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Count me as part of the "can't understand it" crowd. How a certain color of pants could inspire this many rants is beyond me. How can people like the OP be this upset just because someone is wearing fashion they don't approve of? And why do they care so much about what other people choose to wear? I've never heard of anything like this outside of this board.
That's a good question. The pants part is only part of the problem but more so the types of people that wear them. You are not wrong for not understanding. Its also good for discussion and understanding social dynamics. There is nothing wrong with elitists, preppies, or whatever. Where the problme lies is when the working class and elite can't really function as a whole or the middle group is missing. This is what becomes frustrating to many from other areas who come to DC. Not everyone is on that same type of military/professional/IT/ivy league/ political level. And I am not saying everyone in DC is (i know its coming ) Some can be but don't want to be on that level all day to include maintaining that same level at the bar. Many times I want to speak normally like I talk to my military pals but I feel like I have to constanstly be on the proper office chatter level and always using proper terms to include "such as" instead of "like" when I am back on the block. It becomes a chore rather than a relaxed environement.
Talking to a person dressed as the OP describes is not the same as talking to a person of the image below. Its a different mindset when approaching... Sure, there are exceptions but when you approach a preppy ivy league type, the mindset is more reserved and formal in a way. You won't give that person a "five" but more so a proper handshake. The dude below, notice how I called him "dude", you are more than likely to give him a fist pound or a head nod as a less formal greeting.... See? If you don't, its ok but then its just a matter of accepting it.
What in the world are you talking about? Where do people come up with this kind of stuff? What is even a working class? Are there any special identifiers? What does a working class even look like? Where do they hang out? What do they eat for breakfast? Can you walk into a space and automatically identify the working class type, or as you say “in between” types, among the Ralph Lauren and fat wales?
I don't see what's so difficult to understand about what he wrote. "Working class" is generally, but not always, people without college degrees performing some type of manual or clerical labor. The following jobs fit the description.
The first thing is many of the transplants are nerds, they quite literally do not care much about fashion. Why would they to be honest, they have jobs that pay well, were they are being rewarded for their intellect, not their sense of fashion.
The second thing is the black natives who are under-educated do not know jack about the better educated transplants who now make up a majority of the city (no matter the color).
DC doesn't have a working class white population, largely because they fled for obvious reasons, the crime, the riots, and violence the so called natives from the late 1960s to 1990s drove out what little existed here. So when DC region gentrified it took up the cultural aspects of those highly educated workers coming into the region for jobs, and transplants began to move in it was largely those from the knowledge sector and government that makes up the majority of DC areas local labor economy. These jobs almost universally require a college degree or higher. University education results in cultural aspects all of it's own.
Those coming in are by in large not southern, because there are lower rates of college education in the south even among whites, but the largest group of transplants is from New York, and then the midwest, northeast, and west coast. Essentially take a mix of those with a college education, and the various regional cultures they take with them, but largely from the "north" let me clear, north does not mean strictly northeast, but west coast, great lakes, and northeast. But it is an american urban college culture, not a blue collar ethno-european one. Thus the bars which carry craft beers, the vegan bakeries, the small plate restaurants, the rock clubs, etc. Basically, it is similar to the culture near campuses in places like Seattle or Boston. You subtract the blue collar white ethnic culture, this is what you have. It is indistinguishable from what one finds in the more well off urban neighborhoods in many cities. Urban technocratic culture.
Additionally this is not the tea party types, but rather the most technocratic part of the democratic party. Thus why the region has gotten more Democratic not less.
Let me be abundantly clear what it's not...southern culture. Again, the one thing I will abundantly clear with this is a northernization of DC. Preppy culture, elements of it are there, as are elements of hipster culture, and nerd culture (the board gaming bars). The last thing it is anti-intellectual, religiously focused, southern culture. Nope, not even close. This is the culture of the university and education as the center, not the church or ones religion like the south. It's not where you go to church, it's where you went to school and how far you took your education. That's purely a northern cultural trait on would find in Boston or Seattle. In fact if you are a bit to religious, it is a very fast way to find yourself socially isolated in this culture, again, strictly a northern aspect, religion is considered something which should be private. This is very similar to New England attitudes around religion. Career focused and highly educated northern culture, but you strip out the blue collar white culture that does not exist in dc because it both left and never existed to the same extent, because DC area is knowledge economy centered, and has been so far longer than most other economies.
Again, the reality is the natives in DC barely understand who the transplants are, or the fact they are basically culturally northern. Socially liberal, highly educated, less religious, highly career driven...and arrogant.
I've managed to live in this area (MD, VA, DC, VA again) for many years and it's only from reading this thread that I've realized I was destined to have at least one, if not several, pair of salmon shorts. Clearly I have fallen down on the job, but with just a few weeks of the summer remaining, I will do my part before the leaves start to fall to hold up my end to make the one-time Chocolate City more of a Spumoni Village.
Many thanks to the OP and others for the latest installment of racial profiling and the keen social analysis (special thanks to LunaticVillage for providing the special insights on DC in the 80s that only someone who likely did not actually live in the city in that decade can offer). I now know better who I am, what I should wear, and, most importantly, whom I should take the greatest pains to annoy with my fashion choices (face it, it was going to be bad no matter what, so why not provoke anger and despair, rather than just disdain). As they say in the lower ranks of the AARP crowd, "you may be too old for kickball, but you're never too old for Sperry Topsiders."
Those coming in are by in large not southern, because there are lower rates of college education in the south even among whites, but the largest group of transplants is from New York, and then the midwest, northeast, and west coast.
LOL. That's not accurate at all.
In the District, there are more transplants from the North than the South. But in every metro area county (including MoCO), there are decidely more transplants from the South than North. In DC proper, there are far more migrants from the South than the Midwest and Northeast. And on the metro level, there are more migrants from the South than the Northeast and Midwest combined. The exact breakdown of the migration is as follows:
38.1% from the South
23.0% from the Northeast
16.3% from the West
11.4% from Maryland (outside the DC metro)
11.3% from the Midwest
Needless to say, most of the people moving to the DC area are educated. The region tends to draw educated people from every region.
In the District, there are more transplants from the North than the South. But in every metro area county (including MoCO), there are decidely more transplants from the South than North. In DC proper, there are far more migrants from the South than the Midwest and Northeast. And on the metro level, there are more migrants from the South than the Northeast and Midwest combined. The exact breakdown of the migration is as follows:
38.1% from the South
23.0% from the Northeast
16.3% from the West
11.4% from Maryland (outside the DC metro)
11.3% from the Midwest
Needless to say, most of the people moving to the DC area are educated. The region tends to draw educated people from every region.
Based on those stats, it looks like Virginia is clearly 'South', which adds a whole other element to it. Meaning, people just going back and forth from Arlington to DC, could really rack up that South stat.
Based on those stats, it looks like Virginia is clearly 'South', which adds a whole other element to it. Meaning, people just going back and forth from Arlington to DC, could really rack up that South stat.
No, DC metro counties are excluded. So a move from, say, Fairfax to Montgomery County or DC wouldn't count. A move from Delaware (considered the South by the U.S. Census Bureau) also wouldn't count (we considered that the "Northeast"). We were looking strictly at migrations from outside of the DC metro area.
I don't see what's so difficult to understand about what he wrote. "Working class" is generally, but not always, people without college degrees performing some type of manual or clerical labor. The following jobs fit the description.
And no, there aren't many white people with those types of occupations in DC.
But Banyan Yankee... don't leave me hanging buddy. What groups of whites make up a bus driver or firefighter? I doesn't add up. Is it the job itself or the people that work these jobs that changes the texture of a culture? Are these people that work the above jobs from different white backgrounds? Do they look a certain way? Why can't an IT guy have the same character traits as a bus driver or sheetworker? Couldn't have all the above decided to jump ship and then work for the government? Wouldn't that still make them working class? Wouldn't then they all be here but just not working those jobs? Why are those jobs so important to the texture of the culture?
Bajan, it sounds like made up stories to me.
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) Some can be but don't want to be on that level all day to include maintaining that same level at the bar. Many times I want to speak normally like I talk to my military pals but I feel like I have to constanstly be on the proper office chatter level and always using proper terms to include "such as" instead of "like" when I am back on the block. It becomes a chore rather than a relaxed environement. 
