Just observationally, an interesting thing about The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is all the ethnic cross-pollination on display in its romantic relationships, which would surely irritate Samuel L. Jackson’s character from the forthcoming Lakeview Terrace, as well as bigots… or, I’m sorry, “those of a certain generation” everywhere.

Summoning up fleeting memories of Mandingo, Alexis Bledel’s character falls for an African-American nude model (Jesse Williams) from her figure-sketching class, complicating a potential reconciliation with her Greek national crush (Michael Rady) from the first movie. Amber Tamblyn’s character does the deed with her Asian boyfriend (Leonardo Nam, returning from the first film) while, in a racial inversion of the previous couplings, America Ferrera’s character goes to a summer theater program and develops feelings for a British actor (Tom Wisdom). (Blake Lively’s character is conspicuously out of commission on the crushes in this flick, after having pursued a disastrous, self-destructive relationship in the first film.)

I don’t profess to know what this all really means, as these castings, if different in a few specific details, are still true to the source material — four hit books. So it’s not part of a secret Hollywood agenda. It would seem to highlight, however, the increasing indifference toward race among young people that has helped power and lift the candidacy of Barack Obama. We like what we see and know, and as more and more kids grow up and pursue educations in integrated environments, it’s not a big deal to date outside of one’s ethnic group, and/or have friends that do the same.