Chuck Grimes wrote:
>
>The question of identity in the social and cultural sense is
>complex---and it was ever present. Of all the other flows
>and influences, the late 50s and early 60s in the US were saturated
>with a `new' internationalism of culture, i.e. mostly a European
>modernity. Obvious US contributions were jazz and the visual arts
>(film, painting, design, etc). The effect (from my perspective as a
>student) was an internationalization of cultural identity in which no
>single source could lay hegemonic claim or dominance, despite the also
>obvious fact that the US was in fact dominant.
>
Just as a footnote to Chuck's long screed, let us note that the flight
to suburbia and exurbia should also be seen in the context of this
incipient cultural internationalization. It is usually seen as a flight
from the race mixing of the cities; but it was equally a flight from the
cosmopolitanism of the cities, a cosmopolitanism that provides the
breeding ground for an international culture. This they rejected, which,
at this point in history is tantamount to rejecting one's humanity.
Joanna