Hey, look, another cause (you believe in)

More preaching to the choir: go sign this petition.
http://www.change.org/petitions/jc-penney-do-not-remove-the-lesbian-couple-from-the-may-catalog-or-any-other-ads

A daughter of two moms has started a petition asking JC Penny to resist pressure to pull its Mother's Day ad, an advertisement that features two moms. To be honest, the ad is a bit dorky but as someone pointed out it's not making A Big Deal out of anything - it's a family and both women appear to be wearing wedding rings.

Anil Dash responds to Popchips' racist disaster

http://dashes.com/anil/2012/05/fixing-popchips.html

Anil Dash just got about 1000 more cool points in my book. This column, which you absolutely should read, is his view on the racist ad campaign put out by Popchips and how to cope with the mess that has been created.

I think he's brilliant because he's going way way way beyond the typical response and digging into the heart of the matter, naming all the players involved (yes, the company is at fault but they're far from the only ones), and giving his thoughts on what each of them ought to do now. You might disagree with the specifics of his suggestions, but I hope you'll be as impressed by his approach, which I think is comprehensive and forward-thinking. It's a very 21st-century/networked-world way to respond.

I recently tried to explain to my kids that one of the reasons I didn't watch Revenge of the Sith was that I was uncomfortable with the racism of the previous two movies. Racism? they wanted to know, what's that about?

How do I explain to them that racism doesn't just mean there are racist individuals? Racism exists because there are social systems all around us that make some kinds of negative stereotyping seem OK. Racism exists because people don't think about how their words and actions will affect people different from themselves, or who have different outlooks. Racism exists because people nod and pass along rather than engaging their brains. Dash's brain is fully engaged and he's got good things to say as a result.