Thank you.
In truth, last night I was very angry at having been basically called a racist in here for some of the things I posted yesterday. I'm not racist. I have no issues at all with people whose ethnicity is different from mine, and whose skin color and hair texture is not like mine- in fact, like many men I have a bit of a weakness for exotic looking ladies. So it really ground on me to be called a racist- but at the same time, I understood why they were saying it. I knew that the problem was that I wasn't expressing myself clearly enough.

So this morning as I was showering and brushing my teeth I was thinking long and hard about how to get the real point across, that it wasn't so much a racial thing as a cultural thing. That's when it hit me- American culture and sub-cultures are different from English ones, so the terms I was using to express myself were not translating properly. Another American would have understood, but the English wouldn't.

This also triggered me thinking about the question itself. I read what Chickenlady posted about it and how angry it was making her, and while I understood her point I could feel that there was something else going on here besides feeling smug about being "better" than poorer people. I've known- and fallen in love with- people who come from much poorer backgrounds than mine who I liked and respected, even if they weren't the most refined people I've known. At the same time I don't have any use for people who flash their bling and make a big show of demanding "only the best" when they're clearly not used to it- so did this make me an elitist? And that's when it hit me that again it's a cultural issue.

Doubtless there are others who have delved far more deeply into this than I have and have expressed it more eloquently and in more detail than I have, but in my case I was merely defending my positions and trying to give people something to think about.

Anyway- if you ever get over here, the first night's beer is on me!
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Fri 17 Oct 2008, 16:42, Reply)