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

That's certainly true in Israel, but unless you are talking about chav/townie subculture, I didn't encounter that at all in the UK.

And certainly not in continental Europe, but it could be that in places where the average person doesn't speak English, I tended to interact with a smaller sample of educated people.

 

I thinks that largely depends on their individual political orientation.

 

Nope, not at all.

They all say things like "Oh, I have recently been to Europe", etc., completely unaware that they are also part of Europe.

 

You're only mingling with a specific, established crowd of white collar professionals.

Those aren't the types throwing around slang or dumbing down their language in America, either.

I think you have to go all the way to Singapore to find a culture that promotes discipline and intellectual pursuits and plays down high testosterone, passionate careers. But even there, a revolution is underway. Cool inevitably follows affluence, look at Japan's mini revolution.

On the surface, drag racing comes off stupid but there's a way to move your car and make money that makes you intelligent and skilled to your peers, which takes you further than articulating **** nobody wants to hear about.

It's not racial.

 

No..in my case it was mostly students and drunks. I'm a musician. Educated, but not necessarily, and usually not, affluent.

For English, my native language, my ear is a bit more sensitive. In America there is a dumbing down of the English language by the middle class, and it's largely white and urban and lispy. So much so, that girls I've met from Mexico City to Ramallah mock American tourists with the same, "Ohmygod REALLLLLY?" It started in the 80s and it's getting worse. Boomers don't do it, neither did their parents.

It bothers me because I really like the English language and because I hate to be stereotyped because others choose not to use it correctly.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree. Trends, especially in art and music, are set by the working class and imitated by the middle and upper classes, be it Johnny Cash or Run DMC or the Beatles, blue jeans or beat boxing. Affluence can get you into the country club but it can't get you Spanish girls half your age that want to talk about the politics of Republican Spain.

A friend of mine who was an actor on a certain cancelled HBO show used to joke that bragging about it only got him status-seeking American chicks that bored him.

You don't have to even be a drag racer. There are some seriously fine girls that a hairy biker or a homeless African drummer can get that a Fortune 500 CEO can't. Affluence couldn't get Donald Trump into Katarina Witt's pants. There is some justice in the world.

I agree. It's a function of class.

 

I was in no way indicating cool and affluent were related. I think Persian b****es and hairy oligarchs are lame as ****. Cool FOLLOWS a period of national affluence, where people have the time and resources to pursue artistic endeavors, alternate routes to capital and loosen up rigid views.

In this case, this generation of 18-32 year olds who grew up in the affluence of the 80s, 90s and early 00s have no need to intellectualize mundane things and talk politics, especially when America dictated the cultural and financial ways of the world. Youth awareness only increased after the crash of '08 and the plight of the 99% was continuously broadcasted by the media. Otherwise there's always a feel good story that everyone clings to as inspiration.

Likewise, the backpackers and poor can easily mock American tourists, who fit the stereotype to the T, but put give them that lifestyle growing up and it's not going to be so different. The white kids using slang and dumbing down their rhetoric are sharp in their own ways and almost always find ways to carve out a living and identify with like minded people. That's really what it boils down to - empathy didn't pay in the past. It just made things more confusing and getting out of that bubble is a b****, right.

So we agree. It's not racial, it's socioeconomic.

 

Actually Ronny, the poor tend to like American tourists. They are generally friendly and tip well.

 

yeah :grin:

 

Blax folx speak like they were initially taught in the South. There was a period up until the 19th century when Southerners were a bit slower due to sanitation (worms and other fecal contaminated pathogens) and the subsequent consequences coming from it such as malnutrition and higher mortality rates among the young that r****ded the overall intellectual growth compared to their northern brothers. Once those fronts improved, the IQ gap vanished but the stereotype remained. Which is why thick Southern accents evoked images of Bubba or Cletus except it worked against you if you held onto it with your dealings with Southerners.

The mid 1900s was a good period for Southern leaders in the national landscape...

What I resent are people relying on their past leaders laurels and not doing anything to further their cause. Now the accents is relabled as "folksy" by those who want to sell it.

I shudder to think of the day when Egalitarianism is considered pandering to the lowest common denominator. 80/20 rule still applies. Oligarchy results when the masses are reduced to their bread and circuses.

I'd prefer classical Aristocracy over the pig slop Oligarchy we're trending towards.

Totally disagree. Philosophies should be read and dissected.

Ideology taken at its surface is of course detrimental, and I doubt Prof. Tyson would disagree the same applies for science and its fruits.

Imo, he's taken a stance through a superficial context that could just as easily apply to scientists when applied under the same context.

 

This is true however remember that many, though not all, immigrants are at or near the top of their country's economic ladder when they come here and have a leg up on uneducated blacks. Black people as a whole are still recovering from being held back as an underclass for 300+ years and while many excuses have to stop, it still is going to take some time for the wrongs of centuries of oppression to be reversed.

And there are serious problems in communities that pre-dominantly black, such as the drug culture and gang violence being structurally inserted in not to mention that the public schools are generally poorer with worse teachers than normal.

In the end it's still excuses but it's still not as easy as it can be made out to be in some cases.

Because the media tells you who to follow and emulate. It's that way with everything and has been for decades.

If you wanna know why mainstream music sucks now days, it's not because there aren't artists who want to put something of some meaning out but because the worst ones are the ones who get into the limelight or if someone with some substance does get there, their style can be changed. Look at Kanye West from the College Dropout album to now.

Modern society is moving toward being like the one in the movie Idiocracy.

On a side note and I'm glad I don't have to start a whole new thread on this, what is you guy's take on having a large vocabulary? I think it's good to have one to be versatile in your speech and articulate because you are aware of what someone is saying to you but some highly educated people treat it like a [bleep] measuring contest and a false measure of intelligence when it's more important to be able to speak to people on their level. This is especially true with English, where there are thousands of words that vary from one region of the world to another.