Back when I was a kid, a $100 million movie was a blockbuster. These days, any major studio release that doesn't get to $100 million is considered a disappointment, if not a bomb. Most of the time, the #1 record album in the country (and they were "records" back then) sold between 500,000 and one million copies a week. These days you can hit #1 with sales of 65,000 or even less on a slow week. Oh, and people used to get their news from newspapers, local TV news and Walter Cronkite.

Times change. America is no longer the monolithic market where all of us see the same movies and read the same books and listen to the same albums.

Of course, America has never been a monolithic market where all of us listen to the same radio shows, read newspapers in the same language or sit down with the Saturday Evening Post. Over the past 30 years or so, businesses and advertising agencies have slowly come around to the knowledge that there is no "real" American. There are Americans.

If you don't believe me, Netflix (or rent) The Kings of Comedy. It's hilarious and not especially raunchy. For my purpose here, though, the part I'm most interested in is the little 70s fantasia Steve Harvey spins toward the end of the film. He makes references to music, TV shows and movies that most white Americans won't recognize. I count myself among the ignorant. I knew most of the music, but the rest of it was out of my experience.

More than a decade ago, my wife worked at a newspaper in York, Pa., that started out as a German-language daily in the 1700s. If you are able to pick up the scraps and side-notes of history, it becomes more and more obvious that America has succeeded because it has been (relatively) hospitable to immigrants and "foreign" culture. More importantly, that "foreign" culture has flourished right along with what good ol' white folks see as "American" culture. Not only that, but the longer these "subcultures" stick around, the more likely they themselves will become "American."

Businesses have learned that it pays to attract folks from all walks of life. Car companies use gay couples in their advertising. It is easier and easier to see families from a variety of backgrounds portrayed in ads as well.

This cuts both ways. Not only are the businesses going after customers they previously didn't, but by advertising in this way the companies are also pounding the message of diversity into the brains of "regular" Americans.

There are some people who don't like this. George Will, in particular, seems strangely opposed to the notion of diversity. While I think his opposition is rooted in a deep philosophical dislike of affirmative actions and similar policies, he tends to simply disparage the notion of diversity itself, as if America should try to become as white (or even WASPy) as possible.

Then there are the folks who like Sarah Palin and her "real America." They're ignorant, and their ignorance makes them scared. In many parts of the country, it's possible to live your life without much contact with the "other," the folks who don't look or think like you. We have some neighbors who grew up in Indiana and have split time between there and here inside the Beltway. They observed that their neighbors in the Indianapolis suburbs would be shocked by the diversity of the schools here. Good people, mind you, but folks who wouldn't know what to do if their kids had Muslim classmates, much less a majority of classmates who weren't white.

I'm a 39-year-old stay-at-home dad who likes George Pelecanos books, TV shows like "The Wire," international soccer and utterly obscure music. I drink Diet Coke, unsweetened iced tea, good beer and cheap bourbon. Given the chance, I'd eat only Thai food and sushi--with the occasional break for pupusas. My idea of a sex symbol is Cate Blanchett. I suppose you could come up with some catchy label for a guy like me (low-culture homebody?), but there's not much point.

I suppose there are some groups of people that are easier to consign to labels. But not as many as you might think. I know lots of liberal democrat types who love NASCAR, and I know a few conservative folks who are cricket fanatics. I know folks who swear by diversity but can't stomach anything stranger than McDonalds. And I've seen profiles of Minuteman types who haunt immigrant food dives--not to try and scare supposed "illegals" but because they love the food.

We're not a monolithic culture. Even the word "freedom" means different things to different Americans. That's cool. I think we can live with that. The real America isn't a fondue melting pot, but more of a Crock Pot stew. The more the ingredients cook together, the better everything tastes.

Jon Worley loves food metaphors.