| IDENTITY, GENDER, MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY “MULTICULTURAL” IS A SOCIAL FORM OF REALITY BEYOND PHYSICAL: It Is A Statement of Mind, Collective Community and Democratic Government By Guy Garcia, Co-Founder, Content Creators Alliance ‘The future,” wrote the poet Rilke, “enters us in order to be transformed in us, long before it happens” Even before Hispanics became the nation’s largest ethnic group and the combined project buying power of Latinos, African-Americans and Asians surpassed $2 trillion, corporations and advertisers were realizing that that traditional model of a monolithic “mainstream” was being replaced in a “new” cultural identity. This identity is rising the crest of a major demographic wave. But this New Mainstream is not limited to so-called minorities; it includes people of color, yet goes beyond ethnicity and race. Wider than a movement and deeper than a trend. The mysticism and meaning printed on the dollar bill and the social and spiritual values of the people who spend it are one and the same. New Mainstream consumers seek out brands that speak to their definition of self and reflect their worldview and global aspirations. They expect the companies they work for and buy from to share their values, but they are also willing to learn, to evolve, and to become better citizens and parents. THE ELECTRIC MIRROR In a digitized world of rapidly shifting and intersecting brands and technology platform, “niche” and “mainstream” are symbiotic, not mutually exclusive. Hispanics, African-Americans and Asians are aware of their influence on the mainstream, but they also have desires and interests that are geographically, ethnically, linguistic or racially specific. As they sort through the media maze of portals and mirrors, multicultural consumers are looking for a mix of brands and sources that they can trust, that speak to them, that include them in the conversation. And even though all the groups that are part of the New Mainstream recognize its existence and value, they often see it through the lens of their own experience. The recognition of the importance of diversity is shared by African-Americans and Hispanics, for example, but how they define it can differ between those groups. Both Hispanic and African-American respondents emphasized diversity as one of the things they hoped to see more in their media content. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE VS. DIVERSITY America is a nation transformed by the fulfillment of its own ideals. Never has its population and culture been more vibrant and diverse, never has it been more, but it is also reflective of –and connected to—the rest of the world. The convergence of America’s creative and multicultural classes is the driving force behind the post-ethnic economy—a consumer-driven market in which race and ethnicity are blended into the buying habits and behaviors that drive two-thirds of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). Corporations, for example, need to understand how the New Mainstream is changing not just the marketing and advertising of products, but the conception and development of the product itself. In what ways is Navigating The New Mainstream altering how Americans look at themselves and the world—and how the world looks back at us? What happens when the “minorities” become the majority, and consumer economics become the principal driver of social change? Finally, what lies beyond Navigating the New Mainstream, and who is the post-ethnic consumer? CHOLO COLLECTIVE CONCIOUSNESS ALLOWS MULTICULTURAL SELF-AWARENESS IN WAYS THAT REWRITE THE EVOLUTION OF PROS AND CONS OF LATINO-HISPANIC IDENTITY, INCLUDING MEN Post-Cholo Consciousness is the creative force behind a new breed of Latino-American icons. For example, Puerto Rican singer-rapper-actor Bad Bunny who won Artist of the Year at Billboard Latin Music Awards for the third year. “BAD BUNNY” a.k.a. Benito Martinez Ocasio, and born in Puerto Rico is an icon of reggaeton, hip-hop and pop. Bad Bunny has dominated the male music scene, blending reggaeton with international expanding music, movie acting, his Super Bowl LX halftime show and Saturday Night Live player, and his multidimensional personality that allowed him to send $300 million into the Puerto Rican economy. THE FUTURE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (and Prosperity) Consumers and producers realize that the true value of any product or service is determined by its ability to have meaning, to make sense, to matter. In other words, for the multicultural consumers, making and spending money is nothing less than a sacred, life-affirming act. Social Bases are evolving in the era of new iterations of quasi-sentient technology and story-driven social media are more central than ever to our individual and collective destiny. Intellectual property matters because the legally sanctioned marketplace of ideas has always been tethered to the force of human creativity. As the day-to-day details of our existence continue to move online, citizens, artists and human avatars are in danger of becoming the unwitting victims on a global scale. As AI, VR, and the metaverse shape and define the texture and trajectory of our digitized lives, the endless possibilities of expressing ourselves and connecting with others will reassess the transformative value and importance of intellectual property. When humanitarian ethics and responsible technology merge in ways that benefit all concerned parties, the resulting synergies lay the foundation for new ways of thinking, working, playing, building and learning. Our thoughts and actions – online and off — are being appropriated without guardrails or apparent accountability. In many cases we have, in effect, become intellectual property. But the pathway to trans-human tools and content creator ownership rights are reinventing the definition of work and planting the seeds of a virtual society where people of all ages, racial and cultural backgrounds, and skills can find personal fulfilment through emergent formats that are paving the way for games, songs, and cutting-edge iterations of communication, media and social interaction. The underestimated value of user-generated content on social media and other platforms is one of the most important issues of our time. This book reveals the potential pitfalls and opportunities of the wired world we live in, and the virtual worlds that lie beyond it. Some people believe that AI is the beginning of the “trans-cognitive industrial revolution.” The future, in other words, is now. And the new color of money–and modern media- is black, brown, yellow, red and white. As the The Mainstream has redefined the domestic and global consumer market, and the buying power of Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians, and other groups has surged, and effort to understand the needs, motivations, and behaviors of those consumers has progressed from benign neglect to business imperative. At the same time, the disaggregation and digital distribution of media, online social networking and user-generated content has created a fast-changing landscape of consumer options and preferences that mirror the convergence and fluidity of old and new media across multiple technology platforms and devices. Advanced research tools and analytic techniques are adding new dimentions of new sight just as umbrella terms like “Hispanic,” “African-American,” ‘Asian” and “general market” are proving inadequate to describe the rich diversity of linguistic, economic, and cultural nuances within each of these groups. Technical virtual worlds inner and outer identities. Guy Garcia Co-Founder Content Creators Alliance The New Mainstream: How the Multicultural Consumer Is Transforming American Business guygarcia.com | 
