LITERANISTA Dialogue on Multicultural Books, Tech & Life

Literanista October 6, 2010

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about the dumbing down of America while at the same time there seems to be a lot of hysteria about books/print, who’s reading them, and what the web is or isn’t doing to us. In this same vein, I wanted to share three articles that I found really speak to what is going on – things are changing dramatically – what we are looking at are major cultural shifts happening in our lifetime.

In the Village Voice, Steven Thrasher offers a harsh look at baby boomers, the economy, and how “40 percent of the nation’s population under 18 is already non-white,” reversing the traditional power dynamic of otherness and vulnerability, and thereby, pitting “the Grays against the Browns.”

From a tech perspective, we see two differing takes on shift here with Malcolm Gladwell’s Small Change: The Revolution Will Not be Tweeted and Anil Dash’s response Making the Revolution

Once upon a time, things were simpler. Issues could be looked at through polarized lenses, the Haves and the Have Nots, educated v. uneducated, or among racial trajectories – Black and White. Today, it isn’t that simple. While those dichotomies have not disappeared… the economy, globalization, techonology, the web, and a growing awareness of multiracialness are changing the paradigms. It will be interesting to see where the path leads us – all of us since, ultimately, for better or worse, we are on it together.

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