[Each
of the last few
years, I’ve made
a number of holiday
wishes to the AmericanStudies
Elves, things I’d love to see happen in the coming year. As you might have
always known, the Elves are really all of us—so let’s work to make these and
other great things happen in 2017! I’d love to hear your wishes, and causes or
individuals or projects I can support as well, in comments!]
On the latest
important and inspiring initiative from a crucial 21st century
voice.
I dedicated one
of my AmericanStudies wishes four years ago to José Antonio Vargas and his (at
the time) new Define American project.
As that last hyperlink reflects, Define American is still ongoing and growing,
and I would repeat everything I said in that post for sure (but won’t, and just
will ask you to check it out and to support Define American if you have the
chance).
But of course
Vargas has continued to do new and just as impressive work in the years since,
a list that would include the MTV documentary White People I mentioned in yesterday’s post and the project on which I want to
focus today: #EmergingUS. Emerging is
partly a complement to Define American, another space in which to, as the site’s
subtitle notes, share stories and voices that are “exploring race, immigration
and the emerging American identity.” But as its
About page highlights, the site’s emphasis on “emerging” is also explicitly
framed as a response to and contrast with the mainstream media: that’s true
both in terms of content (“the public space where we tell our stories — the
news media — isn’t keeping up. And, too often, when these stories are told,
they lack the necessary nuance and context”) and form (“since video is the
emerging currency of digital publishing, #EmergingUS stories are told primarily
through short, documentary-style videos, complemented by essays, graphics, and
other original content”).
My simplest wish
for #EmergingUS would be that it get as many readers as possible, including I
hope all you fellow AmericanStudiers. So I’ll mostly leave this short and sweet
enough that you can head back over there
and check out some of the many great pieces! But I’ll add one more layer to the wish: that
sometime, in the not too distant future, a site like Vargas’ will be just as
(if not more) frequently described as part of the “mainstream media” as, to
name one
of this election season’s most frustrating players, CNN). While of course
it’d be possible instead to do away entirely with the concept of the mainstream,
I don’t have a problem with the idea that some media voices are particularly central
to our cultural conversations—but I do have a significant problem with what and
who comprise those voices in late 2016. So, AmericanStudies Elves, by this time
next year I’d love for #EmergingUS to be part of a new and, yes, emerging mainstream.
Next wish
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Wishes or causes you’d share?
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