined sounds from old soul music and beats for a new creation. It was layered and offered multiple meanings.

Artists told us to keep rising to the top, to keep your head up and told witty stories that made us move.

For me it was oh so poetic.

“I live by the beat like you live check to check.”

-- OutKast, “Elevators,” 1996

The music made me groove and pop and jerk my body to the sounds. What it didn’t do was make a lot of money.

Soon, though, the music became consumer driven, and the scene exploded. Everybody, it seemed, wanted a piece of hip-hop. But the songs that were topping the charts weren't the ones my friends and I could relate to. They were fictional -- songs about taking drugs, killing each other, celebrating the so-called ghetto and thug life.

And women were “bitches,” “hos,” “tricks” and “golddiggas.”

The music that had once built us up was now tearing us down.

I felt betrayed. I cut it off -- never bought another recording.

As the music began selling, major corporations were taking notice. The artists who penned rhymes about the fall of a drug dealer were barely heard from again, but the ones who tossed gyrating, half-naked women into their videos were being used to promote products. They had the ears of corporate boards and marketing executives.

Like so many others, I was disgusted by it -- not just by the music, but by the way it was being embraced and financed.

Still, I couldn’t help but be impressed that a former drug dealer who couldn’t find corporate employment some 10 years ago had somehow become the head of a major entertainment company. And that guy from the block was now promoting his own fashion line and calling the shots.

I wondered, why does their success have to come from portraying negative stereotypes and glorifying poisonous images? Why do women, especially black women, have to be the steppingstone to financial well-being?

In private conversations, my female friends and I would complain about the trash on the radio. We’d mock the lyrics and joke that any song with “booty” or other derogatory descriptions of women was destined to be a hit.

But I never spoke out publicly about what I heard and saw.

“What you gonna do when you have to face the manifestation of the words that you put in space?”

-- Talib Kweli, “Where Do We Go?” 2002

When I was in Paris in 2001, a young, white Parisian told me he was tired of “American gold-digging bee-yau-tches.” It was a line he stole directly from the music.

At that moment it dawned on me that this image of black women was being broadcast to the world -- and the world was buying it. I wondered, what is so moving about women getting slammed and drug dealers, pimps and criminals being glorified that makes people pay to hear it?

Though by then we knew rap music was mainly being consumed by suburban white kids who wanted a window into another world, I couldn’t understand why people would rather invest in and promote this view of gritty, urban life rather than work to change it.

“It’s like a jungle sometimes.”

-- Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, “The Message,” 1982

I shook my head when radio personality Don Imus tried to blame the music for his use of racist and sexist terms. But I’m glad that the incident expanded the public conversation about hip-hop's portrayal of women, with prominent voices such as hip-hop magnate Russell Simmons and Oprah Winfrey joining the debate.

I’ve had to reflect about my own conflicted relationship with the music and culture. One minute I’m celebrating an artist for selling a clothing line for $500 million, the next I’m cursing at the radio.

I can’t support the music, but I also can’t let it take the fall for society’s ills.

Hip-hop music is not the reason Imus called the Rutgers University women’s basketball team what he did. If we are serious about changing how women are perceived and portrayed, the discussion has to go beyond one music genre. We’ve got to examine why consumers slap down their hard-earned money for such images. The conversation has to include more than Simmons, Winfrey and the academics who have been shouting about these images for years.

As they say in the lyrics: Check yo’ self.

I know I have.

Essay 3039

The MultiCultClassics Monologue of today…

• Singer R. Kelly likened himself to great figures in history during an interview with Hip-Hop Soul magazine. “I’m the Ali of today. I’m the Marvin Gaye of today. I’m the Bob Marley of today. I’m the Martin Luther King, or all the other greats that have come before us. And a lot of people are starting to realize that now,” proclaimed the accused child pornographer. “So I have to walk with a certain humility. I have to walk with love in my heart for those that hate me. I have to. I have to get out and touch people in order for me to continue to feel the pulse of the world.” Just don’t touch another minor, dude.

• Ike Turner was arrested then released when the cops realized they had made a mistake by busting the singer for an invalid warrant. He’s the Ike Turner of today.

• Sears Chairman Edward Lampert now predicts the retailer will stage a turnaround, but it will take three years. Guess consumers can continue to shop at Wal-Mart and Target until the Sears revival happens. Sears is, um, the Sears of today.

• The Census Bureau reported minorities in America surged beyond the 100 million mark, now accounting for one-third of the country’s population. “Immigration is making a much bigger contribution than natural increase,” said one expert. “As well, the fertility rates of the immigrants are higher than the fertility rates of the native-born groups.” Sounds like Sears has a potential growing customer target.

Essay 3038

Essay 3037

This diversity ad appears to diss other diversity ads—yet still manages to look exactly like the majority of diversity ads.

Essay 3036

The story below appeared in The Wall Street Journal—and is immediately followed by commentary from MultiCultClassics…

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Diversity Programs Look to Involve White Males as Leaders

Goal Is to Get Efforts More Into Mainstream, Create ‘Sustainability’

By ERIN WHITE

As a white male, tax partner Keith Ruth was surprised last year when he was asked to help lead PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s diversity efforts. Some employees questioned his qualifications. But Chris Simmons, PwC’s chief diversity officer, insisted. “A lot of the people we want to hear the message are white males,” Mr. Simmons says.

The unusual tactic -- enlisting white males to foster diversity efforts -- is gaining currency at U.S. companies. White men run the diversity programs at big employers such as Coca-Cola Co. and Southern Co.’s Georgia Power unit. Coke last fall brought in a consultant to talk to employees about “engaging white men in diversity efforts.” PwC and others have given white male managers part-time assignments to promote diversity alongside their regular jobs.

It’s part of an effort to get diversity programs off the sidelines and into the mainstream of the business. Having a white man champion diversity efforts -- particularly one who works in operations rather than human resources -- can help bring other white males on board, the theory goes.

Too many diversity initiatives make white men feel defensive, says Frank McCloskey, a white male operations veteran named Georgia Power’s first head of diversity in 2000 after the company was sued for allegedly discriminating against blacks in hiring and promotion. He believes firms must engage white men to change the company culture.

When Mr. McCloskey was appointed, 63% of Georgia Power’s employees were white men. “How can we ever create sustainability if you don’t have 63% of your work force feeling that there’s something in it for them?” he asks.

At PwC, Mr. Simmons, who is black, heads a diversity program that includes mentoring, conferences, and one-on-one talks between partners and staffers who are women or minorities. Mr. Simmons comes from operations rather than human resources. Most recently he oversaw PwC’s mergers and acquisitions. In July he will become managing partner for the region around Washington, D.C. The firm’s new diversity chief will be tax partner Roy Weathers, who is also black.

Mr. Simmons became diversity chief in 2004 with a directive from PwC U.S. Chairman Dennis Nally to shift diversity concerns from a “side topic” to an integral part of operations. About the same time, the firm named diversity leaders for each of its four business units. These are senior executives with other jobs, who also are charged with integrating diversity concerns into routine business decisions, such as client assignments and promotions.

None of the diversity leaders was a white man. But Mr. Simmons believed that white men might pay more heed to diversity concerns if they hear them from a white man. “We really have to get away from this model of it just being white women and minority people,” he says.

Mr. Simmons approached Mr. Ruth, an enthusiastic supporter of a tax group employee-diversity council. Mr. Ruth, who grew up in rural Georgia, was running PwC’s tax practice for the southeast U.S. Mr. Ruth spent three weeks reading books Mr. Simmons recommended, including “It’s the Little Things: Everyday Interactions That Anger, Annoy, and Divide the Races,” by Lena Williams.

After the appointment was announced, Mr. Simmons says a few employees asked why he had placed a white male in the role. “I said it sends the message that we think all kinds of people can be committed to diversity,” he says.

Early on, Mr. Ruth asked the tax practice’s regional leaders to periodically review client assignments to make sure projects were being distributed equitably. He also ordered a review of performance evaluations to make sure women and minorities received sufficient feedback and career advice. He asked the other regional leaders in the tax practice to form employee-diversity councils like the one he had helped run in the southeast. And he is organizing a conference focused on career issues for women.

Mr. Ruth says he has learned from the job, too. Through one-on-one talks with younger accountants, he realized that minorities sometimes lack the alumni network that can help advance careers. “It’s little things like that which I don’t think most partners knew,” he says.

For his part, Mr. Simmons says Mr. Ruth has been “bringing some people into the fold that I probably would have a harder time” reaching.

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White men running diversity programs could be a brilliant idea. But to make it really effective, such a move should include certain requirements.

First, the White man must clearly articulate why diversity is imperative. Any candidate who could not deliver a coherent perspective would immediately be enrolled in mandatory cultural and sensitivity training—and not permitted to return to the work force until he demonstrated enlightenment.

Second, the White man would be charged to show regular and measurable progress. Compensation and continued employment would be tied to the results. In other words, if the White man failed to achieve success, he would be terminated.

Third, the White man would receive official evaluations (at least every six months) by superiors, peers and minority employees. The minority employees would be permitted to submit anonymous criticism in order to encourage openness and honesty sans the threat of retaliation.

Fourth, the appointment would not be a part-time gig. Let’s be honest, the typical White man needs full-time focus on the job.

Finally, the White man would directly report to a minority boss. Sorry, White men can’t be trusted to handle diversity responsibilities without qualified supervision.

Essay 3035

From USA Today…

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Student settles discrimination case with Hawaiian school

HONOLULU (AP) — A private school system has reached a settlement with a white student who was denied admission because he isn’t a Native Hawaiian, ending a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The settlement between the unidentified student and the Kamehameha Schools system ends the four-year-old lawsuit. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

The student, who has since gone to college, claimed that the 120-year-old Kamehameha Schools violated civil rights law by excluding applicants who cannot prove Hawaiian ancestry.

The school, which has 6,700 students at schools on three islands, admits qualified Native Hawaiian students, with non-Hawaiians getting in only if openings are available. But only one in eight eligible Hawaiian applicants is admitted, effectively excluding non-Hawaiians.

A sharply divided 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the admissions policy on an 8-7 vote in 2006.

John Goemans, a lawyer for the student, acknowledged the settlement came late in the process but said his client wanted to resolve the case.

“What counts is the best interest of our client,” Goemans said. “And at this point, our client is satisfied. This does not affect the constitutionality of the program.”

J. Douglas Ing, chairman of Kamehameha Schools Board of Trustees, said dismissal of the case preserves Native Hawaiians’ political status as an indigenous people.

It also recognizes the federal government’s “obligation to the native people of Hawaii and provides judicial support for programs that serve to promote and improve the well-being of the Hawaiian people,” Ing said.

Kamehameha was established under the 1883 will of Hawaiian Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop as part of a trust reported to be worth $7.7 billion last June 30. The trust reported spending $221 million on education. Part of the schools’ mission is to counteract historical disadvantages Hawaiians face in employment, education and society.

Essay 3034

Daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. Dies

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATLANTA (AP) -- Yolanda King, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s eldest child who pursued her father’s dream of racial harmony through drama and motivational speaking, has died. She was 51.

King died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., said Steve Klein, a spokesman for the King Center. The family did not know the cause of death, but relatives think it might have been a heart problem, he said.

“She was an actress, author, producer, advocate for peace and nonviolence, who was known and loved for her motivational and inspirational contributions to society,” the King family said in a statement.

Born on Nov. 17, 1955, in Montgomery, Ala., Yolanda Denise King was just an infant when her home was bombed amid the turbulent civil rights era.

She became an actress, ran a production company and appeared in numerous films, including “Ghosts of Mississippi,” and as Rosa Parks in the 1978 miniseries “King.”

“Yolanda was lovely. She wore the mantle of princess, and she wore it with dignity and charm,” said the Rev. Joseph Lowery, One of her father’s close aides in the civil rights movement. “She was a warm and gentle person and was thoroughly committed to the movement and found her own means of expressing that commitment through drama.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton said he expressed his condolences to her brother Martin Luther King III on Wednesday. Sharpton said Yolanda King was a “torch bearer for her parents and a committed activist in her own right.”

“Yolanda never wavered from a commitment to nonviolent social change and justice for all,” he said. “She was the first daughter of the civil rights movement and never shamed her parents or her co-activists.”

Yolanda King founded and led Higher Ground Productions, billed as a “gateway for inner peace, unity and global transformation.” On her company’s Web site, she described her mission as encouraging personal growth and positive social change.

She was also an author and a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference -- which her father co-founded in 1957 -- and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The flag at The King Center, where she was a board member, flew at half-staff on Wednesday.

Yolanda King was the most visible and outspoken among the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s four children during this year’s Martin Luther King Day in January, the first since the death of their mother, Coretta Scott King.

At her father’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, she performed a series of solo skits that told stories including a girl’s first ride on a desegregated bus and a college student’s recollection of the 1963 desegregation of Birmingham, Ala.

She also urged the audience to be a force for peace and love, and to use the King holiday each year to ask tough questions about their own beliefs about prejudice.

“We must keep reaching across the table and, in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, feed each other,” she said.

When asked by The Associated Press at that event how she was dealing with the loss of her mother, she responded: “I connected with her spirit so strongly. I am in direct contact with her spirit, and that has given me so much peace and so much strength.”

Survivors include her sister, the Rev. Bernice A. King, and brothers Martin Luther King III and Dexter Scott King.

Funeral arrangements would be announced later, the family said in a brief statement.

Essay 3033

Essay 3032

Unlocking talent. Unleashing success. Unbelievably contrived.

Essay 3031

From The Chicago Tribune…

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Whites not immune to racial hostility
Insults from black students spur lawsuit

By Kathleen Parker

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- In a new twist in American race relations, a federal court has ruled that a white teacher in a predominantly African-American school was subjected to a racially hostile workplace.

The case concerned Elizabeth Kandrac, who was routinely verbally abused by black pupils at Brentwood Middle School in North Charleston.

Their slurs make shock jock Don Imus look like a church deacon.

Nevertheless, despite frequent complaints, school officials did nothing to intervene on Kandrac’s behalf, arguing that the racially charged profanity was simply part of the pupils’ culture. If Kandrac couldn’t handle cursing, school officials told her, she was in the wrong school.

Kandrac finally filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and subsequently brought a lawsuit against the Charleston County School District, the school’s principal and an associate superintendent. Last fall, jurors found that the school was a racially hostile environment to teach in and that the school district retaliated against Kandrac for complaining about it.

The defendants sought a new trial, but U.S. District Judge David C. Norton recently affirmed the verdict. However, he did not support the jury’s findings of $307,500 in damages for lost income and emotional distress.

Although Kandrac clearly suffered -- she was suspended from her job shortly after a story about her EEOC complaint appeared in the local newspaper, and her contract was not renewed -- her case didn’t meet evidentiary requirements for damages.

The judge said a new trial would have to determine damages, but the school district and Kandrac settled for $200,000.

While the dollars-and-cents issue may have been of paramount importance to school and district officials -- and would have lent heft to the verdict -- the more compelling issue for pupils, parents and society is the idea that a particular group of people can be allowed to behave in a grossly uncivil and threatening way by virtue of their racial “culture.” The key legal question was whether a school could be held responsible for pupils’ behavior. In this case, the black children of Brentwood had been given a pass for their behavior.

Defense attorney Alice Paylor told jurors that the kids heard this same language at home and there was “no magic pill” to make them behave.

Paylor is probably right about that, though a magic paddle might have worked wonders.

Back in the day, if a pupil had talked the way these did, he or she would have received a well-deserved thwack, been suspended and sent home to face the wrath of a parent. That process likely would have put a swift end to the tribal tyranny now often tolerated in the service of self-esteem.

Let’s be clear: What these children called this teacher is beyond reprehensible and could be only be construed as hostile and threatening.

Here’s a sample: white b----, white m----- f-----, white c---, white a------, white ho.

Other white teachers and pupils corroborated Kandrac’s account, including a male war veteran who testified he would rather return to Vietnam than to Brentwood.

Kandrac’s attorney, Larry Kobrovsky, argued that the repeated use of “white” made these slurs racist in nature. But school officials insisted that because black pupils were equally abusive to other blacks, the language wasn’t inherently racist.

Here’s what we know without question: If white pupils had used similar language toward black pupils and teachers, the case would have been plastered on the front page of the New York Times until heads rolled.

A black Kandrac would have a million-dollar book deal, a movie contract and hundreds of interviews to juggle. Her oppressors and those who passively facilitated her abuse would have been pilloried by the media -- their faces all over the evening news -- while Revs. Al and Jesse organized protests.

But a white Kandrac -- who faced a daily barrage of insults, who had books and desks thrown at her and her bicycle tires punctured -- was treated like an incompetent wimp. She was just a lousy teacher out for money, the defense attorney said.

Though Kandrac lost her job, the real losers are the children deprived of an education by the actions of a tyrannical few. And the worst racists are those teachers and administrators who denied these empowered brats the expectation of civilized behavior.

May the rest of America now be emboldened to act decisively in the interest of students who want to learn.

[Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist.]

Essay 3030

From AdAge.com…

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Digital Media Needs Older Professionals

Success in Interactive Industry Is Not About Age

By Leslie Laredo

There is a tremendous amount of ageism in our industry. Don’t get me wrong: There are many talented and knowledgeable younger people in our industry, but we need many more people to meet the demand of the interactive-advertising industry, and writing off people older than 40 or 50 is a grave error.

I know a very experienced interactive sales pro who is out of work, and despite dozens of interviews, he believes he isn’t hired because he is over 50. Someone once told him that he would not be able to relate to the young media buyers on whom he’d be calling. I know many others like him, too. But I also have heard many success stories from professionals age 40 and older who have changed their careers, finding new love for their work in interactive media.

My personal and professional experiences make me a credible commentator on ageism in the digital world: I sold local video text ads in 1982, then spent six years selling for Prodigy, then was engaged in a few other online stints before starting Laredo Group 10 years ago. I have a great perspective from the more than 16,000 media professionals whom we have trained.

More important, perhaps, is that I admit to being a member of AARP. I love my job and love the industry and all the great people I am privileged to have met and to have worked with over the past three decades. I really feel much younger than my age, and I am grateful that I have my health and can travel and work as hard as I do.

That said, here’s what I’ve come to believe about older professionals working in digital media:

1. They’re very savvy. Our ages would keep us from being hired as employees by many companies in our industry, but we are more wired than almost any 20-something. In our home, we have a wired and wireless LAN, a Slingbox, SqueezeBox, PlayStation 3 and multiple TiVos. The Slingbox software is on our laptops and Treos; we even have broadband access (Verizon VCast and soon MediaFLO) on our other mobile phones. So, like many others, our age is not indicative of our interactive-advertising IQ.

2. They can help meld assets. Media companies have to do a better job of making their assets seamless and synergistic to their communities without destroying their brands, and it will take experienced (read: older) editorial and publishing people to accomplish this.

3. They’re ready to learn. Interactive professionals are a very privileged subset of the media community. The rest of the media world is far behind us. I am disappointed in how traditional-media companies have not done the most basic things (such as invest in training) to help all of their employees -- regardless of age -- understand the profound and extreme change the media world is undergoing.

4. They excel at client relations. We need to rewrite the rules of buying and measuring media in the world of multitasking, engagement and technology-driven creative. We need more time to discuss and understand what clients need and how to execute against those objectives. And yes, this exchange has to happen without the bad practices on both sides of the table of changing meeting times, keeping people waiting, not returning phone calls. Practices that young people are -- with all due respect, and based on dozens of first-hand experiences -- far more prone to than seasoned professionals.

5. They’re role models. I don’t believe traditional measures that come from a world in which media was created and trafficked within silo organizations can work today. The faster the silos break down on both sides of the equation, the better clients are served. We need updated professional development and college curricula, and we need to reach out to the colleges with this new view of the media profession, so that more young people will want careers in interactive advertising. Then at least the young people that are hired will be better prepared and more likely to become seasoned professionals that much sooner.

6. They’re more than their age. Age is a state of mind, and so is the hiring and training of people -- regardless of age. I have met 75-year-olds who think and act and adapt to new things like 35-year-olds, and I have met 25-year-olds whom I respect because of their knowledge, maturity and perspective. I’ve also met some who, despite their youth, don’t seem to have, or are able to get, even the first clue about what new media is all about.

Essay 3029

From The New York Daily News…

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It’s open season on hip hop’s thug

By Stanley Crouch

I recently participated in a “town meeting” at John Jay College with students, faculty members, media professionals and law enforcement executives inspired by the “60 Minutes” segment “Stop Snitchin.’” That report looked at black community attitudes toward the police, police conduct in the black community and the influence that certain hip-hop artists have on discouraging black people from cooperating with the police.
In the report done by Anderson Cooper, Geoffrey Canada smacked the problem right in the face.

As a Harlem community worker with 20 years of experience dealing with and nurturing young people, Canada said that the message coming out of hip hop was deadly and irresponsible. The lyrics imply that cooperating with the police is being an Uncle Tom. Canada found this reprehensible and said that it amounted to saying to criminals that the community was theirs to have.

Prof. Douglas Thompkins began the discussion by pointing out that, no matter what the history of police community relations had been, he saw that the black community needed to change its attitudes because losing the rule of law means that black people live in subhuman conditions in their own communities and those inhuman conditions were created by violent criminals.

There were many of the usual explanations for crime, such as slavery, poverty and police harassment that came from the audience of students and from some John Jay professors, but the panelists — with one exception — did not give in to the regular line of excuses. Almost everyone rejected the idea that black or Latino criminals were helpless victims buffeted around by external influences. They made choices; they had to be accountable.

Thompkins has credibility. He served 18 years in prison and was the leader of a Chicago street gang. He understands that police overreaction or excessive force is something that must be factored in and protested against. Thompkins said that when refusing to cooperate with police became synonymous with minority identity, that attitude brought a kind of hell to the black and Latino lower-class communities. In summarizing, John Jay Prof. David Kennedy felt that we are on the verge of a new kind of civil rights movement in which the people oppressed by crime move to liberate themselves by reprimanding the police whenever they resort to excessive force.

But that is only one part; the other is that they make it clear to criminals that they are not going to be protected by the community which they are busy destroying at every opportunity. While the worst of hip hop is not entirely responsible for negative attitudes toward cooperating with the police, it has become a part of the problem.

Kennedy saw that discussion as the beginning of the new era in which everyone has to take responsibility for the degree of crime that takes place in lower-class communities and move to make whatever changes are possible. Those possibilities are numerous and I think we will begin to see them take place sooner rather than later.

Essay 3028

A McMultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Mickey D’s is launching a campaign to encourage folks to consider a career with the fast feeder. The QSR industry has a high employee-turnover rate of about 130 percent. A McDonald’s officer said, “We think working at McDonald’s is a tremendous opportunity, that this is a great place to work. You can start as a crew person like I did.” “The world identifies who we are, and many times they don’t do it correctly,” said another McLifer. “This is our attempt to let people know the opportunities that are here.” Gee, maybe they should hire McRecruiters to scout the top business schools.

• The Justice Department announced youth gangs are contributing to a nationwide increase in crime, and unveiled plans to spend nearly $50 million to fight gangs and guns. Maybe they could hook up with Mickey D’s to offer McCareer alternatives to crime.

Essay 3027

Essay 3026

Merrill Lynch literally toots its own horn on diversity.

Essay 3025

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

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It’s all there in black and white
TV/FILM WRITERS | WGA survey says white males still rule Hollywood

BY GARY GENTILE

LOS ANGELES -- Despite gains by women and minorities in recent years, most people who write TV shows and movies are still white males, according to a study released last week by the Writers Guild of America.

Writers between the ages of 41 and 50 are the highest paid, although writers under 40 are being hired at a much faster rate, according to the study commissioned by the WGA, west.

Women TV writers have virtually eliminated the gap in median earnings with their male counterparts. That gap stood at nearly $10,000 in 2004 but narrowed to about $300 in 2005, the last full year for which data was available.

In films, however, the gap has doubled.

The study showed that women earned $40,000 less than males in 2005, up from $20,000 in 2004. Women writers’ share of overall industry employment remained flat at 25 percent in 2005.

The data for the “Whose Stories Are We Telling?” study came from employment files, including reports of earnings, maintained by the WGA to determine member dues. The data was analyzed by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

There are some gaps in the data.

TV salaries, for instance, only include the first $5,000 per week, thus excluding higher-paid staff. The information also includes only WGA members, thus excluding people who work on reality TV shows, animated shows on cable TV, comedy-variety shows and much of feature film animation.

The study showed that in 2005, the minority share of TV employment was 9 percent, a one percent drop from 2004. The guild said it feared the gap could widen with last year’s merger of the WB and UPN networks, which resulted in the cancellation of a number of shows featuring blacks and Hispanics.

In film, the overall share for minority writers remained unchanged at 6 percent, where it has been since 1999.

The pay gap for minority TV writers increased by $6,000 between 2004 and 2005 to $19,849. In film, it increased by $2,000 to $10,871. In 2003, minority writers actually earned more than their white counterparts, the guild said.

The outlook for older writers is more complicated.

Writers born after 1962 became the majority of all TV writers in 2005, the study showed. At the same time, writers between the ages of 41 and 50 were the highest paid TV writers.

Older writers are the highest paid in the film industry, although 55 percent of film writers in 2005 were between the ages of 31 and 40.

The WGA said it released its study in hopes of influencing employers as they ready their fall TV schedules.

Essay 3024

Here’s a belated Mother’s Day review.

KFC presents 0 Grams Trans Fat as if the Colonel’s created a new consumer benefit—versus the reality that the change is an almost moral/ethical obligation, as well as a legal mandate in certain areas.

Essay 3023

The 1940s advertisement above is outrageous enough in its original state. Below is the MultiCultClassics update.

Essay 3022

There’s something disturbing about these ads—besides the misspelling of disability in the headline.

Essay 3021

From The Chicago Tribune…

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Attempting to put a racial slur in its place

By Rebecca L. Ford

The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why
By Jabari Asim
Houghton Mifflin, 278 pages, $26

As hard as it might be for some to believe in this era of MTV, BET and VH1, neither rappers, hip-hop musicians nor stand-up comics invented the n-word. The first recorded use of the word in North America was in Jamestown in 1619, according to “The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why,” Jabari Asim’s insightful new cultural survey of the history of the word that has hurt and haunted the country for 400 years and counting.

For most of its long and painful life, the word “nigger” has been the blood-soaked weapon of racists, whether in pinstripes, poodle skirts, or sheets. It was never a term of endearment, as some of its proponents claim it to be in the clubs and street corners of today. It was vile and destructive, sparking lynchings and scarring souls. Decent Americans never allowed the word to pass their lips, at least not outside the privacy of their homes.

But these are confusing cultural times, especially when it comes to the use of this word. It seems everyone is using it, from black rappers to suburban white kids, who are the majority of rap-music buyers.

With this book, Asim, deputy editor of The Washington Post’s Book World and syndicated columnist on popular culture, hopes to put the word back in what he sees as its rightful place: locked away behind closed doors.

Presciently timed, “The N Word” is no polemic. It is a lesson in American history and a reasoned argument for self-censorship. The book traces the labyrinthine path of the word through American popular culture. Asim follows a thread that links the Jamestown reference to the present. This common cord connects Thomas Jefferson and George Jefferson, Mark Twain and Malcolm X, Uncle Tom and Sweet Sweetback to the comics and rappers who use the word today for fun and profit.

Asim isn’t arguing for the word to be banned. He regards the right of free speech as sacred, even when that speech is toxic. But he does want the entertainers who throw the word around so casually and the young people who admire and emulate them to understand the role it has played and continues to play in American life.

“For much of the history of our fair Republic, the N word has been at the center of our most volatile exchanges,” he writes. While other derogatory epithets for blacks “have been largely replaced by such ostensibly innocuous terms as ‘inner-city,’ ‘urban,’ and ‘culturally disadvantaged,’” the n-word “endures, helping to perpetuate and reinforce the durable, insidious taint of presumed African-American inferiority.” Within this context, “The N Word” also discusses blacks’ adoption of the epithet to describe themselves, an increasingly popular habit among younger African-Americans. “Are they in fact removing the word’s power to harm,” he asks, “or merely succumbing to an immense, inscrutable, and bizarre failure of the imagination?”

There are a few places in polite society where the n-word is acceptable, Asim writes: the realms of art, scholarship and journalism, because these fields require critical engagement of the word. But in his view, it has no positive role to play beyond those worlds:

“My concern is with the public square, where I believe the N word and other profane expressions have no rightful place. … But my obligations to others regarding civility and decency end at my doorstep. … Conversely, if you are white, [how] you refer to me … when you’re at home is of little consequence to me.”

Asim is not stationing himself as the constable of political correctness. He is “willing to acknowledge a distinction between private speech and public behavior.” Still, Asim longs for the n-word to disappear, especially from the vocabulary of young blacks:

“I imagine a way of life derived from our purest, wisest, fiercely loving selves. I dream of a world where [the word] no longer roams, confined instead to the fetid white fantasy land where he was born.”

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Rebecca L. Ford is a Chicago lawyer.

Essay 3020

From AdAge.com…

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Get Connected With Latinos in Nuevo America

Interacculturation: Blended Cultures Fuel Mainstream

By Cynthia Mcfarlane and Laura Semple

“Futbol surpasses baseball as the Official American Pastime”

“Study Finds that 70% of U.S. Children Now Speak English and Spanish”

“Sales of Tortillas Outpace Sales of White Bread in the U.S.”

These are a few news headlines we may see sometime in the future. Seem far-fetched? Considering that the third one is a fact right now, perhaps not.

Word of the day
The term interacculturation may not be immediately familiar to many client-side marketers, planners or account directors, but it should be. And as time ticks on it will need to be, given the explosive growth and increasing influence of Latinos and other groups within the United States.

A common assumption is that Latinos (and others) who live in this country long enough will eventually leave their traditions behind to embrace American culture, even if it takes a generation. Although this might seem accurate on a small scale, what happens at the macro level is much more dynamic. When a new culture is introduced into a host culture, each will inevitably affect and influence the other. One culture’s art, ideas and traditions will acculturate the other. The result is a constantly evolving mainstream society that is fueled by interconnected cultures.

This is what interacculturation is all about. It’s powerful, relentless and happening right now. In the case of Latinos, they are coming out of la casa, loud and proud -- and bringing their culture with them. The resulting impact they are having on the American mainstream is incontrovertible. The details may raise questions and perhaps even controversy among some. Reality and change are rarely met with universal acceptance.

The following are highlights from a paper on the subject our shop recently authored. It might help shed more light on why we are starting to see things like Hispanic-market advertising in English and general-market advertising in Spanglish.

A powerhouse
Latinos, the largest minority in the United States, drive interacculturation. Not only do Latinos influence mainstream culture, they lead the charge to a new, multicultural America -- a Nuevo America. Latinos are the powerhouse in Nuevo America because of two important factors: a fast-growing population and increasing spending power. A renewed sense of pride in their heritage is further fueling the scope of their influence.

Hispanics living in the U.S. today constitute approximately 15% of the country’s total population. By the year 2020, one in five Americans is expected to be of Hispanic origin. In addition, 2007 marked the first year in which Hispanics controlled more disposable personal income than any other minority group. With buying power of $863 billion, Latino consumer choices greatly influence the overall economy.

But this is only part of the equation. There are many factors unique to U.S. Latinos that strengthen their culture and help grow interacculturation. For instance, it’s easy for Latinos from countries geographically close to the U.S. -- Mexico or the Dominican Republic, for example -- to visit their homelands. This allows them to keep up with the trends in their countries of origin and bring them back to the U.S.

Additionally, the growing size of this mobile demographic contributes to the creation of Latino communities and neighborhoods where values, stories and traditions are continuously shared across generations. Cellphones, the internet and other new technologies keep cultural communities alive by allowing people to share, learn and revel in their culture. Increased Latino-relevant media, in both Spanish and English, also promotes the fertility of Latino culture.

Latino youth
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of today’s U.S. Latinos is how young they are. The median age of Hispanics is 27 -- a full nine years younger than the non-Hispanic median age of 36. In fact, 20% of Americans under the age of 18 are Latino.

As the leading force of the largest minority, Latino youth are at the forefront of the Nuevo America, actively advancing not just Latino culture, but American culture. They consider themselves the fuerza invincible, or the invincible force.

In late 2005, Conill conducted in-depth, in-home ethnographic research among young Latinos, ages 18-30, living in Los Angeles, New York and Miami. The youth in these microcosms shared similar values and attitudes as Latinos living in macro-America.

Interestingly, many of those values and attitudes differ from, and in some cases oppose, their parents’ traditional values and attitudes. Young Latinos respect traditional Hispanic culture, but also feel free to question it and adapt it to their own realities. They are the Nuevo Latinos. They are bilingual. They are bicultural. They are many times multicultural. And they revel in it.

Freedom of youth
Young people have always been integral influencers of mainstream culture. And Nuevo Latinos are especially powerful as they expand their sphere of influence. Through their actions, young Latinos are signaling to their perhaps more acculturated parents, as well as recent immigrants, that it's possible to live and breathe comfortably as Latinos in America. What’s more, Nuevo Latinos are likely to have friends from a wide array of ethnic backgrounds. Those friendships prove that new cultural mores (it’s OK to embrace your unique culture passionately) travel swiftly between cultures. The effect for marketers? Nuevo Latinos aren’t bound by a traditional set of ideas and they aren’t limited to a single source of information.

What’s at the root of all this Latinization? Attitude.

Latino culture is sensual. It heightens all five senses and gives a new and immediate vitality to almost everything with which it fuses. That sensual quality revitalizes mainstream trends, making them new and exciting.

Marketers in Nuevo America must become experts in uncovering interacculturation insights and applying them successfully to communications. It is also important to recognize that some ideas transcend culture and connect with people of multiple backgrounds and ethnicity. Marketers like Toyota and McDonald’s have done this well in some of their recent advertising.

Latin allure
Interacculturation is evident every day in both obvious and subtle ways: “Ugly Betty,” “Mind of Mencia,” “Dora the Explorer,” “Handy Manny.” In addition, mainstream artists like Justin Timberlake and Beyonce are recording in Spanish. Once you open your eyes, you’ll notice how Latinos seduce America.

As Latinos confidently expose, extend and preserve their own culture, other cultural communities will certainly follow. Clients expect their agencies to be experts in understanding the key influences and trends of American culture. We must master our understanding of how cultures adapt and influence each other. In other words, we must master our understanding of interacculturation.

In the end, marketers who understand interacculturation and who embrace its lessons will be hailed as the innovators in our emerging mainstream. More important, they will be in a much better position to uncover the insights needed to foster true relationships with their audiences.

Six Shortcuts to Making the Connection With Latinos

1. Realize that the Latino and general markets are constantly affecting one another. Welcome ideas that speak to a multicultural audience.

2. Understand that the Latino market cannot be emotionally accessed as one, lumped segment of broad-ranging stereotypes. There are myriad subcultures within the Latino market that directly influence mainstream subcultures. Don’t be daunted by these complexities.

3. An effective Latino marketing strategy goes beyond in-language to in-culture communications. If your Latino strategy is based on adaptation and language translation, it’s not nearly as effective as it could be.

4. Actively seek out cultural influencers. Latinos are influencing the mainstream through major shifts as well as more subtle infusions. Understand their potential power to influence your brand and product portfolio.

5. Get out there and talk to your Latino consumers. Ask how they influence their non-Latino friends, co-workers and other peers. Make a genuine effort to listen to their responses and use contextual and analytical clues to uncover the insight behind the insight. This is where the emotional impact hits hardest.

6. Don’t be fooled by feelings that the rise of Latino presence in mainstream American culture is a just a fad. The critical mass and continued growth of the U.S. Latino population assures that it is not. Nuevo American Interacculturation will continue to grow more evident every year. Recognize and embrace it or risk being left behind.

Essay 3019

Misfortune cookies in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• More shock jocks were axed for racist remarks. CBS Radio terminated the hosts of “The Doghouse with JV and Elvis” in response to their on-air prank involving crank calls to Chinese restaurants (see Essay 2044). CBS Radio should have tucked the morons’ pink slips in fortune cookies.

• Avoid pickup games with The Game. The rapper was arrested for allegedly pulling a pistol on another player during a basketball game. He got game — and firearms.

• Texas suburb Farmers Branch approved the nation’s first anti-illegal-immigrant law, prohibiting landlords from renting to most illegal immigrants. “It says especially to Congress that we’re tired of the out-of-control illegal immigration problem. That if Congress doesn’t do something about it, cities will,'' said one City Council member. However, legal experts claim local efforts like this rarely pass on constitutional levels, and opponents are already seeking a restraining order to stop enforcement of the new law. “There is significant frustration, so that’s what's driving it,” said an immigration expert. “But the simple fact is they cannot do too much other than impress upon the Congress the need for immigration reform.” Hasta la vista, change agents.

• Legislation was introduced to have the U.S. Mint produce coins commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. The coin would be released in 2014 with a $10 surcharge to raise money for the United Negro College Fund. Or maybe it could be distributed to Blacks in lieu of reparations.

Essay 3018

May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. Which explains this peculiar ad from WellPoint.

(Click on the essay title above to learn more about Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month.)

Essay 3017

Rats on the air in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• The Rev. Al Sharpton and fired Don Imus producer Bernard McGuirk held a heated debate on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity and Colmes” show. McGuirk’s rants included calling Sharpton a “crude … opportunist, a race-baiter.” McGuirk admitted that “these words did hurt these girls,” but he added, “until you, Reverend Al, got involved, they probably never would have heard of it. They would have probably never, quote unquote, got scarred for life until you got involved for your own self-serving interests.” Not sure why McGuirk would think keeping the original remarks confined to Imus’ racist audience lessens the offense. Additionally, McGuirk should thank Sharpton for providing him with media attention, as most people would never have heard of him until the racist incident.

• The militant Mickey Mouse wannabe is back on a Hamas-run children’s TV show, only days after the Palestinian information minister said the program would be suspended (see Essay 3008). Guess the character has more political power than folks realized.

• Police are searching for actor Tracy Morgan after a Miami DJ charged that Morgan grabbed her arms, kissed her and put his head in her lap after an appearance at a local radio station. The female DJ also said Morgan appeared to be drunk. Um, isn’t that a given with any episode involving Morgan?

• Research conducted by the Imperial College in London shows thin people may actually have fat problems. Internal fat around organs like the heart and liver could be as dangerous as external fat that is evident in body bulges. A professor from the studies remarked, “Being thin doesn’t automatically mean you’re not fat.” This kind of discovery will only drive Nicole Ritchie more insane.

Essay 3016

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

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It’s tough defending gangstas

RAP MUSIC | Execs react with silence in face of protests against offensive lyrics

BY MARCUS FRANKLIN

NEW YORK -- Facing fierce criticism of sexist and depraved rap lyrics, top music industry executives planned a private meeting. They would discuss the issue, they said, and '”announce initiatives” at a press conference afterward.

That was three weeks ago. The press conference was canceled, without explanation. And ever since, music’s gatekeepers have been silent.

Leaders of the four major record companies, which control nearly 90 percent of the market, may fear cracking the door to censorship. Others say the record chiefs are “scared to death” of further damaging sales in an industry already hobbled by digital downloading -- or that they choose to remain in the shadows rather than protect “indefensible” lyrics.

Or perhaps they are leery of stepping into a racial minefield: While black rap artists recite those lyrics, the top execs are white -- like the man who ignited the controversy, radio host Don Imus.

“They want this whole thing to go away and keep doing what they’ve been doing, which is selling records,” said Don Gorder, chair of the Music Business/Management Department at the Berklee College of Music.

While industry leaders remain reticent, others are speaking out:

Ebony magazine pulled the rapper Ludacris from its June cover. Verizon dropped pitchman Akon after he simulated sex with an under age fan onstage. Chart-topper Chamillionaire says his new CD contains no curses or n-words. Percy “Master P” Miller, founder of No Limit Records, says he’s starting a new label for “street music without offensive lyrics.”

“I was once part of the problem and now it’s time to be part of the solution,” Miller said.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who protested outside major record labels last week, is planning to lead busloads of protesters to music executives’ homes in the Hamptons over Memorial Day weekend.

“It’s indefensible,” Sharpton said of why the record executives keep silent. “They’re hoping it’ll go away. We’re not going anywhere.”

The closest the industry has come to a public discussion is when Warner Music Group vice president Kevin Lilies appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s show and acknowledged “there’s a problem.”

Some say the executives’ refusal to engage in debate is tinged with race. The top music executives are white men, observed Lisa Fager, who co-founded IndustryEars, a think tank focused on the media's impact on minorities and children.

“Nobody wants to put the white man’s face on things,” Fager said. “They don’t want to see the real person behind it.”

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Execs at 4 leading labels decline interview requests
The Associated Press’ requests for interviews about rap lyrics were declined at the four major music companies, although some have issued statements on the subject.

UNIVERSAL

On the label: 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg

Refusing to talk: chairman Doug Morris, president Zach Horowitz

Statement: Values artists’ rights to expression “even if that means some of their music will not appeal to all listeners.”

WARNER

On the label: T.I.

Refusing to talk: chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr., U.S. music chairman Lyor Cohen

Statement: Takes “issues regarding the role of women and minorities in society very seriously.”

SONY

On the label: Three 6 Mafia, Bow Wow

Refusing to talk: chairman Andrew Lack, chief executive Rolph Schmidt-Holtz

EMI

On the label: Chingy

Refusing to talk: chairman Eric Nicoli

Statement: “Where controversy occurs, we will be open to debate on the issues.”

Essay 3015