Racism: ALIVE AND WELL .

I recently saw this old clip of "What Would You Do?". It is amazing how racism is still alive and well. Check out this video and notice how quickly society jumps on African Americans but turns a blind eye to whites. It is reminiscent of how the Trayvon Martin case is playing out.

Iggy Azealia: The Tanning of THE WORLD

A great example of how tanning has impacted the world is through the rapper known as Iggy Azealia. Iggy Azealia is a caucasian female from Australia who has been influenced by American Hip-Hop culture. When asked who is her greatest inspiration, she proudly exclaims "Tupac".

With her gritty, street influence, she has been able to infiltrate the hip-hop community and has graced the cover of XXL as one of the top up and coming MCs, but she has garnered the attention of 

TI, recently signing to his label Grand Hustle. Iggy is the epitome of tanning.

Check her out!

Steve Stoute: The Tanning of America

On Friday, March 30th, business magnate Steve Stoute appeared before Morehouse College to share his book "The Tanning of America" and his visions of success. Stoute is the founder of Translation, which is an advertising agency that has introduced hip-hop culture into the mainstream. A few of Stoute's greatest projects were Jay-Z and his partnership with HP and Mary J Blige's "My Life" perfume.
Stoute's book "The Tanning of America" touched on how hip-hop grew from street poetry to being embedded into the fabric of mainstream advertising and marketing. Hip-hop has tanned American by introducing black culture into a european-american dominated society. Today, you see an influx in the use of rappers like Drake in commercials for Sprite, Lil' Wayne in Mountain Dew, or Nicki Minaj in Pepsi. The music that these artists produce transcends their own communities and extends into popular culture. What has grown from this movement of inclusion has been a new generation of people with more intercultural awareness. The media has exposed us to cultural diversity which has led to greater acceptance of sub-cultures. From Steve Stoute, we learned that the world is getting smaller and smaller. We are all so connected that the cultural lines are beginning to blur. We are not in the days of ignorance and inexposure. With the power of the internet at our hands, we are finding out how similar we are rather than different.

Pop Star Lady Gaga Viva Glam Ad

Rapper Nicki Minaj and Ricky Martin Viva Glam Ad

Lady Gaga and Cyndi Lauper were the 2010-2011 spokeswomen for MACs Viva Glam Collection. In 2012, it was announced that hip-hop's leading lady, Nicki Minaj, and latin singer Ricky Martin will be their successors.

Escape from Sobibor/Cultural Identity and Biases

It was a double-edged sword. Escape from Sobibor was a film based off of actual events that unfolded in a Nazi death camp during WWII. In Sobibor, a group of prisoners banded together to successfully revolt, escaping their impending peril and marking their place in the history books. From watching the film, the most concerning question that seems to come up is “Why?” Why would the Nazi’s outright plan to deduce an entire culture in to merely nothing? Why? It was clear: A mixture of ethnocentrism, prejudice, and the perfect storm of cultural taxonomies When studying WWII, it was clear that the motivation of those in charge was fueled by ethnocentrism. It was the driving force behind the entire operation of the Nazi’s. It was believed that the Nazi’s were of Aryan decent—blonde haired, blue eyed Caucasians—that were entitled to be great. By the end of WWI, the Germans were suffering from the retaliation of the world due to the initial commencement of the war, therefore they were looking to be great. In order to be great, someone has to fall—in this particular case, it was the Jews. The Nazi’s blamed the Jews for their problems, instilled a sense of racism with the claims that they were no good, and promoted their place as God’s perfection. This was taken in such a profound way, a following amassed. The Nazi’s were actively prejudice, leading them act of will. They destroyed Jewish homes, work places, and more until they found the “Final Solution”, which is the term for the genocide of European Jews or the Holocaust.’ It is hard to imagine still how this kind of thing happened, but it did. It is not the first time that a domineering race of people were able to systematically play off the taxonomies of other cultures such as collectivism to toy with their cultural identity. In slavery, Europeans were able to dismantle African’s through separation—injecting individualism in a highly collective society—thereby upsetting its delicate balance. Once that happened, it was easy to take advantage of their culture. The same went for the Jews. Separation and their high power distance easily took them out of their element. The lesson learned from this film is that there are extreme in cultural identity and we must be forward thinking to understand that it may take us to a dark place if we are not too careful.  

 "Free your mind and the rest will follow. Be colorblind and the rest will follow" - SWV

Day At the Museum

On Friday, March 16th, our intercultural communications class enjoyed the luxury of going to the museum at Clark Atlanta University. As culturally enriching as the museum is, it was actually not our original destination. We initially planned to attend a program in which the queens of Ghana were going to speak. Some issues came up and they were no longer able to be present. Luckily, an overseer of the Clark Atlanta Museum suggested we enjoy what they have to offer as a supplement, and Viola! That's where we ended up I am not a museum buff, but I did have a favorite piece. My favorite piece was a spot on the wall with two picture hangers and an outline of dust that gave the idea that a picture used to be present. It was used as a sarcastic rant by the artist to illuminate the loss of the quality in artistry. It was very unique. Speaking to the woman in charge, she stated that the way that portion of the exhibit was made was by hanging a picture frame on the wall and painting around it. Clark Atlanta repaints the wall often, so the dirty look is the look of an unpainted wall. Other than that, the museum was nice. It just was not my kind of thing. Art is a jewel of intercultural communication. Through art, people are able to connect without language and become awe-inspiring by what is presented before them. Art may not be on my list of enjoyable sights, but I do have an understanding of its importance.

Spring Break 2012

For spring break this year, my friends and I decided to take a ride down to Panama City, Florida. It was one of the greatest cultural experiences in my collegiate career. PCB was filled with students from all over the United States, with the Mid-west in heavy attendance. What I noticed was that being a minority was real. Black people were speckled here and there with a white counterpart always near by.

Being a student of a HBCU has given me a sense of pride in being African American and allows me to feel secure about not having to conform to the "mainstream" or "majority", looking to be accepted by a group of white friends and indulge and their cultural experiences.

Despite my feelings, I had a blast! I even have a video!:

Before you click the video, notice these things:

The vast amounts of caucasians and beer


The way the black women degrade themselves


The white women who have "jungle fever"

OPERATION: IDENTIFY THE BODY #sb12 from teej Mac on Vimeo.

Introduction to Intercultural Competence

This blog is dedicated to intercultural communication and competence. The purpose it is to serve is to document my journey as I gain further clarity on how to interact with people outside of my own culture and strengthen my communication skills with people within my culture.

To begin, I want to point out a few cultural stereotypes that usually inhibit people’s interactions with one another, breaking down the lines of communication.

Americans: Arrogant, wasteful, and lazy

Jews: Greedy and power hungry

Muslims: Terrorist

Mexicans: Laborers and Illegal Aliens

African Americans: Thugs and drug dealers

Asians: Smart

And the list goes on and on. As crazy as it may seem, these stereotypes are commonplace in the minds of people around the world. It is important for use to communicate more effectively to one another and breakdown these barriers. The world is becoming a global village, where everyone is connected through the internet, economies, and more. In order to progress ourselves as humans, we must embrace the ever-shrinking world and facilitate conversations to ensure peace as we begin to face challenges globally.

To understand how we must can learn about intercultural communication, communication must be defined.

Communication is a symbolic, interpretive, transactional, contextual process in which people create shared meaning.

Think about a conversation you had with someone and try to identify the characteristics of communication. It is pretty simple!

The symbols in conversation usually take form nonverbally such as eye contact, closed hands, and tense shoulders.

Interpretation is what you do when listening. You attempt to understand what the other person is saying in a way that doesn’t take it out of context and in a manner that you understand

          Transaction is key in communication. Information flows easier when people are engaging one another and gathering feedback

          Finally, communication is contextual, which means that the setting in which information is exchanged is important

          Example: Social Events, Church, School, etc.

          This sets a pretense for appropriate conversation

With all this information, we can begin our journey to learn more about communication.