Reply to Subtle signs of class

Forum Index » Off-Topic

Reply to "Subtle signs of class"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Small kitchen, lots of guest rooms, old American cars with some dirt on them. Persian rugs obtained by an older relative whist traveling in Iraq or Yemen in the early 1900s. Vacations include things like helicopter trips to hunt moose or elk, or expeditions on camel with Bedouins. Art includes antiquities, framed handwritten poems signed by [b]Maya Angelou[/b], and mounted heads of animals killed while hunting.[/quote]

You mean, [b]Doctor[/b] Maya Angelou?

-Opfra[/quote]

The pp provides a subtle class signal. The rich, and even the UMC, are not impressed that she's a doctor. They are impressed that she's Maya Angelou. [/quote]

It's less about being impressed and more about showing respect. I read it more as a subtle race signal. I grew up around white people who would refer to Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou, etc. Now I work among black people who always refer to Dr. King, Dr. Maya Angelou, etc. You can bet I use the titles people have earned now. [/quote]

Where I work, a little under half of my colleagues have doctorates. No one refers to anyone as doctor unless they are being introduced as a panelist at a conference or something similar. We had one guy that referred to himself as doctor. His doctorate was from the least prestigious school compared to everyone else, and the fact that he insisted on being called doctor marked him as being "less than" class-wise. So, pp, it's your view fhat calling people doctor is a respect issue, and you make the somewhat absurd claim that not doing so is also racist, but I would argue that no one calls Albert Einstein "Dr Albert Einstein" nor do we refer to Henry Kissinger as "Dr Henry Kissinger".  Like them, both MLK and Angelou need no honorific introduction to command respect. [/quote]

I also have a PhD, which I never use to introduce myself, and work with a lot of people with doctorates too. I'm talking about how we refer to others with respect, not anybody referring to themselves or insisting. There's also a little distance, I wouldn't call a daily coworker by anything but first name but i would call someone from a university or agency whom i only see in meetings Dr. There is a huge difference between referring to Albert Einstein and referring to a black woman who just finished a PhD in front of others - for the same reason male professors tend to be more comfortable going by first name with students because they already HAVE authority granted automatically. if you don't see that, and think trying to be respectful is a low class thing, I dont really know what to tell you. [/quote]

Also PP, i don't think i said not calling people Dr is racist and it is concerning that you read it that way. I said it was not common in the predominantly white environment I grew up in, and now that I work in a much more diverse environment I can clearly tell it matters to my black colleagues in particular. I think perhaps it matters in part because they have faced racism, but i don't think being familiar with a different custom is itself racist, so rest easy, you can read my posts without feeling personally accused.[/quote]

I see now that you are calling this a tell about race rather than it being racist. We have black people with doctorates, and they don't insist on being called doctor.  Rather than two white people arguing about what black people prefer to be called, let's just leave this as: you perceive that black people prefer to be called honorific titles to a greater extent than white people. Which isn't terribly germane to the topic, so let's not derail this further. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics