Rowing Blazers/Noah Collection Benefitting Row New York
October 18, 2018
Rowing Blazers is on a roll. Smooth sailing, you could say, though I’m sure Jack and company would say it’s actually crazy currents, wild but exciting. The brand has been “dropping” new collections left and right, and garnering an amount of press that any fashion startup would envy. In doing so, the brand is doing more than its fair share to drive the neo-prep comeback. And to continue the water metaphors, a rising tide lifts all Anglo-American boats.
The latest collaboration, which debuted today, is with Noah, a minimalist brand that draws inspiration from classics. Proceeds from the collection benefit Row New York, a nonprofilt that gets young kids, who wouldn’t otherwise have access, into the sport of rowing. As RB explains:
For the past few years, Rowing Blazers has presented every high school senior at Row New York with a jacket hand-tailored just for them and emblazoned with their borough emblem. Now we’ve taken those emblems and worked with Noah to create a borough-themed capsule that is available to everyone and helps raise funds for this amazing program.
Row New York serves over 4,000 New Yorkers. 100% of kids at Row New York graduate high school and 99% go on to college, most as first-generation college students; 100% exceed the CDC’s recommended daily activity levels. The vast majority row for free.
You can check out the RB x Noah collection here, where you’ll also spy some rare prep memorabilia for sale. Rowing Blazers owner Jack Carlson has tracked down the famous “Are You A Preppie?” poster, which pre-dates 1980’s “Official Preppy Handbook”:
… as well as a 1981 “Have a preppy for lunch” poster.
They are priced at $10,000 and $5,000 respectively.
Finally, it hasn’t officially been announced, so consider it official now: The New York pop-up shop, originally slated just for the summer, will be open through the end of the year. — CC
I’m just here to congratulate Rowing Blazers once again. Super cool stuff for the next generation of preppy enthusiasts. Seeing as I am not in that generation; I am content watching with approval.
But I want some things to be the exclusive province of the elite. I want an upper class with their distinguished modes of dress. Sure, teach urban kids from poor backgrounds how to row. But don’t pretend you’re elevating them by giving them a blazer to wear while at it. Authentic preppiness will always have middle and upper class connotations. I don’t get this zeal to universalise and equalise everything.
In the heyday, even pool sharks and small time con men were wearing Ivy style:
‘My father’s life was devoted to the pursuit of money, which is an odd thing to say about a man who was so disdainful of it that when he actually had it he couldn’t get rid of it fast enough. He never spent it on himself, though, except every 20 years or so to buy a new navy blazer with brass buttons from J. Press Clothiers in New Haven. My father always dressed shabby Ivy League, like an absentminded professor, which was part of his con. His cronies even called him “Ivy League.”’ (“What I Learned From My Father, the Grifter” by Pat Jordan for Men’s Journal)
I’m no bleeding heart, but I don’t think this portends the end of hierarchy.
@Robert I can’t place it precisely, but I recall hearing a historical anecdote about an Austrian aristocrat who visited America in the early 19th century. What most shocked this visiting aristocrat about the young nation was how people from the lower economic strata could elect to dress in the same fashions followed by the more moneyed elites, a tendency that in Europe would have been a faux pas at best and a criminal transgression at worst. I find this anecdote, apocryphal or not, to be an example of America at its very best.
I don’t yet understand art. Sothebys, right now, is auctioning an original Pablo Picasso art piece (L’Atelier Du Vieux Peintre), which is expected to sell for $10,000 – $15,000 (same price as that “Are You a Preppie?” print poster).
But they are also auctioning an original 1932 The Mummy film poster (print), which is expected to sell for $1 million – $1.5 million…
At the risk of being, at a minimum pedantic, or even a racist
elitist, Row New York should at least use proper grammar
when distributing its’ largesse in the form of blazers
to a demographic which would not normally have access
to the sport of rowing
“Row New York serves over 4,000 New Yorkers. 100% of kids at Row New York graduate high school and 99% go on to college, most as first-generation college students; 100% exceed the CDC’s recommended daily activity levels. The vast majority row for free.”
The last time I checked it is “graduate from high school” Not “graduate high school”
As one who aspired to crew, but never made the cut in college. this misuse of our
mother tongue, is particularly galling.
@Robert I can’t place it precisely, but I recall hearing a historical anecdote about an Austrian aristocrat who visited America in the early 19th century. What most shocked this visiting aristocrat about the young nation was how people from the lower economic strata could elect to dress in the same fashions followed by the more moneyed elites, a tendency that in Europe would have been a faux pas at best and a criminal transgression at worst. I find this anecdote, apocryphal or not, to be an example of America at its very best.
Tocqueville made similar comments in “Democracy in America”
He was also very favorably impressed with American women who were
much freer to express themselves frankly than their cosseted European
counterparts.
Nothing more than an exercise in conforming to the demographic norms of modern “look book” publicity shoots. The vast majority of online fashion retailers and “fashion” magazines present viewers with such a skewed demographic one would be forgiven for thinking the Caucasian male to be extinct in Western society…what we see above is simply a way of justifying this tendency under the pretext of philanthropy.
Clearly he’s attempting some creative, inventive stuff, which I very much appreciate. Where’s the Ivy
Imagination at other outposts? The bright minds who gave us patch tweed waistcoats, Reefer Twill, terrifically brushed shetland crewnecks, Irish Poplin, adventurous glen/PoW checked tweeds, and burly hopsackings–this is the spirit we’d like to see again. No point in Ivy Redux if it’s going to (merely) resemble the local Brooks Brothers outlet store sans front darts.
Keep the innovations coming!
It’s nice to see the new regime at Squeeze is giving the affirming nod to Magee (we spy what looks to be Donegal Mist in the current lineup) and Atkinson’s. Let’s applaud them, remembering that the best kind of Ivy isn’t boring. In fact, since this present moment (sartorially speaking) finds men preferring ill-fitting jeans, running shoes (or worse), tee shirts, and hoodies, Mr. Carlson’s take on the look is pure oxygen–a breath of (much needed) fresh air. It’s likely you are surrounded by boring people–friends, neighbors, co-workers. Do the world a favor: don’t blend in. Don’t be boring.
@Joel I’m embarrassed for them. This “stay in your lane” nonsense gives Ivy Style a bad name. I wonder if they have a similar attitude towards Jacobi Press cutting cloth or Miles Davis wearing a Brooks Brothers shirt on the cover of Milestones with perfect nonchalance. In America, we don’t dictate what people can wear or what activities they can undertake based on class or race. Such feudalistic distinctions should remain in the past. I believe that the great majority of Ivy Style’s readership would be in agreeance, and I hope that anyone who stumbles across this page and reads the less savory commentary won’t hold it against the website.
@Eric: The U.S. pretends as if class doesn’t exist but it is probably one of the most classist countries in the world. The U.K. for example has less poverty and more class mobility than the USA.
What differentiates the U.S. from the rest of the world is that here class is determined largely by money.
Twin ironies for those making snarky (at best), racist (at worst) remarks regarding who can and can not adopt the Ivy Style. First, I can almost guarantee that anyone who insists on some kind of class exclusion doesn’t actually have the amount of money they want others to believe they do. Or, at least, came by it recently. Second, to actually believe in this type of reactionary exclusivity is to embody an attitude completely anathema to the true Ivy spirit. The elan vital of the gentleman is magnanimity and grace. If an Ivy man is by temperament conservative, surely it is in the Burkean rather than Trumpian mode. Reverence for tradition is open to all, and all should be welcomed in the display of such good sense.
Well said RBM. Timely reference to Burke as well who, like all conservatives of conscience, recognized the difference between conserving the good and right and conserving things that had outlived their usefulness. But who knows if the person who made that snobbish comment is even “far right,” as one commenter put it. Leftists and progressives are no slouches when it comes to elitism. Which, I suppose, is the same as saying that we all find ways to believe ourselves better than others.
“I don’t yet understand art. Sothebys, right now, is auctioning an original Pablo Picasso art piece (L’Atelier Du Vieux Peintre), which is expected to sell for $10,000 – $15,000 (same price as that “Are You a Preppie?” print poster).
“But they are also auctioning an original 1932 The Mummy film poster (print), which is expected to sell for $1 million – $1.5 million…
“Am I missing something?”
If you are, it would be that modern “art,” such as Picasso, is almost uniformly ugly, and it is ugly by design and intent. As such, it has little value or appeal, except to the cloistered “art world,” which has been unusually successful in peddling its wares and ideology upon the populace at large. (Lest anyone accuse me of philistinism, I assure you that I do understand Picasso, which is why I find his work ugly, vulgar, and subversive.)
However, I’m quite certain you are aware of the gross overvaluation of pop culture in our celebrity-saturated world; it is this that accounts for the obscene amounts paid for icons of that “culture.”
I find it ironic that only someone from the financial elite could afford most of the items up for auction, and apparently there are many who are dumb enough to buy them. Rich twits.
I agree with your comment about people not giving thoughts to the judgmental and wearing whatever they please, however I really, REALLY wish people would refrain from sporting long neckties with tuxedos, and Crocs in any situation ever. lol.
@Benjamin
Oh, I wish people dressed better and had more respect for certain norms. Most of the time, I think they’re ignorant and don’t understand they’ve made a fool of themselves. In that regard, I’ve noticed a slight uptick in men’s taste in Austin, a dynamic city full of young, smart people. Still, all the kids here working for
Facebook, Google et al have a ways to go.
Like all sensible people, I regard social division (here commenters ideologically call it “class exclusion”) to be an inevitable consequence of living in a free and meritocratic society. The point is that those who rise to the top mingle in their own circles and forge their own modes, which the lower strata attempts to emulate (see Ralph Lauren’s pony), but which can only be authentically realised by others in that same “class”. Hence it is preppier to have gone to a prep school than to have been homeschooled, for example. So forgive me for scoffing when someone who distributes meretricious blazers to the underprivileged as part of a marketing campaign is defended by a jingo mob screaming “snob!” and invoking Tocqueville – because it is nothing more than flannel. And you know it.
“…but which can only be authentically realised by others in that same “class”.
Anyone who’s ever read F. Scott Fitzgerald or John O’Hara knows that you don’t need to be born into a certain caste to fully realize it’s charms, flaws and functions.
You’re a bore in the most classic sense of the word.
@Robert
The kids who get the jackets receive them as an award for participating in Row New York, which appears to have a great record of helping kids move up in the world. It’s a perfect example of your meritocratic society. They earned the damned blazers.
Does Rowing Blazers benefit from the promotion? Of course. People like me applaud them for recognizing the achievements of these kids. Just about every business around does things like this.
Moreover, America is not a pure meritocracy. Not everyone starts at the same place. Some are born on third base and think they hit a triple. Others start way off the field and have a hard time even getting in the game. Programs like Row New York seek to help kids seek to even the odds for success for kids from low-income families.
So it appears that you don’t really believe in a meritocracy in which a poor black kid can become part of the elite. You don’t want his kind in your club. I was being nice when I used the word snob. I actually had a different word in mind.
Typo Alert! Third paragraph, last sentence should be: Programs like Row New York seek to even the odds for success for kids from low-income families. (And the corrected sentence sucks too)
Well put, a total bore, ridiculous and pitiable at that. The comic villain in a novel that believes himself formidable and is all the more pathetic for this delusion.
@Robert
Right, right — the use of the phrase “urban kids from poor backgrounds” in response to the posted photo was in no way related to race. I lament the hyperbolic invocation of supposed ‘dog-whistles’ by a left-leaning media as much as anyone, but that doesn’t require total suspension of one’s critical faculties.
Yes Pani. I really hate it when leftists go on about class and hierarchy being inevitable and natural.
It’s been clear for a long time that this website attracts a certain breed of far right elitist, whether Burkean or Trumpian. Christian’s wooden “I can’t control the comments section” spiel is insulting. Just own your actions instead of equivocating like a coward. If you actually don’t want the far right mucking around here, make them feel unwelcome.
@Joel
@Robert
Indeed, how strange to be compelled so quickly to change tack, but censorship of the comments section is surely not desirable. And please, a Burkean ‘far right’? Who, on such a continuum, might occupy the moderate, or centre-right by your estimation? The term ‘far right’ connotes something dangerous and ugly (‘far’ — whether describing the right OR the left — invariably suggests *too* far, i.e beyond the pale), you do reasonable critique a grave disservice by lumping too much within this basket.
@Robert
You’ve chosen the idiot’s defense in claiming your words were not racist. RBM described it perfectly above. And by continuing to deny the obvious, you’re essentially admitting that you are aware that your beliefs are repugnant to the vast majority of Americans. On top of all that, you tried to redirect the debate by calling someone what you plainly are: a coward.
True. My mistake. I meant to write that I had not called you a racist. Your words were racist, however. I still have a shred of hope that you aren’t one.
Henry Contestwinner | October 19, 2018 at 3:20 pm |
Roger Sack, the older usage, which my mother the English teacher taught me, is “100% of students* at Row New York are graduated from high school….”
* A kid is a baby goat.
I am confident that my PQ (Pedantism Quotient) is nearly always the highest in the house!
I am in your debt ! As one who worries about the confusion between “which and that”
And notes with distress when the first “r” in February is omitted, I am pleased that my
fellow grammar vigilantes also appreciate Ivy clothing.
On the contrary, most of the responses to the comment in question were disapproving of the seemingly racist language. Besides, I think it’s just as true to say that this website also attracts a particularly vociferous brand of liberal as well. 🙂
Pani – false equivalence, but that’s par for the course for this place.
RBM – Burke’s conception of an organic society is very similar to Mussolini’s conception of a corporate society. They are both extremely hierarchical, authoritarian and reactionary. I would place a neoclassical liberal on the center right.
Actually I think, aside from the curmudgeonly attitude toward clothing, people here are pretty thoughtful. A few extremists on both sides excepted, of course.
Censorship is never the answer. It’s a tyrant’s tactic. Everyone, regardless of how repugnant their statements might be, should have the right to speak.
Censorship is also a coward’s tactic. Fearing you can’t win the argument, you kill it instead.
Finally, this is CC’s blog. He can run it as he damn well pleases. We can visit or avoid blogs as we damn well please as well.
Far right nerds like Robert need to stop whining about censorship. Nobody is censoring him, especially here. If anything, Christian goes out of his way to censor reasonable anti-racist voices in the comments section.
At any rate, there are a bunch of places, such as Taki’s Mag, Vdare, etc, where the far right can go and complain about the poor and blacks and what not. Their freedom is not being impinged in the slightest. It’s a false victim mentality.
It was s not a question of censorship, it’s a question of appropriateness and context. I’m sure if someone posted on here every day screeching about how the Haute Bourgeoisie need to be sent to work camps, Christian would delete that shit.
Christian likes to pretend that he is some kind of free speech hero, but in reality he heavily encourages a certain kind of speech that is already very privileged – the point of view of the far right. If he wants to do that, that’s his right. But he should at least own it. He is supposed to be into “personal responsibility” after all.
“I’m sure if someone posted on here every day screeching about how the Haute Bourgeoisie need to be sent to work camps, Christian would delete that shit.”
@Joel is a troll. Be a bit more subtle next time :^)
“Christian goes out of his way to censor reasonable anti-racist voices in the comments section.”
What?
“I’m sure if someone posted on here every day screeching about how the Haute Bourgeoisie need to be sent to work camps, Christian would delete that shit.”
As a vociferous liberal (love that tag) in the racism fights here, I have never been censored. I’ve also written some other things that ruffled conservative feathers, and I’d bet that CC has received PM’s calling for my banishment to some Berkeley hippie commune. But nothing has happened. As for this kerfuffle, CC let the debate rage on for days without even participating in the back and forth.
Or to put it another way, would a racist have posted the RB pics with the African-American kids in the first place? I kinda doubt it.
Joel, you obviously have some axe to grind with CC, and by all means you can pontificate all you want about him. However, do yourself and the readers a favor by employing a few facts and reasoning.
Now, I’ll stop defending CC, which, I’d also bet, besmirches his reputation within certain circles. Hasta later as we say down here.
I’m just here to congratulate Rowing Blazers once again. Super cool stuff for the next generation of preppy enthusiasts. Seeing as I am not in that generation; I am content watching with approval.
But I want some things to be the exclusive province of the elite. I want an upper class with their distinguished modes of dress. Sure, teach urban kids from poor backgrounds how to row. But don’t pretend you’re elevating them by giving them a blazer to wear while at it. Authentic preppiness will always have middle and upper class connotations. I don’t get this zeal to universalise and equalise everything.
People should wear what they damned well please and not worry about what the snobs think.
In the heyday, even pool sharks and small time con men were wearing Ivy style:
‘My father’s life was devoted to the pursuit of money, which is an odd thing to say about a man who was so disdainful of it that when he actually had it he couldn’t get rid of it fast enough. He never spent it on himself, though, except every 20 years or so to buy a new navy blazer with brass buttons from J. Press Clothiers in New Haven. My father always dressed shabby Ivy League, like an absentminded professor, which was part of his con. His cronies even called him “Ivy League.”’ (“What I Learned From My Father, the Grifter” by Pat Jordan for Men’s Journal)
I’m no bleeding heart, but I don’t think this portends the end of hierarchy.
@whiskeydent
They are free to, and very likely don’t.
@Robert I can’t place it precisely, but I recall hearing a historical anecdote about an Austrian aristocrat who visited America in the early 19th century. What most shocked this visiting aristocrat about the young nation was how people from the lower economic strata could elect to dress in the same fashions followed by the more moneyed elites, a tendency that in Europe would have been a faux pas at best and a criminal transgression at worst. I find this anecdote, apocryphal or not, to be an example of America at its very best.
I don’t yet understand art. Sothebys, right now, is auctioning an original Pablo Picasso art piece (L’Atelier Du Vieux Peintre), which is expected to sell for $10,000 – $15,000 (same price as that “Are You a Preppie?” print poster).
But they are also auctioning an original 1932 The Mummy film poster (print), which is expected to sell for $1 million – $1.5 million…
Am I missing something?
At the risk of being, at a minimum pedantic, or even a racist
elitist, Row New York should at least use proper grammar
when distributing its’ largesse in the form of blazers
to a demographic which would not normally have access
to the sport of rowing
“Row New York serves over 4,000 New Yorkers. 100% of kids at Row New York graduate high school and 99% go on to college, most as first-generation college students; 100% exceed the CDC’s recommended daily activity levels. The vast majority row for free.”
The last time I checked it is “graduate from high school” Not “graduate high school”
As one who aspired to crew, but never made the cut in college. this misuse of our
mother tongue, is particularly galling.
@Robert I can’t place it precisely, but I recall hearing a historical anecdote about an Austrian aristocrat who visited America in the early 19th century. What most shocked this visiting aristocrat about the young nation was how people from the lower economic strata could elect to dress in the same fashions followed by the more moneyed elites, a tendency that in Europe would have been a faux pas at best and a criminal transgression at worst. I find this anecdote, apocryphal or not, to be an example of America at its very best.
Tocqueville made similar comments in “Democracy in America”
He was also very favorably impressed with American women who were
much freer to express themselves frankly than their cosseted European
counterparts.
Nothing more than an exercise in conforming to the demographic norms of modern “look book” publicity shoots. The vast majority of online fashion retailers and “fashion” magazines present viewers with such a skewed demographic one would be forgiven for thinking the Caucasian male to be extinct in Western society…what we see above is simply a way of justifying this tendency under the pretext of philanthropy.
Clearly he’s attempting some creative, inventive stuff, which I very much appreciate. Where’s the Ivy
Imagination at other outposts? The bright minds who gave us patch tweed waistcoats, Reefer Twill, terrifically brushed shetland crewnecks, Irish Poplin, adventurous glen/PoW checked tweeds, and burly hopsackings–this is the spirit we’d like to see again. No point in Ivy Redux if it’s going to (merely) resemble the local Brooks Brothers outlet store sans front darts.
Keep the innovations coming!
It’s nice to see the new regime at Squeeze is giving the affirming nod to Magee (we spy what looks to be Donegal Mist in the current lineup) and Atkinson’s. Let’s applaud them, remembering that the best kind of Ivy isn’t boring. In fact, since this present moment (sartorially speaking) finds men preferring ill-fitting jeans, running shoes (or worse), tee shirts, and hoodies, Mr. Carlson’s take on the look is pure oxygen–a breath of (much needed) fresh air. It’s likely you are surrounded by boring people–friends, neighbors, co-workers. Do the world a favor: don’t blend in. Don’t be boring.
Hip, hip, hooRAH for Rowing Blazers.
Man, nothing triggers the far right like pictures of black kids.
@Joel I’m embarrassed for them. This “stay in your lane” nonsense gives Ivy Style a bad name. I wonder if they have a similar attitude towards Jacobi Press cutting cloth or Miles Davis wearing a Brooks Brothers shirt on the cover of Milestones with perfect nonchalance. In America, we don’t dictate what people can wear or what activities they can undertake based on class or race. Such feudalistic distinctions should remain in the past. I believe that the great majority of Ivy Style’s readership would be in agreeance, and I hope that anyone who stumbles across this page and reads the less savory commentary won’t hold it against the website.
@Eric: The U.S. pretends as if class doesn’t exist but it is probably one of the most classist countries in the world. The U.K. for example has less poverty and more class mobility than the USA.
What differentiates the U.S. from the rest of the world is that here class is determined largely by money.
So many assumptions from so many people…
Agreement. Ment.
Twin ironies for those making snarky (at best), racist (at worst) remarks regarding who can and can not adopt the Ivy Style. First, I can almost guarantee that anyone who insists on some kind of class exclusion doesn’t actually have the amount of money they want others to believe they do. Or, at least, came by it recently. Second, to actually believe in this type of reactionary exclusivity is to embody an attitude completely anathema to the true Ivy spirit. The elan vital of the gentleman is magnanimity and grace. If an Ivy man is by temperament conservative, surely it is in the Burkean rather than Trumpian mode. Reverence for tradition is open to all, and all should be welcomed in the display of such good sense.
Well said RBM. Timely reference to Burke as well who, like all conservatives of conscience, recognized the difference between conserving the good and right and conserving things that had outlived their usefulness. But who knows if the person who made that snobbish comment is even “far right,” as one commenter put it. Leftists and progressives are no slouches when it comes to elitism. Which, I suppose, is the same as saying that we all find ways to believe ourselves better than others.
Where else online can you find a conversation that runs from Rowing Blazers to Burke and Tocqueville? This is why I love Ivy Style.
Chewco wrote,
“I don’t yet understand art. Sothebys, right now, is auctioning an original Pablo Picasso art piece (L’Atelier Du Vieux Peintre), which is expected to sell for $10,000 – $15,000 (same price as that “Are You a Preppie?” print poster).
“But they are also auctioning an original 1932 The Mummy film poster (print), which is expected to sell for $1 million – $1.5 million…
“Am I missing something?”
If you are, it would be that modern “art,” such as Picasso, is almost uniformly ugly, and it is ugly by design and intent. As such, it has little value or appeal, except to the cloistered “art world,” which has been unusually successful in peddling its wares and ideology upon the populace at large. (Lest anyone accuse me of philistinism, I assure you that I do understand Picasso, which is why I find his work ugly, vulgar, and subversive.)
However, I’m quite certain you are aware of the gross overvaluation of pop culture in our celebrity-saturated world; it is this that accounts for the obscene amounts paid for icons of that “culture.”
Let the disapprobation commence!
Roger Sack, the older usage, which my mother the English teacher taught me, is “100% of students* at Row New York are graduated from high school….”
* A kid is a baby goat.
I am confident that my PQ (Pedantism Quotient) is nearly always the highest in the house!
I find it ironic that only someone from the financial elite could afford most of the items up for auction, and apparently there are many who are dumb enough to buy them. Rich twits.
@whiskeydent
I agree with your comment about people not giving thoughts to the judgmental and wearing whatever they please, however I really, REALLY wish people would refrain from sporting long neckties with tuxedos, and Crocs in any situation ever. lol.
@Benjamin
Oh, I wish people dressed better and had more respect for certain norms. Most of the time, I think they’re ignorant and don’t understand they’ve made a fool of themselves. In that regard, I’ve noticed a slight uptick in men’s taste in Austin, a dynamic city full of young, smart people. Still, all the kids here working for
Facebook, Google et al have a ways to go.
Like all sensible people, I regard social division (here commenters ideologically call it “class exclusion”) to be an inevitable consequence of living in a free and meritocratic society. The point is that those who rise to the top mingle in their own circles and forge their own modes, which the lower strata attempts to emulate (see Ralph Lauren’s pony), but which can only be authentically realised by others in that same “class”. Hence it is preppier to have gone to a prep school than to have been homeschooled, for example. So forgive me for scoffing when someone who distributes meretricious blazers to the underprivileged as part of a marketing campaign is defended by a jingo mob screaming “snob!” and invoking Tocqueville – because it is nothing more than flannel. And you know it.
Meretricious Blazers! I like it.
@ Robert – you must be a lot of fun at parties…
“…but which can only be authentically realised by others in that same “class”.
Anyone who’s ever read F. Scott Fitzgerald or John O’Hara knows that you don’t need to be born into a certain caste to fully realize it’s charms, flaws and functions.
You’re a bore in the most classic sense of the word.
https://youtu.be/1p_56bQthAw
Apparently I have not figured out how to properly embed videos.
@Robert
The kids who get the jackets receive them as an award for participating in Row New York, which appears to have a great record of helping kids move up in the world. It’s a perfect example of your meritocratic society. They earned the damned blazers.
Does Rowing Blazers benefit from the promotion? Of course. People like me applaud them for recognizing the achievements of these kids. Just about every business around does things like this.
Moreover, America is not a pure meritocracy. Not everyone starts at the same place. Some are born on third base and think they hit a triple. Others start way off the field and have a hard time even getting in the game. Programs like Row New York seek to help kids seek to even the odds for success for kids from low-income families.
So it appears that you don’t really believe in a meritocracy in which a poor black kid can become part of the elite. You don’t want his kind in your club. I was being nice when I used the word snob. I actually had a different word in mind.
Typo Alert! Third paragraph, last sentence should be: Programs like Row New York seek to even the odds for success for kids from low-income families. (And the corrected sentence sucks too)
@Eric Twardzik
Well put, a total bore, ridiculous and pitiable at that. The comic villain in a novel that believes himself formidable and is all the more pathetic for this delusion.
Amazing how people keep coming back to race when I didn’t mention it. Obsessed.
@Robert
Right, right — the use of the phrase “urban kids from poor backgrounds” in response to the posted photo was in no way related to race. I lament the hyperbolic invocation of supposed ‘dog-whistles’ by a left-leaning media as much as anyone, but that doesn’t require total suspension of one’s critical faculties.
Yes Pani. I really hate it when leftists go on about class and hierarchy being inevitable and natural.
It’s been clear for a long time that this website attracts a certain breed of far right elitist, whether Burkean or Trumpian. Christian’s wooden “I can’t control the comments section” spiel is insulting. Just own your actions instead of equivocating like a coward. If you actually don’t want the far right mucking around here, make them feel unwelcome.
@Joel
I did not say anything “racist” or “far right” and besides your buzzwords don’t have the purchase they used to.
It seems my comments provoked quite a lively and interesting discussion, giving us the opportunity to clarify our values and why we believe in them.
You’re the coward for pressuring Christian to crack down on comments just because you don’t have the constitution for them, you child.
Hey, I’m the lead in a long essay about the decline of the west!
http://dieworkwear.com/post/179187825819/today-is-the-best-time-in-fashion
Actually, I think we’ve been going downhill since 1700.
@Joel
@Robert
Indeed, how strange to be compelled so quickly to change tack, but censorship of the comments section is surely not desirable. And please, a Burkean ‘far right’? Who, on such a continuum, might occupy the moderate, or centre-right by your estimation? The term ‘far right’ connotes something dangerous and ugly (‘far’ — whether describing the right OR the left — invariably suggests *too* far, i.e beyond the pale), you do reasonable critique a grave disservice by lumping too much within this basket.
Weird, and this also posted yesterday, quoting a 2008 piece by me referencing “The Decline Of The West”:
https://theoldmoneybook.com/2018/10/19/the-lost-money-look-10-years-on/
@Robert
You’ve chosen the idiot’s defense in claiming your words were not racist. RBM described it perfectly above. And by continuing to deny the obvious, you’re essentially admitting that you are aware that your beliefs are repugnant to the vast majority of Americans. On top of all that, you tried to redirect the debate by calling someone what you plainly are: a coward.
@whiskeydent
Nice Freudian logic.
As long as you keep accusing me of racism I’ll keep asking for evidence.
@Robert
I have not used the word racist just like you didn’t use black. However, it’s clear what we both meant.
@whiskeydent
You used the word racist in your last post…
True. My mistake. I meant to write that I had not called you a racist. Your words were racist, however. I still have a shred of hope that you aren’t one.
Henry Contestwinner | October 19, 2018 at 3:20 pm |
Roger Sack, the older usage, which my mother the English teacher taught me, is “100% of students* at Row New York are graduated from high school….”
* A kid is a baby goat.
I am confident that my PQ (Pedantism Quotient) is nearly always the highest in the house!
I am in your debt ! As one who worries about the confusion between “which and that”
And notes with distress when the first “r” in February is omitted, I am pleased that my
fellow grammar vigilantes also appreciate Ivy clothing.
Joel,
On the contrary, most of the responses to the comment in question were disapproving of the seemingly racist language. Besides, I think it’s just as true to say that this website also attracts a particularly vociferous brand of liberal as well. 🙂
Pani – false equivalence, but that’s par for the course for this place.
RBM – Burke’s conception of an organic society is very similar to Mussolini’s conception of a corporate society. They are both extremely hierarchical, authoritarian and reactionary. I would place a neoclassical liberal on the center right.
Actually I think, aside from the curmudgeonly attitude toward clothing, people here are pretty thoughtful. A few extremists on both sides excepted, of course.
I would be shocked if an extreme leftist ever set foot in this place.
Censorship is never the answer. It’s a tyrant’s tactic. Everyone, regardless of how repugnant their statements might be, should have the right to speak.
Censorship is also a coward’s tactic. Fearing you can’t win the argument, you kill it instead.
Finally, this is CC’s blog. He can run it as he damn well pleases. We can visit or avoid blogs as we damn well please as well.
Far right nerds like Robert need to stop whining about censorship. Nobody is censoring him, especially here. If anything, Christian goes out of his way to censor reasonable anti-racist voices in the comments section.
At any rate, there are a bunch of places, such as Taki’s Mag, Vdare, etc, where the far right can go and complain about the poor and blacks and what not. Their freedom is not being impinged in the slightest. It’s a false victim mentality.
It was s not a question of censorship, it’s a question of appropriateness and context. I’m sure if someone posted on here every day screeching about how the Haute Bourgeoisie need to be sent to work camps, Christian would delete that shit.
Christian likes to pretend that he is some kind of free speech hero, but in reality he heavily encourages a certain kind of speech that is already very privileged – the point of view of the far right. If he wants to do that, that’s his right. But he should at least own it. He is supposed to be into “personal responsibility” after all.
“I’m sure if someone posted on here every day screeching about how the Haute Bourgeoisie need to be sent to work camps, Christian would delete that shit.”
@Joel is a troll. Be a bit more subtle next time :^)
“Christian goes out of his way to censor reasonable anti-racist voices in the comments section.”
What?
“I’m sure if someone posted on here every day screeching about how the Haute Bourgeoisie need to be sent to work camps, Christian would delete that shit.”
Encore.
As a vociferous liberal (love that tag) in the racism fights here, I have never been censored. I’ve also written some other things that ruffled conservative feathers, and I’d bet that CC has received PM’s calling for my banishment to some Berkeley hippie commune. But nothing has happened. As for this kerfuffle, CC let the debate rage on for days without even participating in the back and forth.
Or to put it another way, would a racist have posted the RB pics with the African-American kids in the first place? I kinda doubt it.
Joel, you obviously have some axe to grind with CC, and by all means you can pontificate all you want about him. However, do yourself and the readers a favor by employing a few facts and reasoning.
Now, I’ll stop defending CC, which, I’d also bet, besmirches his reputation within certain circles. Hasta later as we say down here.
@Joel
I think you mean a false victim eqivalence mentality.
Will
@Christian, Hey, I’m the lead in a long essay about the decline of the west! http://dieworkwear.com/post/179187825819/today-is-the-best-time-in-fashion Actually, I think we’ve been going downhill since 1700.
Now you’re the summary about how Prep may, just may, be experiencing yet another “revival.”
Whoops. Here’s the aforementioned article: https://putthison.com/can-ralph-lauren-bring-back-prep/
Yes, had just read that when you posted. And good for VEA to push back in the comments section of the Halloween post.
Joel, recognizing that class & hierarchy are inevitable, natural and desirable is the definition of right-wing, not far-right. Keep that in mind.