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Stigma Cities: Birmingham, Alabama And Las Vegas, Nevada In The National Media, 1945-2000, Jonathan Foster

Psi Sigma Siren

Early in 1994 Time magazine proclaimed Las Vegas, Nevada “The New All American City,” a “city so freakishly democratic” that Americans just could not resist. Twenty-three years earlier, Look magazine had conferred the same title upon Birmingham, Alabama, stressing its progress in race relations. Such media castings of normality must have surprised the American public in both instances. By the time of each city’s designation as “All-American,” the public had long been subjected to stories of their seemingly abnormal internal actions and qualities. Both cities suffered from stigmatized identities in the wider American perception that were fully formed by the …