Why Can't We All Just Get Along?
Thank you to my boss Yana for sending me this article from the Milwaukee Sentinel about the Wisconsin vs. "Coasties" rivalry. In case you do not know, a coastie is an out-of-state UW student, usually from New York, New Jersey, or California. Apparently the rivalry has reached a boiling point that now requires it to be addressed at freshman orientation. I'd like to hear the orientation group leader on this one: "Wisconsin kids, there are some students who will be tucking their jeans into Ugg boots. They're called East Coasties. You don't need to be afraid of them." "And East Coasties, there are some students who will be wearing yellow Old Navy fleeces. They're called Wisconsin kids. You don't need to be afraid of them." Sidenote: I HATE UGG BOOTS.
One of the reasons I loved going to UW was because the student makeup was not a homogenous demographic of upper Midwest kids. The article reports that a third of UW's undergrad makeup is students not from Wisconsin or Minnesota, with which UW has tuition reciprocity. The coasties brought their fashion, accents, and BMW's and we WI kids learned a lot from them. Okay, maybe not every coastie had a BMW... I'm sure many of them learned stuff from us like the magnificent delicacy of cheese curds and how to finish a boot of beer so you don't have to pay for the next one. They attended UW because they wanted to experience a different way of life just as I'm attending a NYC school to experience a different way of life.
I love the rivalry. I lived with a coastie named Jen. I'd make fun of the way she said "cwoffee" and she teased me when I said "bAAAg." It really is a feud in good fun. I hung out with an old college friend last Saturday who grew up in New Jersey. We lived together on the 9th floor of Shitty Witte B. I mentioned the article and she agreed that the rivalry was to be taken in jest, though she did say she had been the target of coastie discrimination at times. I replied, "That's what you get for owning a purple puffy North Face jacket." Okay, I didn't say that, but let's be honest, that jacket was a dead giveaway! If you're interested in the JSO's sociological analysis of the University of Wisconsin, click here.
Any UW kids care to comment? <----- pathetic attempt to boost number of comments on this blog
posted by Timo @ 10:35 PM
5 Comments:
Hey Wisconsin boy, please do not use WSJ as the reference. Everyone knows that WSJ universally stands for Wall Street Journal not some cow-gracing, cheese-eating journal in Wisconsin.
Nate really likes his Wisconsin State Journal, err...Wall Street Journal.
I think it's absurd that coasties are described as wearing uggs, north face, etc...2 points must be made: 1) females stemming from wisconsin/midwest wear that as well...I will abstain from any sort of comments accusing them of imitation 2) ONLY in Wisconsin is there such a radical divide between how people dress. In large cities (e.g., LA, NYC, Chicago) brands that people wear tend to cut across ethnicities, race, and cultural background...you are just as likely to see a non-Jewish person wearing North Face and burberry as a jewish person who gets picked on for doing so at the progressive and liberal U of Wisconsin, Madison. (a grad student at UW who's originally from SoCal)
The first thing I noticed about this rather superficial, reductive, overly-careful, PC-in-the-worst-way article is that it failed to do any analysis of anti-semitism or midwestern oppression, and only took a sliver of a look at classism. These are the three intersecting social ills that actually create this regrettable segregation, and should be central to this discussion.
Solutions: 1) First and foremost, the Wisconsin kids need to get over the anti-semitism with which they have been indoctrinated since birth; 2) once we have a solid understanding that Judaism does not equal wealth, we can take on the classism part of this problem and notice the wholly separate issue that there is a collision at UW of working/middle class and upper/middle class social castes; 3) There is a third factor to contend with which is the midwestern inferiority/insignificance complex which is perpetuated nationwide -- all sides will need to recognize that they grew up with these notions and actively reject them.
Additionally, I must say that Jen Hanson, as a gentile working girl from Racine, dressed far better than anyone on Langdon Street. Timo, did you miss my soapbox? I miss our long and pointless debates, and the way that you can deflate my sociology with a single pinprick of a well-placed joke. BTW do you remember the scene I made at the Minneapolis restaurant?
Jason...that's a deep analysis and I agree with you, haha :) (person who posted above you)
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