Michael: When a corporation advertises in a city like San Francisco, it must be careful to treat all population groups equally. In this diverse city, 44% of the population is White, 31% Asian, 14% Latino, and 8% Black (source: sfgov.org), it would be unrealistic to show only white models on an advertisement for underwear, for example. In illustration 1, you can see that the cover of a coupon booklet that arrived in the mail represents pretty much all the significant population groups: The cuddling couple on the left is black, the man with the foaming toothbrush is white, the grandpa with the bicycle is white and old, the mom in white in the middle is obviously working (due to the white clothing, obviously a doctor), the lady with the baby in the middle right is Asian, and the beaming family at the bottom left are Latinos. The sports catalog in illustration 2 also reflects all the significant population groups.

When you start working at a company, you fill out a form where you indicate your "ethnicity." This is not for the purpose of discrimination, but rather -- on the contrary -- to provide companies with statistics on how "diverse" (i.e., mixed) their workforce is. Companies that hire too few minorities or, for example, have only white people in leadership positions are frowned upon. On the form for ethnicity, as a white person, you have to enter "Caucasian." I didn't know this at my first job in America, but the friendly lady in the HR department discreetly helped me with it back then.

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• More topics you might be interested in:

  	Visiting Vancouver, Canada
  	Record of the Month
  	"Don't call it Frisco"
  	Cars in California
  	Top product: "Goo Gone"
  	San Francisco Views: Noe Valley