Finally someone who’s not ultra politically correct….there are people who waste their entire lives hunting down these perceived injustices to humanity….as if by ‘exposing’ these offenders they have somehow changed the world. Sometimes a photo is just a photo. Stop looking for things that might not be there. If you really want to help, there are dozens of brazen human atrocities that go on every year…champion one of those! (ie Syria)

I didn’t put any of these pictures online, out of respect for my own privacy and that of others. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Sorry, auto correct got the better of me. The penultimate sentence should state “especially if they are blonde and fair skinned”.

I truly appreciate the concern you have expressed – we live in a troubled world far from fair and just. It is only with awareness building and advocacy that behaviours can change – not an easy task.

But at times, I believe that we can also over-interpret situations and behaviours because we are socially conscious or because we are not necessarily culturally experienced or informed. This, from my perspective, is one such situation. Here’s why:

I have spent most of my professional life working for the UN in various countries. I was very lucky to have had a chance to work in Asia (Thailand, Viet Nam and Cambodia). I was there with my family including my then 2 year old son. Back than he had blonde curly hair ( I am also blonde). Everywhere we went we were followed and I would very, very frequently be asked if people could take pics with my son.

On one occasion, while visiting a temple in Bangkok, we encountered several classes of schoolchildren who were picking up the leaves around the temples. I must have spent at least half an hour on a bench, posing, while one after another Thai school girls took turns taking pics with us.

I was then asked by one of the teachers whether my son would join the class in taking the class picture. As a result I have this incredibly touching and beautiful pic of my little boy surrounded by Thai kids sitting on the steps of a pyramid-like temple (not unlike the one on the J Crew catalogue cover) which I wish I could share here.

All this to say, that while your Google research did not yield anything on taking pics with foreigners, in Asia this is really a common occurrence (especially if they are blind and fair skinned). It is actually seen as a good omen (only surpassed by having your picture taken with a Buddist monk).

All the very best to you.

Danina of Fashionable in Montreal

“They show interracial couples in their bridal, and have Black, White, Asian, Latino models that regularly grace their catalogs…”

In other words referring to black and white (skin colors) and Asian and Latino which are cultural groups as if they are parallel terms. So in other words, African American (Somali, South African, etc. would be keeping an apples-to-apples comparison. European American instead of white.

The term little brown brother syndrome can refer to any situation where people are being ethnocentric and viewing their own culture as somehow more real and complex than others’. Common in all examples of colonialism, but also a tendency of people from more technologically “developed” countries to think of “developing” countries’ cultures in this way. Not because people are overtly racist but because it is natural to prefer your own culture and the advantages of wealthier nations like the US obviously seem preferable. I know you don’t want a long involved post here, but as always poverty is really at the core of the diffences/disparities anyhow but we don’t talk about poverty in America we talk about racism/skin color. People just need to think in broader terms and the reaction to the J Crew catalog will resonate most with people who have buy too easily the idea of white Americans being racist and ignoring diversity. The purpose of the catalogue is only to present visual images, and thus “diversity” is appropriately presented in visual ways (ie skin color, eye shape, etc). I just thought the criticism of the children image was a bit over the top. Unless the caption read, “Stylish American visitors introduce the locals to fashion” or something like that, it’s hard to see that posing with cute kids is particularly imperialistic.
Thanks for listening. Your post sparked some important conversation beyond the buttons and bows of fashion. Hurrah!

I totally agree with you! Can’t we all just appreciate a beautiful photo without crazy analytic crap and insults?