Review of American Skin: Pop Culture, Big Business & the end of White America by Leon E. Wynter

Leon E. Wynter's American Skin: Pop Culture, Big Business & the end of White America presents a hopeful, inspiring vision of what the country may become if current trends continue as expected. Wynter declares that most people do not share his vision of
the browning of America; they don't think that minority groups' increased representation in pop culture and the media as a sign that Martin Luther King's dream of a nation where
a man is seen as a man regardless of skin color is coming true. But Wynter is excited by
the latest inroads made by minorities in the popular culture and he thinks that these signs
should not be ignored or dismissed as insignificant.

Wynter brings to light aspects of a process which is insiduous and ongoing, and which therefore often goes unnoticed as we go about our daily lives. I especially enjoyed the analysis of the marketing and growth of the NBA during the 70s and 80s. I was watching basketball during all those years but I never really noticed the trends and changes which were taking place. As so many people, I took many things for granted which viewed in retrospect, were significant and definitive of the times.

As a Hispanic, I found Wynter's views on the impact of the Hispanic population in the United States of particular interest. He states that "Hispanics are well on their way to being the next "white ethnic" group in America. Wynter thinks that Hispanics and Asians may be paving the road to the eventual obliteration of whiteness in our country by forcing marketers to include them. He wonders whether blackness will go the same way. He hopes that one day "American" will be a term that eliminates the need for racial definition.

Wynter's idea that big business will lead the way to social revolution is a great idealistic notion. It would be nice if something good comes from all the money-mongering and greed in our country. I hope he's right. But somehow I don't think this is what Martin Luther King had in mind.