Americans love freedom of choice. In his provocative book, The New Mainstream: How the Multicultural Consumer Is Transforming American Business (Rayo), Guy Garcia presents a powerful case that the ability of Americans to pick and choose for themselves is creating a new economic and social matrix in the U.S. as the country evolves from the mythical "melting pot" to a "salad bowl" of ethnic, religious and gender diversity.
The destiny of the American people, Garcia contends, is being shaped by the way they spend their dollars. Products these days are endorsed by African American golf champions, Latino film stars and Chinese-born basketball players, among others. Advertising campaigns, once aimed at a middle class majority of European descent, are responding to the rising economic power of African Americans, Latinos and other ethnic groups. Like a series of rapidly flowing tributaries coming together to form a powerful river, this "New Mainstream" is helping to create a new America.
Garcia -- a former staff writer for Time magazine and AOL executive and a frequent contributor to the New York Times -- brings an eye for detail in supporting his contention. In probing how contemporary consumer habits are reshaping the cultural reality of the U.S., Garcia draws his readers' attention to the 2003 MTV Video Awards. While most commentators fixated on the hype surrounding the controversial kisses bestowed by Madonna on Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, Garcia noted that all the commercials featured multi-racial casts. In fact, one of the ads was entirely in Spanish, without subtitles.
Adios, Frito Bandito
America has come a long way since Aunt Jemima and the Frito Bandito. But Garcia argues that the changing complexion of American entertainment and advertising is indicative of massive demographic and economic shifts. Hip-hop music, Spanglish phrases and sushi on the menu of college cafeterias are not marginal phenomena -- they are determining factors of the fate of the United States.
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