Various claims filed in April 2012 as part of a race discrimination lawsuit against Interpublic Group of Cos. have been tossed out by a New York district judge. However, one claim made by Trinidadian employee Joy C. Noel -- that Interpublic failed to promote due to her skin color -- has been permitted to proceed to trial.

The trial begins on June 3, according to court documents.

When Ms. Noel filed suit in Manhattan federal court last spring, she sought a whopping $50 million in damages. She claimed that in her many years working for the company, Interpublic fostered an environment where discrimination based on race and color is condoned. She alleged that she was passed over for promotions because Caucasian and light-skinned Hispanics are treated more favorably than African-Americans or other dark-skinned employees. Ms. Noel has been at Interpublic since 1993 and is still an employee there.

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Marketers are plowing more and more resources into digital strategies, and often multicultural budgets are pilfered to pay for it.But this may be a critical mistake, because multicultural consumers are key influencers in the digital space, as well as in a brand's relevance to popular culture.

Michelle Ebanks, president of Time, Inc., multicultural brands ("Essence" and "People En Espaol"), puts it this way: "Both Hispanics and African American women are driving digital adoption, and marketers with digital strategies would benefit greatly from understanding them as leaders of digital behavior."

Thomas Newman, president of Interactive One, observes, more broadly, "Our research has shown that both Hispanic and African American consumers tend to jump on trends early ... recent examples include early adoption of social networking, early adoption and higher usage of smartphones, and over indexing on specific next -generation platforms such as Twitter."

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More and more, marketers are backing away from the idea of targeted multicultural advertising in favor of a "general market" approach. It's a philosophy that seems to fit the current mood of America.

"We're not as divided as our politics suggest," proclaimed a newly re-elected Barack Obama during his victory speech. With Americans split down the middle on seemingly every issue -- from guns to health care, from abortion to the deficit -- we did manage to come together and reelect our first African-American president.

But the nation is still hardly as unified as the president's rhetoric would have it. Two recent studies suggest, for example, that it may be a grave mistake for marketers to assume that Americans see eye to eye when it comes to race.

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How often do we see or hear in the media about a black man rescuing a black woman? Tarzan rescued Jane; Matt Dillon rescued Miss Kitty; Superman rescued Lois and Spiderman rescued Mary Jane. Now, finally, we have a popular black example: Django rescues his wife, Broomhilda, in the film "Django Unchained."

While true love is not restricted by race or gender, black love, between a black man and black woman, continues to be a really big deal in the black community. Just about every February, popular black magazines focus on "Black Love." Both Ebony and Essence's February cover stories this year stayed true to this tradition.

For years and years, we had not seen many black loving couples in mainstream media. Remember "L.A. Law" in the '90s? Most of the (white) lawyers were embroiled in a love relationship or love triangle, except Blair Underwood. Really? (If I'm wrong, please set me straight!) Hollywood has made some strides, but it has been slow in coming.

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