Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture

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Creoles/creolization

Creolization refers to the development of new forms of

language

and expression from

contact among diverse cultures. Black English vernacular, for example, represents a

creolized linguistic form that has developed stable forms centuries after first contact,

while Spanglish and Chinglish refer to contemporary transnational creoles. The

recombination of various identities has made creolization a fundamentally American

process from

Broadway

stage to

popular music

visual arts

food

Creole, however, is not used to categorize settlers in the US as it was in Latin America.

As an ethnic term, it refers primarily to descendants of French creoles in Louisiana,

whose dilemmas of ethnicity

race

and

class

are detailed by Virginia Dominguez in

White

by Definition

(1985).

GARY McDONOGH

crime

organized crime; police; prisons; violence

crime, television

America’s fascination with crime permeates

mass media

. Indeed, critics frequently

charge that media violence incites crime rather than reflecting it (evidence is murky).

Still, as movie plots, fodder for

tabloid

news, investigative reports, local news hype or

“reality” shows, criminal activity investigation and prosecution permeate the everyday

televisual world. These elements also have structured many long-running fictional genres,

although, unlike film, the viewpoint of a criminal is rarely central. Hence, these series

have created myths of good and evil for generations, while revealing changes and

uncertainties about the

nature of justice. Jack Webb’s

Dragnet

(NBC, 1952–9, 1967–70) altered radio models

y its detailed focus on everyday police activity with a clear sense of authority

(exaggerated in the revival that targeted countercultural elements). The show’s “realism”

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 306

was reinforced by the solemn warning “the story you are about to be told is true. Only the

names have been changed to protect the innocent,” as well as the retribution that closed

each show. Ironically Webb lionized the

Los Angeles

Police Department, whose racism

and corruption would later spark major riots.

The hero cop continued for decades, including the noirish heritage and location shots

Naked City

(ABC, 1958–9, 1960–3), period violence in

The Untouchables

(ABC,

1959–63), intergenerational dynamics in

Streets of San Francisco

(ABC, 1972–7) and the

idiosyncracies of

Kojak

(CBS, 1973–89; ABC, 1989–90). Almost all these shows focus

on detectives who unravel complex schemes amid increasing violence. Patrol cops faced

tedium in Webb’s spin-off

Adam-12

(NBC, 1968–75) and ridicule in

Car 54, where are

ou?

(NBC, 1961–3. Rural law met gentler humor in

The Andy Griffith Show

(CBS,

1960–8). Even the

FBI

had a hit show.

But were the police really friends and heroes? Even the

radio

heritage of the outsider

rivate eye suggested police were not always just; others were there to cross the line,

reopen the case and get the blonde an upright policeman, with whom she eventually

could not be involved. Here,

Peter Gunn

(NBC, 1958–60, ABC 1960–1) was followed by

annix, Cannon, Tanner, Baretta,

etc. Aaron

Spelling’s

Charlie’s Angels

(ABC, 1976–

81) showcased active albeit titillating females, while

Remington Steele

(NBC, 1982–6),

oonlighting

(ABC, 1983–9) and others played up romance and detection. Angela

Lansbury in

Murder, She Wrote

(CBS, 1984–98) provided a senior detective with

old-age

appeal. Minorities have been relatively absent, apart from Sammo Hung and Arsenio Hall

Martial Law

(ABC, 1999–2000), a black partner in

Spenser: For Hire

(ABC, 1985–8)

and Burt Reynold’s Native American in

Hawk

Yet doubts and challenges also emerged within the police genre itself. The teen-

marketed

Mod Squad

(ABC, 1968–73) turned a young woman and two angry youths,

black and white, into police agents.

Barney Miller

(ABC, 1975–82) assembled diverse,

aded characters in a show where police work as comic relief. Lives, as well as process,

became central to police drama.

This shift is frequently linked to

Cagney and Lacey

(CBS, 1982–8), which not only

showcased female partnership, but also dealt with

family

issues, alcoholism and breast

cancer. Ensemble complexity also permeates the creations of Steven Bochco and Thomas

Milch, for example

Hill Street Blues

(NBC, 1981–7) and

NYPD Blue

(NBC, 1993–).

Male and female, black and white, police on the beat, detectives and lawyers alike lie,

fear, act heroically and wrongly and in one experiment—

Cop Rock

(ABC, 1990)—even

sang. Barry Levinson created a gritty human ensemble set in

Balti-more, MD

omicide

(NBC, 1993–9), while enforcement and prosecution mesh in the 1990’s

aw &

Order

(NBC, 1990–), hewing close to current news. The raw police sexuality of

NYPD

lue

stands light years away, physically and emotionally from

Dragnet

. Nor is justice

easy or cases closed in a single episode.

Other action/crime genres also appeared sporadically on

television

. The 1960s saw

secret agents enforcing justice worldwide in

I Spy

(NBC, 1965–8), where Bill

Cosby

pioneered black lead roles,

Mission Impossible

(CBS, 1966–73; ABC, 1988–90),

Entries A-Z 307

enforcing a

“Dragnet”

morality against dictators worldwide, the Bondish

Man from

U.N.C.L.E.

(NBC, 1964–8) and the wise-cracking

Get Smart

(NBC, 1965–9; CBS, 1969–

70). This genre faded notably after the

Vietnam War

and

Watergate

Superheroes

also

have shown up when police cannot help—especially in Saturday morning cartoons.

The year of 1989 also saw the debut of FOX’s “Realityshow,”

Cops

(FOX, 1969), with

cinéma vérité handheld videos and apparently unedited footage of police life and events

on the street. Here, the “unvarnished truth” restates many of the concerns of

class

and

race

that fictional shows had first hidden and then, perhaps too readily embraced.

In all these shows, fighting crime is not just fighting evil-doers. Police chafe against

rules (echoing conservative debates about the

Supreme Court

decisions), criticize

lawyers

and judges, and sometimes pause to reflect on society gone wrong. In these

themes and the human dramas they play out, these shows reflect and shape the discourse

of crime and punishment in contemporary society

ee also:

police; violence

GARY McDONOGH

CINDY WONG

crime fiction/mysteries

Crime and mystery writing as a genre have deep American roots, most notably with

American Edgar Allen Poe’s (1841)

Murders in the Rue Morgue,

considered the original

detective story and Anna Katharine Green’s (1878)

The Leavenworth Case,

considered

the first American detective novel. In the last decades of the century American crime

fiction has focused on realism, character development and psychological dimensions o

action. Amateur and professional detectives, once urban males, have gained regional

attributes and everyday problems, and increasingly include persons of color and women,

as well as responses to social issues. They are also increasingly packaged as series,

named by author, major characters or setting (Egyptian,

Hollywood,

etc.) in order to

market to avid readers.

The most prominent category of American crime fiction and mystery is the murder

mystery but detective stories, courtroom sagas, spy novels and stories of theft and assault

are also popular. Although British authors have been popular (Agatha Christie, Ruth

Rendell, etc.), most popular authors are American. However, settings may vary widely

over time and place. Mystery series are also popular in

children’s

and

teenage

fiction.

Police investigators appear in mysteries set around the United States. On the West

Coast one may find John Ball’s Virgil Tibbs, an

African American

detective from

Pasadena or Susan Dunlap’s Detective Jill Smith from Berkeley On the East Coast one

finds Lillian O’Dennel’s Norah Mulcahany or Archer Mayor’s Lieutenant Joe Gunther

from Brattleboro, Vermont.

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 308

Private detectives and ex-cops, humorous amateurs and lawyers all make for popular

lead characters in crime fiction. Erle Stanley Gardner’s

Perry Mason

series has given

way to bestsellers Scott Torow, John Grisham and Steve Martini, who have created legal

thrillers that weave together law, courtroom scenes and intricate problem-solving that

often rescues the featured lawyer/sleuth from danger. Private investigators—consummate

antiheroes—include classic pre-war works by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler,

as well as noirish series by Mickey Spillane and John T. MacDonald. Recent

investigators also include journalists such as Sampson Dean, the African American

reporter created by Mike Phillips.

Yet amateur sleuths, citizens caught up in events, are equally important in American

crime fiction. Members of the clergy make detecting innocence and guilt take on special

significance. These include Father Dowling, a Roman Catholic priest from the

Chicago,

area created by Ralph McInerny, Rabbi David Small, a creation of Harry Kemelman,

or Sister Mary Ursula of the Order of the Sisters of Martha of Bethany,

Los Angeles, CA

created by H.H.Holmes. Husband-and-wife teams such as the Orthodox Jewish

housewife Rina Lazarus and Los Angeles Police Department Detective Peter Decker,

created by Fay Kellerman, mingle professional and amateur investigation.

The stewpot of American culture is reflected in the increasing diversity of detective

characters. Such diversity is reflected by women such as Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone,

private investigator, Patricia Cornwell’s Virginia coroner Kay Scarpetta or Jean Hager’s

Molly Bearpaw, an investigator for the Native American Advocacy League. Tony

Hillerman has received an anthropological award for his depictions of Navaho and Hopi

life and detection. Gay and lesbian figures move Joseph Hansen’s Dave Brandsetter

novels and Michael Nava’s novels featuring Henry Rios.

ood

plays a prominent role in detective fiction, as seen in Tamar Myers’

Too Many

Cooks Spoil the Broth

(1994), Nancy Packard’s

27 Ingredient Chili con Carne Murders

(1993) and the older, epicurean Nero Wolfe mysteries.

Pets

also appear in Lilian Jackson

Braun’s

The Cat Who

…series and Susan J. Conant’s

The Dog Lover

series.

Other crime fiction subgenres include psychopathic killers, hospital settings, detective

writers, academic settings and the underworld. Other authors of significance include

Robert Campbell, Jane Langton and Mary Higgins Clark.

These bestselling books, generally seen as relaxation or beach reading, raise interesting

questions about American attitudes towards crime and violence, worrisome in society and

often attacked in

mass-media

representations. Mysteries have generally escaped this

scrutiny to flourish as a major genre with strong

Hollywood

connections.

ee also:

crime, television; lawyers, television shows

further reading

Herald, D. (1995)

Genreflecting. A Guide to Reading Interests in Genre Fiction,

4th edn,

Englewood: Libraries Unlimited.

Entries A-Z 309

Lachman, M. (1993)

A Reader’s Guide to the American Novel of Detection,

New York:

G.K. Hall.

GAIL HENSON

Crosby, Bing

b. 1903; d. 1977

Crooner and actor, Bing Crosby born Harry Lillis Crosby in Tacoma,

Washington,

DC,

was first a successful popular singer in nightclubs and on

radio

. When he became a

movie actor, he encompassed a genial humor that sold American Catholicism (

Going My

Way,

1944), adventure abroad (his road series with comedian Bob

Hope

) and even

“White Christmas” (

y Irving Berlin) as a bestselling anthem of family comfort for

postwar America (from the

musical

White Christmas,

1954). Like other studio-

ackaged

stars, Crosby’s relaxed, fatherly persona was deconstructed by

family

biographers after

his death.

GARY McDONOGH

CINDY WONG

C-SPAN (public affairs broadcast cable

channel specializing in live and total

broadcasts of major events and debates)

cable television

Cuba and Cuban Americans

In 2000 the case of six-year-old Elian Gonzalez galvanized issues and passions in

American relations with

Castro’s

Cuba and the voices of Cuban Americans within US

society and politics. Gonzalez, whose mother had died as they fled Cuba, was claimed by

Miami, FL

relatives as a

refugee

from a totalitarian regime. The US Justice Department,

however, favored reuniting him with his father in Cuba. Taking Elian to

Disneyworld

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 310

and showering him with gifts, Cuban Americans also rallied in Miami and sought judicial

and congressional recourse to keep the boy in the US, including a bill to grant him

citizenship. Meanwhile, in Havana, others marched to claim the rights of a “kidnapped

angel.”

The Justice Department’s dawn raid on the home of Elian’s Miami relatives to return

him to his father in Washington galvanized further Cuban American response, and even

calls for an investigation of such “brutal action.” Yet the lack of movement after this raid

challenged Cuban American political clout. Even as Elian’s fate dragged on in American

courts for months, politicians began to speak of normalizing relations with Cuba

(although not with the alacrity that was granted to China).

Such divisive feelings reflect the deep connections of people, places and interests that

unite and separate the US and Cuba, especially since the revolution of 1959. These

assions have been kindled by a long history of US intervention on the island, as well as

y recent fears of its strategic role as a nearby foothold for communist organization and

propaganda throughout

Latin America

. Yet, even more, these feelings reflect the special

situation of first and second generation immigrants from Cuba, more than a million

people (the third-largest

Hispanic

group), awaiting changes in the regime that will, in

turn, change their lives. This suspended transnationalism becomes more complicated with

decades of exile.

American relations with Cuba and the lives of Cubans in the United States have a long,

complicated history In the nineteenth century Southern planters coveted Cuba as an

enduring slave society The island became a battleground for American expansion in the

Spanish-American war. Since American occupation of Cuba during and after this war, the

US has frequently intervened (under provisions of the 1901 Platt Amendment) in direct

governance and indirect control of the island. It supported regimes like that of Fulgencio

Batista, while investors created an American image of Cuba as a tropical escape—casinos

and recreation rather than economic and social development. The US still maintains a

naval base in Cuba—Guantanamo—after decades of a hostile regime.

Some Cubans found alternative meanings to this proximity through emigration to the

US, establishing the cigar industry in Tampa, Florida’s Ybor City and Key West, as well

New York

City in the nineteenth century Jose Martí also found refuge in the US to

work for Cuban independence. Nonetheless, this population remained relatively small

(under 50,000) until 1959, when Fidel Castro and his guerrillas claimed control of the

island. As Castro’s reforms and expropriations were seen to run against American

interests, the US became embroiled in covert operations against the regime, including the

ill-fated

Bay of Pigs

expedition. The 1962

Cuban missile crisis

also pitted the

Kennedy

regime against the Soviet Union over the placement of strategic weapons in Cuba. The

US came to impose sanctions, diplomatic isolation and embargo from the early 1960s

onward. Castro found allies instead in the Soviet Union, and developed a Marxist regime

that emphasized a new equality in economics, education and healthcare, while exporting

revolution to the rest of the world—Che Guevara in Bolivia or more tragic interventions

in Angola. The US remained obdurate despite gradually diminishing support from allies

Entries A-Z 311

and human costs of the embargo in areas like medicine and

family

communication.

International relations, however bitter, were further complicated by Cuban

refugees

who fled the Castro regime. Over 150,000 refugees arrived in the early years of tense

relations between the nascent Castro regime and the US. A highly urbane population,

many settled in south

Florida,

where Miami’s Calle Ocho/Little Havana emerged as a

new Cuban metropolis. Arguing their case in fiercely anti-communist terms, Cubans

gained rights to facilitated residence and citizenship, converting them eventually into a

major voice in conservative politics.

This community grew later by special policies that permitted the airlift of Cuban

nationals to the US between 1965 and 1973 (accounting for some 260,000 more people).

The Mariel boatlifts in 1980 brought 125,000 new refugees to the US, including criminals

released by Castro whose presence demanded complex investigations and incarcerations

in camps across the US. Sponsorship of these refugees by churches and civic

organizations spread Cubans—and the message of opposition to Castro—across the US

and fortified the South Florida community.

In the years of Cuban economic crisis following the collapse of Soviet support and

other problems, depiction of isolated rafts and dramatic escapes reminded the nation that

Cuba was a place which

eople sought to flee from as well as return to. Here, however,

the US government distinguished economic and political refugees and sought generally to

return those escapees intercepted on the high seas. In the end, Cubans were allocated

20,000 entry visas annually as well as other markers of special treatment in their

immigration

status, which set them apart. Meanwhile, President

Clinton’s

endorsement

of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act strengthened the embargo and penalties for those who

violate it, raising questions and opposition worldwide.

Yet Castro’s regime did not fall, despite blockades and the economic collapse of its

major ally. After four decades, then, the Cuban American community has faced new

divisions as the second generation reaches maturity without any experience of the island

itself. While many Cuban Americans have prospered in business, politics, culture and

other sectors of the US economy Cuban Americans are also divided by

class

and

race

ew generations have become Americanized as well: they do not see Spanish as their

only formative

language,

nor do they feel the same intense Catholicism or nostalgia that

inds together many in exile. Hence, responses to the Elian Gonzalez case become rituals

of identity and community as well as demands for change and, ultimately for return.

Among notable Cuban Americans are South Florida politicians, business people and

cultural figures. Cuban Americans have made a mark in literature (Cristina García, Oscar

Hijuelos), entertainment (Gloria

Estefan

), arts, dance and sports, especially

baseball

Further reading

Gonzalez-Prando, M. (1997)

The Cuban Americans,

Westport: Greenwood.

Perez-Firmat, G. (1994)

Life on the Hyphen,

Austin: University of Texas.

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 312

Perez, L. (1997)

Cuba and the US,

Athens, GA: University of Georgia.

US House of Representatives Hearings (1999)

US-Cuban Relations: Where are We and

Where are We Heading?,

Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

GARY McDONOGH

Cuban missile crisis

What was remarkable about the discoveries made by the U-2 plane flying over Cuba on

October 14, 1962, was not the pictures of Soviet missiles being placed there, but rather

the fact that Americans had previously been unaware of their existence. The missiles had

traveled by sea to Cuba along with 42,000 troops and technicians to service and protect

them.

The missiles were sent in part to cement the Soviet Union’s alliance with

Castro’s

Cuba, and as part of Nikita Khrushchev’s pledge to protect Cuba from US invasion, but,

more importantly as a response to the deployment of Jupiter missiles in Turkey Having

made an issue of the “missile gap” (the fabricated claim that the Soviet Union was ahead

in the arms race) in his election campaign, and having been embarrassed the previous

year by the

Bay of Pigs

fiasco, President

Kennedy

could not merely recognize the Soviet

act for what it was and agree to remove the Jupiters. Instead, Kennedy heightened

tensions immediately demanding in a nationwide television address that the Soviets

withdraw their missiles. He further warned that if a missile were fired from Cuba,

Americans would respond by launching a missile attack on the Soviet Union. Acting in

this way placed Khrushchev in a position from which he could not back down without

considerable loss of political capital. For six days he refused to remove the missiles.

Kennedy’s advisors were divided about whether to stick with the blockade they had

established and wait out Khrushchev, or to bomb the missiles with the likelihood o

killing numerous Russians. Letters were sent from Khrushchev to Kennedy the first o

which agreed to withdraw Soviet missiles in exchange for a no-invasion pledge from the

US Government. This was immediately followed by another letter which demanded that

Kennedy also remove the Jupiter missiles; the President would not agree to this demand.

Fortunately Robert Kennedy suggested that Americans should accept the first letter and

ignore the second. Agreement was reached on October 27, but not before Americans

came to the brink of bombing Cuba, triggering a missile attack on the US. Moreover, the

fact that the Soviets were not fully in control of the missiles on the ground in Cuba

created an extremely volatile situation. The agreement had both a public and private

dimension. The public agreement fitted the terms of the first letter; but privately the

Kennedy administration agreed to withdraw the Jupiter missiles, which had triggered the

crisis in the first place.

Kennedy salvaged the prestige he had lost since the Bay of Pigs, but at great cost.

Entries A-Z 313

People around the world were fully aware of their proximity to nuclear annihilation, and,

while many Americans were happy that Kennedy had not blinked, others believed that he

had overreacted. More significantly Khrushchev, who had been pushing for reforms in

the aftermath of Stalin’s regime, lost much of his credibility as a result of the crisis and

was later removed from power by Soviet hardliners led by Leonid Brezhnev. The

Cold

War

would get colder still. The fears of annihilation that the crisis produced filtered into

American culture in the ubiquitous private and public nuclear shelters, the bikini

swimsuits (named after the atoll in which nuclear testing occurred), the movie

Strangelove

(1964) and in a growing fascination with horror movies.

ROBERT GREGG

cults

The United States has a long history of organizing religious sects, new

religions

and

cults. The inherent

individualism

and right to self-determination that is fundamental to

its culture makes it inevitable that many expressions of religion have emerged, many o

them with cult-like characteristics. The term “cult” developed a negative stereotype as

numerous cults arose in the 1970s. Current scholars prefer the term “new religion” or

“alternative religion” to the term “cult.” A recent publication cited over 1,000 cults, sects

and new religions in the United States. The number continues to grow as mainstream

Protestant denominations (

Presbyterians, Episcopalians,

Baptists and

Methodists

) lose

their appeal, while immigrants from non-Christian, non-Protestant traditions continue to

flourish in the country (Muslims,

Hindus

and

Buddhists

New Age

movements

continue to proliferate and an increasing number of individuals are alienated from

religion altogether.

Major “new religions” or movements considered cults include the New Age

movement, the Unification Church, the Way the Hare Krishna movement, the WICA

movement and other goddess religions, and the Church of Scientology. Other

communities in the latter part of the twentieth century that enjoyed cult-like status but no

longer exist, owing to mass suicides or conflicts with lawenforcement officials, included

Jim Jones’ People’s Temple, MOVE, the Branch Davidians, and Heaven’s Gate.

Mormons

and Christian Scientists, now generally considered “new religions,” have also

been considered cults, revealing the latter term’s instability and its dependence on

perspective.

Characteristics that distinguish alternative religions from mainstream religions have

been variously identified—from any religion that departs from traditional interpretation

to socially dangerous groups led by cynical leaders who exploit their members. Another

list of categories for distinguishing new religions or cults from mainstream include:

leadership (often lay or charismatic), organization (usually less bureaucratic), size

(usually small), membership (usually requires conversion to a community that excludes

the unworthy), worship (often fervent or spontaneous), dedication to duty (makes more

Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 314

demands on time and controls members’ lives) and social status (often marginalized,

uneducated or powerless) (Miller 1995:3–4).

The New Age movement is considered the outgrowth of the 1960s counterculture.

Baby boomers,

former

hippies

and others suddenly seeking spiritual guidance may be

drawn to New Age ideals as brought by David Spangler, a student of Alice Bailey, to

America from the Findhorn Community in Scotland (described in

My Dinner with Andre,

1981). These ideals are: 1. The possibility of personal transformation; 2. The coming o

road cultural/environmental transformation; 3. The transformation of occult arts and

processes; and 4. The self as divine.

The Unification Church began in Korea in the 1950s with the Reverend Sun Myung

Moon, but it came to the United States in 1971 when Moon went coast to coast speaking,

defending

Nixon,

and proselytizing on college

campuses

. His followers believe that

Moon has revealed a “new truth,” as recorded in the 1973 Divine Principle, that he and

Mrs Moon are the “true parents of humankind,” that he is the messiah whose task is to

establish the true family and that he has ushered in a “completed Testament Age.” The

true family begins with a “blessing,” often found in mass weddings of thousands o

couples at one time.

A former evangelical and Reformed Church of America minister, Victor Paul

Wierville founded the Way in 1942. His teachings reject the Trinity and deny the divinity

of Jesus. The Way grew explosively during the 1970s as part of the national Jesus People

revival. Teachings are spread through Power for Abundant Living classes. This group has

been the subject of numerous de-

rogramming actions, as well as federal investigations

for their training in deadly weapons.

The Hare Krishna movement—or the International Society for Krishna

Consciousness—set American roots in the 1960s, when A.C.Bhaktivendanta Swami

Prabhupada entered

New York

City’s counterculture. It has aroused great hostility

particularly through aggressive solicitation at

airports

and public places.

The Church of Scientology is a distinctive American “new religion” founded by L.Ron

Hubbard (1911–86). From his 1950 publication of

ianetics: Modern Science of Menta

ealth,

his followers have asserted that humans can live without unwanted sensations

and fears, that humans are essentially good and that thetans (humans as immortal spiritual

eings) have lived many lifetimes before. This group has been the subject of numerous

cult controversies, e.g. over

tax

evasion and health practices, and has a sizeable following

among

actors

Hollywood,

including Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Hilary Swank and

John Travolta, who brought Hubbard’s

Battlefield Earth

to the screen (2000), where it

failed to become a summer blockbuster.