Respond to the following post:
When I first read of Grazian describing cities as hotbeds of cultural production (Grazian, 2017), I immediately thought about all big cities across our country and how it seems there is a new sense of diversity and social change that influences and becomes a part of pop culture. I can't narrow this to just one city, since it occurs throughout all urban cities. Big cities across America have become incredibly racially diverse. According to city-data.com, the populations of 10 big cities in America (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, Brooklyn, Detroit, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Houston, and Cleveland) have respective white population percentages of 28, 42, 25, 35, 11, 33, 13, 39, 23, and 32, respective Hispanic percentages of 48, 30, 30, 20, 8, 29, 71, 5, 46, and 13, respective Asian percentages of 11, 16, 38, 8, 2, 7, 1, 5, 6, and 2, and black percentages of 8, 6, 3, 34, 77, 29, 14, 49, 22, and 49 (City-Data, 2019).
With Generation Z now the largest and most racially diverse in American history, there is a tension with prior generations on their views of the world and economic consumption, which is complicated more when the prior generations control wealth and political positions and decisions (Bakhtiari, 2022). There is a difficulty for businesses and politicians to essentially choose sides to make money and/or receive votes. The political agenda for the majority of Generation Z individuals aligns with the liberal-sided ideals of big cities across America, which also coincidentally contain the majority of our country's populations.
A hilarious movie scene during 21 Jump Street exemplifies the cultural changes occurring in big cities by Generation Z (Paradise, 2021). It is now hip and cool to care about the environment, social justice, and sexualities of others, whereas prior generations may not worry about these issues or think of them as a part of pop culture. The pop culture aspect of this phenomenon is seen in movies, the media, social media, politics, and consumer products. All of these are controlled by the force of Generation Z. While the landscapes and subcultures of the various cities across America are unique to that area, the densities of young individuals allows for a collaboration of cultural creativity to thrive (Grazian, 2017).