MetaFilter posts tagged with class Posts tagged with 'class' at MetaFilter. Tue, 28 Jul 2015 15:05:11 -0800 Tue, 28 Jul 2015 15:05:11 -0800 en-us 60 D'ya get me, bruv? <a href="">A new London accent</a> strikingly different from <a href="">Cockney</a> has emerged in the last few years. Linguists call it <a href="">"Multicultural London English"</a> (or MLE) and although it has obvious roots in the London black community it's now displacing Cockney to become a universal accent for working class London youth, regardless of race. Change is spreading so fast that London teens often have radically different accents from their own parents. The traditional working class London accent, Cockney, is thought to date from at least the time of <a href="">Chaucer</a>. During the 20th century, Cockney spread so far from London that linguists started to talk about <a href="">"Estuary English"</a> because, like the Thames estuary, it flowed all the way through the south east of the country. MLE has emerged from the London melting pot this century. It's an intriguing blend of Cockney, Caribbean patois, and elements of South Asian speech, with its own distinctive slang terms like "<a href="">nang</a>", "<a href="">mandem</a>" and "<a href="">peng</a>". Early on, the media tried to dismiss this new accent with labels like <a href="">"Jafaican"</a> (because of the obvious Jamaican influence) or <a href="">"Chavish"</a>. To add to the confusion, when Ali G first used an early form of MLE on TV just after the millennium it was as a parody of suburban white or asian kids trying too hard to be black, and he would even ask interviewees who rejected him, "<a href="">Is it cos I is black</a>?". However, these days, MLE is not seen as an ethnic accent, or an affectation, it's just the way London kids talk, with some experts saying that MLE is gaining momentum so fast that <a href="">Cockney will die out by 2040</a>. A sign of the times is the recent big-budget movie <a href="">"Kingsman:The Secret Service"</a>. The hero, Eggsy, has a clear MLE accent totally different from his on-screen mum and step-dad. He was played by Taron Egerton who, being Welsh, <a href="">had to go to great lengths to learn the accent</a>.,2015:site.151628 Tue, 28 Jul 2015 15:05:11 -0800 w0mbat Managing Unconscious Bias Facebook's bias training: "There are different forms of unconscious bias that can prevent us from cultivating an inclusive and innovative workplace. <a href="">In these videos</a>, we discuss four common types of biases: Performance Bias, Performance Attribution Bias, Competence/Likeability Trade-off Bias, and Maternal Bias.",2015:site.151616 Tue, 28 Jul 2015 09:13:42 -0800 roomthreeseventeen De-segregating our schools In May, the New York City Council passed the <a href="">"School Diversity Accountability Act",</a> which requires the city to <a href="">"provide detailed demographic data &amp; steps it is taking to advance diversity in NYC schools"</a> and <a href="|Text|&Search=453">Resolution 453,</a> which calls on the NYC Department of Education to establish diversity as a priority in admissions, zoning, and other decision-making processes. Education advocates are <a href="">re-drawing district maps</a>, and creating experiments which <a href="">"range from developing specific diversity quotas for individual schools to redrawing school district lines to better reflect racial and economic diversity."</a> In 2014, The Civil Rights Project published a <a href="">report</a> (<a href="">pdf</a>) detailing New York's extreme school segregation problems.,2015:site.151375 Mon, 20 Jul 2015 11:07:53 -0800 roomthreeseventeen Coming from bad circumstances will kill you, even if you escape them. <a href="">Advantaged people with high levels of self-control and resilience age slower. Disadvantaged people with high levels of self-control and resilience age faster.</a>,2015:site.151338 Sat, 18 Jul 2015 08:58:11 -0800 You Can't Tip a Buick Letter to My Son <a href="">Letter to My Son</a>, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, July 4, 2015: "I came to understand that my country was a galaxy, and this galaxy stretched from the pandemonium of West Baltimore to the happy hunting grounds of Mr. Belvedere. I obsessed over the distance between that other sector of space and my own. I knew that my portion of the American galaxy, where bodies were enslaved by a tenacious gravity, was black and that the other, liberated portion was not... And I felt in this a cosmic injustice, a profound cruelty, which infused an abiding, irrepressible desire to unshackle my body and achieve the velocity of escape.",2015:site.150970 Sun, 05 Jul 2015 05:17:52 -0800 roomthreeseventeen From 2 Tone to grime, youth cults showcase a vibrant history of Britain <blockquote>Something about this country – the divisions, the class system, the general sense of distrust and dissatisfaction – seems to breed youth subcultures like no other place on Earth. The strange, stylish clans that this island incubates have been exported across the world, influencing everything from high street fashion to high art. From teddy boys to 2 Tone rudeboys, soulboys to Slipknot fans, grunge bands to grime crews, mods to mod revivalists, the history of these groups shows us <a href="">a version of modern Britain that goes way beyond Diana and Blair.</a></blockquote> Further reading: <a href="">Teddy Boy</a> <a href="">2 Tone Rude Boys</a> <a href="">Soulboys</a> <a href="">Grime</a> <a href="">Mods</a> <a href="">Mod revivalists</a> <a href="">Scooter Boys</a> <a href="">Breakdance</a> <a href="">Rave</a> <a href="">UK</a> <a href="">Garage</a> <a href="">Wavey Garms</a> <a href="">Yung Lean</a> <a href="">(Sad Boys Entertainment)</a> <a href="">Street, Style and Sound [tv series]</a> Previously: <a href="">Grime Int'l: a few of the current grime musicians from around the world</a> <a href="">You don't need a drop in every track</a>,2015:site.149987 Thu, 28 May 2015 04:48:58 -0800 ellieBOA This is Richard. His parents are doing OK. <a href="">A pretty great comic that clearly lays out how (some) privilege works.</a>,2015:site.149879 Sat, 23 May 2015 17:34:30 -0800 Shepherd Class of 2015 <em>via NYT:</em> "Each year, we put out a call for college application essays about money, work and social class. This year, <a href="">we picked seven</a> -- about pizza, parental sacrifice, prep school students, discrimination and deprivation.",2015:site.149821 Thu, 21 May 2015 10:10:12 -0800 roomthreeseventeen The Shape of Inequality <a href="">Can YOU recognize the shape of inequality in America?</a> Most can't. <em><strong>The Washington Post</strong></em>: <em>"We wrote on Monday about some new research showing how <a href="">woefully confused most people are about inequality</a>, not just in the U.S. but around the world. People tend to be very, very bad at accurately answering questions about the shape of the income distribution in their country, the share of people living in poverty, and the typical incomes made by workers at the top and bottom."</em>,2015:site.149810 Wed, 20 May 2015 23:52:28 -0800 ourt The free development of each is the condition of the war against all <a href="">Some Paths to the True Knowledge</a>[<a href="">*</a>] - "<i><a href="">Attention conservation notice</a></i>: A 5000+ word attempt to provide real ancestors and support for <a href="">an imaginary ideology</a> I don't actually accept, drawing on fields in which I am in no way an expert. Contains long quotations from even-longer-dead writers, reckless extrapolation from arcane scientific theories, and an unwarranted tone of patiently explaining harsh, basic truths. Altogether, academic in one of the worst senses. Also, spoilers for several of MacLeod's novels, notably but not just <i><a href="">The Cassini Division</a></i>. Written for, and <a href="">cross-posted</a> to, <a href="">Crooked Timber's seminar on MacLeod</a>, where I will not be reading the comments.",2015:site.149769 Tue, 19 May 2015 14:34:15 -0800 kliuless French fashion and politics in the time of Marie Antoinette <a href="">Fashion to Die For</a>: "Fast fashion might seem like a modern invention, but in the turbulent world of 18th-century France, when Marie Antoinette was calling the shots, fashion moved at light speed." <a href="">Dr. Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell</a>, art historian specializing in fashion and textiles, gives a delightfully rich interview to Collectors Weekly. Through the prism of fashion, she touches on class fluidity and lack thereof, gender roles, textile trades, guilds, self-expression &ndash; all elements that rapidly metamorphosized at the end of the <a href="">Ancien R&eacute;gime</a> and inexorably led to the French Revolution and its <a href="">Reign of Terror</a>. "French queens had always dressed magnificently but within the confines of very rigid court etiquette, and they were also answerable to the royal treasury. So in general they followed fashion rather than leading &ndash; they didn't want to rock the boat. But then <a href="">Marie Antoinette</a> comes along. Louis XVI didn't actually have a mistress, so there was a void in the fashion hierarchy. Marie Antoinette was enamored with the vibrant Paris <a href="">fashion world</a>, as everyone was at the time. Paris had replaced Versailles as the center of society and style, so she wanted to take advantage of the wealth of talent there in Paris, rather than having one official dressmaker who only dressed her, which is what previous queens had done." "Most <a href="">milliners</a> [FR] were low-born women, like <a href="">Rose Bertin</a>, but Bertin was very unique in her success. <a href="">Bertin was extremely talented</a>, obviously, and one of her major clients was the <a href=",_Duchess_of_Orl%C3%A9ans">Duchesse de Chartres</a>, who was related by marriage to the King and was the richest woman in Paris in her own right. She introduced Bertin to Marie Antoinette, and once that happened, Bertin became unstoppable." "In hindsight, it's pretty easy to see the French Revolution in fashion even a decade before it happened. Even at the time, certain astute observers were commentating on this in a 'what is the world coming to' kind of way. People were wearing black for everyday life, which was seen as a sinister omen. Throughout the 1780s, fashion workers like the embroiders' <a href="">guild</a> or the weavers' <a href="">guild</a> [FR] were constantly petitioning the King and Queen for help because they were losing so much business, as over-the-top luxury went out of fashion in favor of this self-conscious simplicity. The writing was on the wall.",2015:site.149581 Tue, 12 May 2015 11:40:48 -0800 fraula How Gentrification Happens "<a href="">They don't know — here he lowers his voice — that even if they get the money and they left, they could always come back. They don't know that part. And it's so scary sometimes because they could come up in the middle of construction and say, "It's my property, I didn't understand what I was signing, and I want to come back.</a>" -- DW Gibson interviews a Brooklyn landlord about how they push poor black residents out in favor of affluent whites.,2015:site.149579 Tue, 12 May 2015 11:29:11 -0800 The Whelk Pink Flamingos, Palm Trees, and Class Warfare In light of the Lilly Pulitzer for Target frenzy, <em>The Atlantic</em> asks, <a href="">"Why do people hate Lilly Pulitzer?"</a> and postulates some less-than-peppy, preppy, charming answers. "The brand, in its collaboration with Target, provoked ire—proving that, in the right circumstances, even sundresses can be part of the culture wars.",2015:site.149107 Fri, 24 Apr 2015 03:22:23 -0800 ourt Poor Ivy League Students No, this is not a snarky article about privileged kids at Harvard. It's a serious <a href="">article about 1st generation college students</a> from lower income backgrounds at prestigious schools, that are outstanding academic students on full ride scholarships, yet struggling to fit in on a campus where the vast majority of their fellow students come from privileged backgrounds.,2015:site.149061 Wed, 22 Apr 2015 18:41:48 -0800 COD Let Them Eat Privilege <blockquote>The one percent isn't some amorphous boogeyman inside all of us... It's a very real class. And we don't need a list of cultural "symptoms" of one-percent-style privilege to figure out who they are. Just run the numbers. If your household — or to be generous, the one you grew up in — makes an adjusted gross income of at least $343,000, you are, in fact, the one percent. Even if you smoke meth, went to boot camp, and are on your third marriage. Yes, even if most of your friends didn't finish college and live kinda far from a Whole Foods. Now, if you or the household you grew up in make an adjusted gross income of less than $340,000, you are, technically, the 99 percent.</blockquote><a href="" title="Even if you've never seen combat, hang out with college-completing dorks, and are too chicken shit to smoke crystal.">Let Them Eat Privilege</a>,2015:site.149056 Wed, 22 Apr 2015 16:23:51 -0800 y2karl The flip side of shame is pride. <i>All I did was write personal essays inspired by old community cookbooks I found in secondhand stores. Strictly speaking, my food writing wasn't technically about food. John T. said that didn't matter. He wanted me to explore "<a href="">trash food</a>," because, as he put it, "you write about class."</i>,2015:site.148847 Wed, 15 Apr 2015 07:44:01 -0800 zeptoweasel Making More Time For Work <a href="">The Shut-In Economy</a> The dream of on-demand, delivery everything is splitting tech-centered cities into two new classes: shut-ins and servants.,2015:site.148372 Fri, 27 Mar 2015 13:13:18 -0800 The Whelk From Middle Class Anxiety To Factory Fueling Station "Parlors, "dining chambers," and other spaces amenable to dining began appearing in architecture plans. Each nation seemed to have its own idea as to what constituted a proper dining room. The great Renaissance architect Leon Battista Alberti wrote that it "should be entered off the bosom of the house," advising further that, "[a]s use demands, there should be [a dining room] for summer, one for winter, and one for middling seasons." Some two centuries later Englishman William Sanderson would recommend that a "Dyning-Roome" be hung with pictures of kings and queens." <a href="">The Austerity Kitchen presents A Short History Of The Dining Room Part 1</a> / <a href="">Part 2</a>.,2015:site.148230 Mon, 23 Mar 2015 11:30:13 -0800 The Whelk "fabrics and furnitures and experiences to which I will never belong" <a href="">I Went to a Launch Party for a Chair</a> - <a href="">Nicole Dieker</a> for The Billfold,2015:site.147834 Wed, 11 Mar 2015 13:26:28 -0800 psoas "Everyone will land, but some people fly first class" <blockquote>Ronson's argument is essentially a reactionary liberalism taking shelter in the privilege of the status quo: while the ideals of twitter shaming campaigns are well-founded, their application, in practice, is problematic. They go too far. Innocents have suffered. His rhetorical appeal, therefore, is like the many liberals who have written books and essays and memoirs about how they joined the communist party (or Occupy, or whatever) only to discover that it didn't instantly solve everything painlessly and precisely, who find fault with every activist who isn't literally the saintliest fantasy of MLK and Gandhi rolled into one. The theory is (still) good, they always say, but the practice leaves something to be desired. <cite>I'm all for anti-racism, but you know what, I can't get on board with disrupting people's commute.</cite></blockquote> Aaron Bady: <a href="">On Landings, Soft and Otherwise, and Aggressive Lacks of Proportion</a>.,2015:site.147562 Wed, 04 Mar 2015 05:52:07 -0800 MartinWisse Hey, Bruce Lee <a href="">"I tilted my head in cartoon-like confusion. Where had he picked that up? Bruce Lee? He knew nothing of martial arts nor had he ever watched Kung Fu Panda (this is where my brain went). So I asked Noah to repeat himself. Perhaps I'd misunderstood or heard it incorrectly."</a>,2015:site.147379 Thu, 26 Feb 2015 08:18:16 -0800 roomthreeseventeen They don't see themselves as victims ... but it's not empowering for them The Urban Institute has <a href="">released</a> (<a href="">PDF</a>) the first study to focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) youth; young men who have sex with men (YMSM); and young women who have sex with women (YWSW) who get involved in the commercial sex market in order to meet basic survival needs, such as food or shelter.,2015:site.147341 Wed, 25 Feb 2015 06:49:32 -0800 roomthreeseventeen But Blue she said women not just white women Last night at the Oscars, Patricia Arquette, after making an impassioned statement about wage equity for women during her speech, said, backstage, "<a href="">The truth is: even though we sort of feel like we have equal rights in America, right under the surface, there are huge issues that are applied that really do affect women," she mused. "And it's time for all the women in America and all the men that love women, and all the gay people, and all the people of color that we've all fought for to fight for us now.</a>" <a href="">Patricia Arquette Causes Controversy Telling 'Gay People And People Of Color' To Fight For Women's Rights</a> Dear Patricia Arquette: <a href="">"My first reaction was "Did this fool just use her Oscar win to tell gays and black people they now owe white women assistance?""</a> <a href="">"In the context of a year that has seen the #BlackLivesMatter movement expand consciousness about the realities of police violence, a criminally underreported spike in trans murders and the searing pain of the Chapel Hill killings, such a statement could not sound more tin-eared."</a> <a href="">Don't Tear Down Patricia Arquette for a Well-Intentioned Speech</a> <a href="">Patricia Arquette gets it: The real gender wage gap is for moms</a> <a href="">Why Our Feminism Must Be Intersectional (And 3 Ways to Practice It)</a>,2015:site.147285 Mon, 23 Feb 2015 11:22:21 -0800 roomthreeseventeen Every Letter, A Place SLYT: Jerusalem singer Victoria Hanna's music video - <a href=""> Aleph-bet (Hosha'ana)</a> <a href="">Vox Tablet contributor Daniel Estrin paid Hanna a visit to find out more about what the video is all about. </a>,2015:site.147235 Sat, 21 Feb 2015 06:46:25 -0800 rosswald It's like living your life as a job interview. Forever. <a href="">The End of Black Respectability Politics (SL TPM)</a>,2015:site.147206 Fri, 20 Feb 2015 07:59:03 -0800 roomthreeseventeen