Howard was the first place where I got snapped on for pronouncing “carried” as “curried,” for calling “Baltimore,” “Baldimore,” for calling a “pocket-book,” a”pockiebook.” The point isn’t that Howard was a bastion of upper-class condescension—it most assuredly was not. When you black, everyone gets snapped on, for everything, and I’ve always found great democracy in that. But my point is that I learned what it meant to be “ghetto” at Howard. But what I’ve never learned, what I’ve never quite gotten is the white equivalent.
I’ve been thinking about this all through this Sarah Palin fiasco. I think within days, people were debating over whether she was, essentially, ghetto…
Indeed that’s the point—I have no idea what the markers of “ghetto” are for white people. In fact, when I tried to point one out—eating moose—Matt, latte-sipping, Ivy-League elitist that he is, instantly rapped me and noted that eating moose, is in fact, a Northeastern elite delicacy.