General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Re Wypipo and Divisiveness [View all]wonkwest
(463 posts)I admit, I don't entirely understand. Part of why I think I'm interpreting things through a classist lens is because of experience. My brother has a "working class" job (I don't want to be too specific on a public board). But he has a lot of black co-workers with the same job. They all borderline six figures and live in McMansions in some far-flung suburb in the Midwest. So watching working class and/or poor whites moving up alongside black people who are similarly moving up has been a very interesting experience. I won't lie. I grew up poor, my parents used to be super racist against black people, but somehow they all evolved. (being gay, I've never been on board with the racism I grew up with. Bigotry has always been bigotry. I caught that in my early teens after a really racist upbringing).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but are you saying the student possibly spoke up because he perceived I or others were standing there? (I was about three feet away from him).
We're more alike than different. White people have code words for other poorer, more ignorant white people. White trash is just what we tell the media. We have lots of other words for other white people based on education and class. It's all a complicated, supremely subtle code based on pointed connotation.
I'm just very curious why you thought the student responded the way he did. As you said, I may have wrongly interpreted it through a class lens. Why do you think he was so irate with them?
Ebonics is a thing. But white people have accents. I actually put my father on speaker phone during our weekly chats for my boyfriend's or friends' edification and amusement. He has a specific regional dialect I have to interpret and explain. No one believes me that he's inexplicable until I speaker phone that shit. Then they're like, "Oh! Ohhhhh . . . .."
For all the bitching people ever do about Ebonics, yeah, ever heard my super white dad talk? You wouldn't understand that either. I had to actively drop my accent. Somewhere along the line, I made a choice to adopt neutral Midwestern English. My growing up dialect was a thing. And I'm as white as the sun is evil.
But I'm super curious to know your thoughts if you're patient enough to explain.