Few traits that determine social status are easy to manipulate.
You appear to have a single-scale, and thus completely inaccurate, concept of social status. I’d hesitate to label anything as “offensive,” because I don’t really believe in offense, but you appear to be seriously naive and misinformed if your comments here are intended even slightly seriously.
One of the strongest markers of social status is diction and pronunciation. It is not a perfect indicator, but one can often deduce someone’s social status from two minutes of conversation, simply by what words they use, the quality of their grammar, if they use expletives in casual conversation, if they have an accent, and other related indicators.
Diction is fairly easy to manipulate, particularly in childhood. People are nonetheless extremely resistant to changing their diction. Try correcting the grammar of anyone over six and see how it goes. Changing diction is only beneficial within specific subgroups. If you speak like you went to Eton in the rural south, you are going have trouble fitting in with the local social order. If you speak like you’re from the rural South at Eton, you’re likely to have the same problem. Thus, there is clear evidence that there is a manipulable and powerful indicator of social status that does not get manipulated, principally because it is unlikely to improve social status within a selected peer group, and thus is seen as a part of a person’s identity.
This objection applies to your statement about race generally generally. An individual’s race does not affect their social status objectively or in a specific direction. Many non-whites derive higher status within their existing social circle due to their race. This is emphatically not confined to low-status individuals; I grudgingly use Clarence Thomas as a rather obvious demonstration of this fact—he would never have attained such an important and respectable position without being black.
The idea that an innate trait shared by millions of people that often forms a key part of their identities would be voluntarily altered were the opportunity provided suggests, first, that you do not know many black people, and, second, that you have an extremely oversimplified and naive view of race, culture, and social status.
Changing diction is only beneficial within specific subgroups.
Tangent: This can be played for laughs. I recall a scene in the TV show Weeds in which a black marijuana grower is asking a black friend for a favor in the latter’s business-y place of work. The friend’s white boss sticks his head in the room to ask for a report, and the friend’s accent subtly shifts when replying to the request. After the boss leaves, the grower snerks at his friend for talking white.
You appear to have a single-scale, and thus completely inaccurate, concept of social status. I’d hesitate to label anything as “offensive,” because I don’t really believe in offense, but you appear to be seriously naive and misinformed if your comments here are intended even slightly seriously.
One of the strongest markers of social status is diction and pronunciation. It is not a perfect indicator, but one can often deduce someone’s social status from two minutes of conversation, simply by what words they use, the quality of their grammar, if they use expletives in casual conversation, if they have an accent, and other related indicators.
Diction is fairly easy to manipulate, particularly in childhood. People are nonetheless extremely resistant to changing their diction. Try correcting the grammar of anyone over six and see how it goes. Changing diction is only beneficial within specific subgroups. If you speak like you went to Eton in the rural south, you are going have trouble fitting in with the local social order. If you speak like you’re from the rural South at Eton, you’re likely to have the same problem. Thus, there is clear evidence that there is a manipulable and powerful indicator of social status that does not get manipulated, principally because it is unlikely to improve social status within a selected peer group, and thus is seen as a part of a person’s identity.
This objection applies to your statement about race generally generally. An individual’s race does not affect their social status objectively or in a specific direction. Many non-whites derive higher status within their existing social circle due to their race. This is emphatically not confined to low-status individuals; I grudgingly use Clarence Thomas as a rather obvious demonstration of this fact—he would never have attained such an important and respectable position without being black.
The idea that an innate trait shared by millions of people that often forms a key part of their identities would be voluntarily altered were the opportunity provided suggests, first, that you do not know many black people, and, second, that you have an extremely oversimplified and naive view of race, culture, and social status.
Tangent: This can be played for laughs. I recall a scene in the TV show Weeds in which a black marijuana grower is asking a black friend for a favor in the latter’s business-y place of work. The friend’s white boss sticks his head in the room to ask for a report, and the friend’s accent subtly shifts when replying to the request. After the boss leaves, the grower snerks at his friend for talking white.