Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Language, dress, talk, and even mannerisms and posture are key tools to constructing the meaning of race, class and gender in a society. They bring meaning to our cultural values and reflect and often determine our social reality. Examining the significance of “urban” and “suburban” was inspired by a desire to expose the taken-for-granted understandings of these words as they emerged in the mainstream media’s coverage of the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. Although commonly used the refer to proximity to a city, these terms were not solely connected to geography. As I began an ethnographic field research project of schools approximately one-year after the shootings, this language of “urban” and “suburban” continued to permeate the talk of teens. It also was commonly connected to “who” they were. How they dressed, who they were friends with, how they talked, and to a lesser extent, where they lived, was central to how kids negotiated being “urban,” “ghetto,” “suburban,” or “uppity.” The meaning of urban and suburban was intricately connected to relations of race and social class, even when not made explicit. In this regard, the social construction of urban and suburban also carried significant connections to inequality, and the understanding of, and in some cases, the perpetuation of, racist and classist ideologies.