Ypulse Guest Post: The New Urban

Could the word “Urban” really be dead? A few weeks ago Anastasia asked this question and there were a good number of comments from readers eager to share their thoughts on the issue. This was no surprise to me, as this is usually a topic that inspires plenty of opinions whenever it is brought up. But what I did find surprising was my own reaction– how confident I initially felt that the word was no longer needed, and then how conflicted I felt five minutes later about the implications of actually doing away with it. Maybe the word urban just needs to be redefined?

In practice, the word urban has come to take on two different functions. The first is more race-based. It historically seemed to be a way of easily pin-pointing certain ethnic groups – primarily African-Americans but also Latinos and Asian Americans. It was an easy box seemingly created by companies and their marketing departments to target these particular groups and to cater products and ad campaigns to them specifically. The second function of the word urban is more cultural-based. It is used to describe anyone, regardless of race, who participates in urban culture and shares those interests (types of music, clothing, television shows, etc…). These two functions used to point us to the same group of people. But the issue that we are now facing is that this is no longer the case – especially among youth.

With the ever-growing international reach of the internet through the proliferation of social networking sites, blogs, vlogs, wikis, Twitter and other easy methods of sharing information and ideas, cultures are no longer as tightly associated with a particular race as they used to be. In fact they are becoming much more contextual. And what we are seeing as a result are kids participating in different cultures depending on where they are, who they are with, and what they are doing in that particular moment and on that particular day. One day you may spot a young guy at a coffee shop dressed in straight cut jeans and a hoodie, reading The Fader, and listening to Lil Wayne on his iPhone. The next day you may catch that same guy at the coffee shop wearing skinny jeans and a flannel shirt, reading the Economist and listening to Feist. The next day you’ll catch him in boardshorts reading Transworld Surf and listening to Brazillian singer CéU. Can we truly place this guy into the “urban” box because he is African-American? Would companies interested in marketing to African-Americans be successful in targeting this young guy by focusing on what they see as stereotypically “urban?” I don’t think so. (A side note: “that young guy” is me.)

So given this example and many more like it, it definitely seems like the word urban in the racial sense is no longer relevant. And thus my immediate reaction would be to eliminate it from our daily vocabulary. But when you look at it from the truly cultural side – the word urban can still be very useful. If we acknowledge that anyone can be a member of urban culture if they share characteristics that are in line with what that culture represents, then it can still be a relevant and helpful way for companies to identify a particular audience in their advertising and product marketing initiatives.

But here is another dilemma that seems to exist even if we decide to use urban only in the truly cultural context-based sense, disregarding racial and ethnic background: how do we still pay sufficient attention to often under-represented groups such as African Americans and Latin Americans? And how do we successfully serve these groups while still recognizing the diversity within the group (not all African Americans, Latin Americans, and Asian Americans are alike)? Places like the “urban” section of Ypulse were created to diversify the site and provide more content for these groups but maybe the word urban is just the incorrect term to use for this purpose. But if that is the case, then what should the new term be? Or is this entire debate just a pointless game of semantics that doesn’t really make a difference at all – as long as we know who it is specifically that we are targeting?

Just food for thought. I’m interested in hearing if there are any people out there that have this same dilemma and asked themselves these same questions as they think about whether the word urban is dead or very much alive and living well…

This is article is syndicated from the YPulse Urban Channel.

If this article is of interest and you happen to be on the West Coast (or not) YPulse’s Urban and Multicultural Conference is on June 1st.  Lynne d Johnson is the Chair and you can find the agenda of other great folks who will be there on their site.  YPulse has given Black Web 2.0 readers a 30% discount so if you are planning to attend just enter the code ‘BLACKWEB20‘ when registering.  Hope to see you there!

Written by Richard Cox

Richard is an Assistant Buyer for a Fashion Retail company in Southern California. He graduated from Stanford University in 2007 where he gained his love for thoughtful debate. In his spare time he enjoys sharing his ideas on music, film, fashion, and sports at his recently launched blog Media Mayhem.