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From what OP said, it sounds like a case of insularity. He's trying to say the people in LA haven't a clue about the East Coast while in his experience, the people in the four cities he named generally know about California or LA on a cursory level even if they had never been, enough to carry on a light conversation and ask some questions.
In general I find the "insularity" syndrome to correlate with just one thing - economic status. Not race, not geography. The people in California who are middle to upper middle class know not just the east coast, but about the world. This group would definitely have been to the major east coast cities especially NYC for a vacation. The working class on both coasts would not know as much. Even when you think you know something based on what you've heard all your life or what you read, it's not the same as experience.
This is true. And it's not even just limited to the working classes, there's just people eveywhere that don't leave their general region that much. It's not even a case where they don't know about the East Coast, there's plenty of people on the West Coast who don't even know much geographically about neighboring states on the West Coast. Case in point, I grew up in Santa Cruz, California(which is somewhat well known for a coastal town) and when mention that to some people in Oregon--they assume I grew up in Southern California(and they also sometimes assume it's in a hot desert climate), even after I describe it as being in between San Francisco and Monterey. Meanwhile there's other people who grow up in Oregon who can tell you their favorite things about every city from Boston to London to Bangkok--and often they're from a more upwardly mobile class.
Likewise I have relatives in Wisconsin who think every place in California is Hollywood, palm trees, surfers, and celebrities. And I have cousins in California who've never gone north of the Sacramento Valley or east of Las Vegas who have no idea what the Pacific Northwest is like.
I find the insularity level of people from all four regions to be largely based on socio-economic status. Even the often-parroted stereotypes about the Midwest or the South being insular as though it's cultural trait of the region isn't accurate, seems to be something coined by somebody who doesn't think deeply. Historically many Midwesterners were farmers. That's why they never had the money to gallivant in Tokyo or NYC. I think the coasts have a more worldly image simply because there is a higher number of rich people there. It really is about education and the south has the worst schools and high school graduation rates in the whole country.
There are many Americans from the Midwest and the South living abroad as expats, I met many in China when I taught ESL there. And the profile is similar to all other Americans abroad. College graduates.
But nobody in the Midwest, not farmers or mechanics writes like this: "We was going to beleaf in nothin butt the baadble." The regular working class folk are as literate and fluent as any participant in this forum. So there is a marked difference. Very marked.
Anybody who thinks the state with Silicon Valley, Stanford, Berkeley and Caltech (and the largest numbers of native born Asian Americans in the whole country) has a problem in this area sounds like a frog in a well to me. If anybody didn't know the topic, they would have thought he or she was talking about a deep southern state.
The south is where I still find native born Americans writing like this: "We was going to beleaf in nuthin but the baadble."
This is what I was thinking, and don't forget UCLA too.
I find the insularity level of people from all four regions to be largely based on socio-economic status. Even the often-parroted stereotypes about the Midwest or the South being insular as though it's cultural trait of the region isn't accurate, seems to be something coined by somebody who doesn't think deeply. Historically many Midwesterners were farmers. That's why they never had the money to gallivant in Tokyo or NYC. I think the coasts have a more worldly image simply because there is a higher number of rich people there. It really is about education and the south has the worst schools and high school graduation rates in the whole country.
There are many Americans from the Midwest and the South living abroad as expats, I met many in China when I taught ESL there. And the profile is similar to all other Americans abroad. College graduates.
But nobody in the Midwest, not farmers or mechanics writes like this: "We was going to beleaf in nothin butt the baadble." The regular working class folk are as literate and fluent as any participant in this forum. So there is a marked difference. Very marked.
I knew many Midwesterners from older generations whose quality of high school education exceeded that of many modern-day college graduates. The grammar ( and writing style) of many recent college graduates is just atrocious...
That's because, in general, people on the west coast are air heads. They can't keep up with the pace of a solid A-B conversation. They're too slow and don't really make many facial expressions or reactions. They're on a different wavelength. They often go off on tangents and can't contribute much to a conversation as much as an east coast person can. I think it's because of the climate and way of life there (marijuana).
Besides, who cares. Boston is a much more characterful, charming and educated city than LA. LA is filthy, generic and the white population is only 30%. In Boston it's 75%. Also, Boston has MUCH smarter people than LA. I cannot stress that enough. There is also a full scale mass transit system, which LA doesn't even have. And Massachusetts is a more scenic state than California, with it's widespread deciduous greenery, Cape Cod, Boston and the most progressive politics in the nation (or maybe that's VT).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jdawg8181
The Northeast is the most-educated region of the country.. so not surprising people in other areas wouldn't be too smart lol.
I'm from NYC Metro and I personally LOVE Boston and HATE LA.
There are smart people in California you know... ever heard of Caltech? It's in the heart of the LA metro. It is pretty much tied with MIT.
What kind of conversation does the OP want to have about Boston? And why? There are a millions of other subjects. Why is this so upsetting? I live in Los Angeles. I generally don't ask people where they are from, but chat with folks about a wide variety of things. When I travel if the fact that I live in LA comes up, I don't expect people to bow down at my feet, or ask about the Dodgers, or how many moive stars I know. I just don't quite get the OPs point.
I knew many Midwesterners from older generations whose quality of high school education exceeded that of many modern-day college graduates. The grammar ( and writing style) of many recent college graduates is just atrocious...
Yes, but I think that recent college graduates being atrocious and worse than older generation is a nation-wide thing, not a Midwest thing.
People in the Midwest of all backgrounds can write as well and are as literate and eloquent as people in the East and West coasts, in some cases, more so. I was drawing the observation that I have not seen anyone in the Midwest or coast writing like the uneducated southern people. There must be parity at some level because in the Midwest and Northeast, the literacy level is on parity and I've known people in both regions who are just high school graduates but are more literate than college graduates. I really came across southern people who wrote like this: " We was beleaf in the baadble, and we was hating all belac and asain peeple." I was like...is this for real? These are US born Americans. List of U.S. states by educational attainment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I don't think the quality differences of public schools among states makes as much of a difference as actually staying in school and graduating. It might be harder for somebody from a public school in Mississippi to get a very high SAT score than somebody in Massachusetts, but I don't believe it impacts basic literacy if everybody could just go to high school and graduate. But basic literacy isn't a straight indicator that someone isn't a moron.
Last edited by sadgirl80; 03-31-2014 at 10:22 PM..
That's why I said in GENERAL. Of course it was a broad generalization. I didn't say EVERYONE was a certain way. There's nothing wrong with generalizing. No one has time to analyze millions of different kinds of people within a certain area.
Secondly, from my experience, places with smaller white populations tend to be dumpier and have higher crime. It's not racism. It's statistical fact, actually. But of course, people on this forum are quick to cry racism as soon as someone correlates race with anything. I wish people would just look at things objectively and rationally instead of trying to be politically correct. And I'm a gay atheist liberal at that, who happens to have black neighbors, too. So please stop calling me racist. It's silly.
Being gay, atheist or liberal does not disqualify you from being a racist, nor does having black neighbors.
And "from my experience" does not equal "statistical fact".
There are smart people in California you know... ever heard of Caltech? It's in the heart of the LA metro. It is pretty much tied with MIT.
Yes but statistically the NORTHEAST has the highest % of college graduates.
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