I’ve always complained about the many ways higher education fails its students. It’s still built on a culture of access as the default for every student that leaves most first generation students woefully unprepared. Then on the flip side many Straddlers become exclusionary after a certain point. The capitalist system never works.
Great article, and it is so great to see Black professionals who are teaching the tricks of upward mobility rather than entirely trying to teach all of society to change, which is often a lost cause populated by grifters.
I would add that one barrier to picking up the language and behaviors of the upper social echelons is the subculture that comes with born into a lower economic strata, which carries lore that mystifies and overcomplicates the world of those in the upper echelons.
To even be in the headspace where they are ready to receive tips and tricks for getting ahead, a person on the come up must first UNlearn completely off-the-mark "wisdom" about the successful that was taught to them by their less prosperous friends and family. Their immediate communities are far removed from high earning and well educated folks, but have nonetheless constructed a whole mythology around said folks' known behaviors.
For instance, a poorer people might know that there are such things as etiquette coaches, while also knowing that there are select "proper" dining manners. So the poor and unassimilated, trying to piece together a coherent reality, will tell one another and their own kids that fitting in at fancy dinner parties is nigh impossible because everyone there probably grew up with an etiquette coach.
In actuality, watching a few YouTube instructional videos is all a person needs to conduct themselves at fancy dinners like you've been there before, and it's not "ghetto" or "fake" to do that either, because even most wealthy people didn't have formal etiquette training and just picked up dining rules through informal observation.
These essays are truly an incredible read. Expressive and symbolic, while evoking a wealth of shared lived-experiences and evolving expertise, particularly the articulation of of "hidden curriculums". Looking forward to future releases!
I’ve always complained about the many ways higher education fails its students. It’s still built on a culture of access as the default for every student that leaves most first generation students woefully unprepared. Then on the flip side many Straddlers become exclusionary after a certain point. The capitalist system never works.
Great article, and it is so great to see Black professionals who are teaching the tricks of upward mobility rather than entirely trying to teach all of society to change, which is often a lost cause populated by grifters.
I would add that one barrier to picking up the language and behaviors of the upper social echelons is the subculture that comes with born into a lower economic strata, which carries lore that mystifies and overcomplicates the world of those in the upper echelons.
To even be in the headspace where they are ready to receive tips and tricks for getting ahead, a person on the come up must first UNlearn completely off-the-mark "wisdom" about the successful that was taught to them by their less prosperous friends and family. Their immediate communities are far removed from high earning and well educated folks, but have nonetheless constructed a whole mythology around said folks' known behaviors.
For instance, a poorer people might know that there are such things as etiquette coaches, while also knowing that there are select "proper" dining manners. So the poor and unassimilated, trying to piece together a coherent reality, will tell one another and their own kids that fitting in at fancy dinner parties is nigh impossible because everyone there probably grew up with an etiquette coach.
In actuality, watching a few YouTube instructional videos is all a person needs to conduct themselves at fancy dinners like you've been there before, and it's not "ghetto" or "fake" to do that either, because even most wealthy people didn't have formal etiquette training and just picked up dining rules through informal observation.
These essays are truly an incredible read. Expressive and symbolic, while evoking a wealth of shared lived-experiences and evolving expertise, particularly the articulation of of "hidden curriculums". Looking forward to future releases!