--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Kevin Burton Smith <kvnsmith@...>
wrote:
> I'm also getting pretty fed up with "urban" and "street," both now
> often used as a euphemism for black
I think 'urban' still has some legs, because it goes beyond 'black.'
in a lot of big-city ghettos the old racial categories of 'white'
'black' 'asian' 'latino' are falling rapidly behind the realities of
miscegenation. it's not hard to find people who are half black, a
quarter salvadoran, a quarter filipino, and 100% 'urban', and that
trend is only going to increase as America continues to ethnically
diversify. there's a family on my block where the dad is latino &
caucasian, and the mom is chinese, so what do you call those kids?
they're dweeby kids, but if they were little wanna-be playas, than
'urban' would be generic enough to fit them. I think that's why the
music industry in particular went toward 'urban' as a category,
because it's an effective catch-all term for the market they're after.
today's thug image crosses racial boundaries. all the young gangstas
love Pacino in "Scarface" the same, and will buy t-shirts with his
image on them, regardless of their own ethnicity.
Tom Armstrong
www.tomarmstrongmusic.com
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