other factory workers, janitors etc. This is in the white majority areas as well as Black. Not liking academics is an All-American thing.
[WS:] Absolutely. Hofstadter argued, quite eloquently, along similar lines. A point thus can be made that much of what passes for the so-called "Black culture" in this country today (dislike of academics, hip-hop, gangsta attitudes, cult of violence, etc.) is indeed the purest form of the American culture, not mitigated by middle class pretensions and appearances. That is why I have a good laugh at populists on this list, who get pissed when I criticize it. Their reaction is like the "history quiz" posted to this list by Mike Ballard: http://www.politicalcompass.org/iconochasms - the answers can be easily guessed by the means of iconic contrast - the culprit in expressing an obnoxious idea is the vocal public proponent of its anti-thesis: Al Gore supporting oil drilling, Kennedy voting for McCarthy, Dalai Lama praising Mao Tse tung, Mahatma Gandhi praising Hitler for non-violence and disowning his son for a desire to get married - you get the drift.
Wojtek