Urban.

I was ask to write an essay on defining a word in my own tems. I picked the word urban; some of it because the word is close to my heart. As most of my life I have lived in placesm most people would call urban. Some of it was because most people would consider the kids I work with to be urban. Some of it is growning up in the setting I did, I learn to see words assoicate with the poor and the city a little different. to this day I dont see black and white as race but more of a mindset or a way of living. So this was a short essay; it had to be only 250 words on me trying to define what the word "urban" means in 2011.

URBAN

Over the last five years in the United States, there has been a shift in the meaning of the word “urban”. In the past, urban meant that you were from the city or a place where the population was high and near a city center. Now the word urban is more of a lifestyle. Urban in the last five years has turned into a term that has come to mean cutting edge.

You can be urban these days and still have a 15-25 minute drive to work. Urban is no longer about location but style. Urban is about clothes, types, and being up-to-date. A term that just a few years ago was tied to mostly inner city poor seems to have emerged overnight to mean a young person who owns something made by Apple. I have a friend who does urban missions, which brings to mind pictures of ghettos, poor people and crime. Now the group of people he works with are predominantly white and middle class. Being urban is being “in the know”. It is how Starbucks is out of style because a couple of rad dudes opened up a bar down the street where you can surf, chill and choose between coffee or beer, as long as they both are fair traded.


Now with the world at our fingertips, urban will continue to be about products, fashions and style. I think we live in a world that is evolving. As that happens, stereotypes and words that conjure up certain images will change. The word urban is changing, but it is changing for the better. It means new, united, and fresh. It is a word that draws up images of black, white, brown, and Apple.