Kelly and Quang's Global Roam

In November, I blogged about a strange piece of junk mail that landed in our post: a DISH Network mass mailer in Chinese.

Yesterday, we got another character-scripted mass mailer from Dish Network, this time in Korean. It's the exact same letter and brochure featuring the exact same smiling faces.

I'm wondering how many of these letters we're going to get and in how many different Asian languages. Will Vietnamese come next? Hmong? Japanese?

I'm assuming there are marketing grunts somewhere out there that have fished through U.S. Census reports and ranked the population and consumer strength of the various Asian communities in the country. That data has now been sold to DISH Network, along with a list of "Asian" names and addresses.

Is it DISH Network's intention to simply mass mail the same letter translated into various Asian languages in descending order of each population's size? Obviously, this is an attempt to reach out to new markets, but I can't help but wonder how many people they are offending in the process.

To me, the situation is indicative of what is right with America's approach to multiculturalism, while at the same time a glaring example of what is wrong with America's approach to multiculturalism.

Our country does not have an official language. Yes, English is the language of choice for government documents, but legally, this is not law. And yes, there are those pushing to make it so, but in the meantime, consumerism has forged ahead and written its own law: it doesn't matter which language the consumer speaks so long as the consumer spends. Wealth, not language, is the equalizer.

On one hand, this seems like progress. American citizens and residents, no matter their race or native language, are all getting the same information so that they can make smart choices. We've recognized that not every American is the same and we've put effort into tailoring messages.

On the other hand, this mass mailing campaign is based on stereotypes and generalizations. The Chinese and Korean letters were not addressed to me. They were addressed to Quang - an Asian-looking name. The sender has recognized his "otherness" but has forgotten that he is not the same as all the others.