Do you get irritated when "black folk" speak like they are less educated than they are?

Hell, I get irritated when "white folk" speak like they are more educated than they are.

 

Intellectuals are disliked by a large number of people in the United States. They can come across as elitist, condescending and highfalutin to a lot of people, even if unintentional. Like others said, it's "not cool". Don't expect that to change anytime soon. This is one reason why a lot of highly educated people tend to "dumb it down" when interacting with the general public at a bar or other casual setting. (A symptom of insecurity.) Easier to fit in and connect with others.

I would have more respect for those intellectuals if they would just be themselves, stopped giving a damn, and generally associated with people who liked them the way they are.

 

I like that this is a tag: mathloom terror<3

 

LOL smh

 

I hate it when white chicks do it.

 

Nah, you're uninformed. You sound isolated, I'm guessing you live in manhattan (which is not really america) and don't have a clue about how people who don't try to sound smarter than they are 24/7 are. It's a big world out there and people connect by going back to their childhood and simplifying instead of intellectualizing things that don't need to be intellectualized. Get stupid is a motto that transcends countries and social class. Being a charismatic intellectual is not how ppl act when they're on a high - if you take lebrons comments in context, you're talking about a moment after he won the title. It's a euphoric state.

I've seen him speak after a regular season game and he doesn't dumb anything down.

I don't follow pop culture or try to fit in with it, and I'm often told I make Jeters love life look plain janeish. Perhaps you should grow the balls to do so as well, because that's what the simplicity of the 'culture' enciurages. Balls and doing your own thing. The whole neurotic Jew thing ended in the 80s.

 

It takes courage to take a dick in the ass from every black celebrity you've met to carve out a career for your entire family as people who make appearances. That's the new American dream.

 

This thread sucks.

 

Damn man. I made someone really upset with this comment. Left me a nasty - and inaccurate - rep.

 

First off you probably shouldn't post when you are drunk. Second, I wouldn't judge Lebron while he is giddy celebrating. Third, you are right that there is a strain of anti-intellectualism in this country and to a large extent throughout humanity. I am not sure if it is particularly worse now than it has been at other times.

 

Probably adeelsiddiqui.

As to the thread: If you axe me, I dislike Ebonics.

 

Talking like an uneducated buffoon is symptomatic of the larger problem that exists in the subcultures of America that don't value education but instead celebrate getting high, bustin' caps, pimpin' hoes and other thuggery. It's an absolute cancer on our young people in this country.

It's also the chief reason why blacks keep getting lapped by every single immigrant group that arrives here -- because they don't place a high value on education, which is the fastest way to climb the economic ladder. You'll say, oh, the white man is racist and holding back blacks, or their great great great great great great great grandparents were slaves so how could they possibly do well hundreds of years later? Nonsense. This culture of thuggery and talking like a dunce extends itself to not motivating the youth to do well in school, which is a road to nowhere.

 

Ehh whatever.

LeBron has never struck me as extremely intelligent, I have never heard any real depth from him. I don't think the man is stupid, just average.

Leave Paula Deen out of it, I don't care what she said 40 years ago.

This is a stupid subject, there are plenty of well spoken African Americans and the numbers seem to be growing. Hell the President of the United States is extremely well spoken and is African American.

 

half African, half white

...and he was raised by whites and other cultures that prioritize education

 

I don't think the phenomenon is limited to black people. I think among working and middle class people in the US, people look down at people who speak articulately or literately as being either snooty or disingenuous. Being from Texas and talking "yankee" is probably not so different than being black and talking "white" as far as the social stigma from your own peers.

It's also something I also notice with middle class white people (especially hipsters)...since the early 80s, Valley-speak has kind of crept in and the speech patterns are like, so you know, not very well-formed and even pronunciation of words can get, like slurred or whatever as if they are embarrassed to commit themselves to communicating a coherent thought.

From Europeans (especially the English) I often get "Oh, you sound so smart...for an American."

 

He was born and raised in the United States and is black, I consider him African American. His wife is African American, as are his children.

There are a number of other examples as well, I would say there are more leading black intellectuals right now, ingrained into the power structure, than has been the case in a long time.

 

Whatever, anti intellectualism is alive and well in Europe as well and virtually everywhere I have been.

 

ITT: Old WASPy wannabes

Sorry guys, your window shut a while back.

 

He plays ignorant basketball.

 

Case in point:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EsVO1hsrOnI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

(although Brits don't really consider themselves "European" )