Having spent a lot of time on east coast campuses, I can honestly say I have almost nothing in common with preppie WASPs. Different culture, different social etiquette, different interests, different goals in life, different everything. Different sexual tastes even (every preppy WASP guy I know is into girls who look like Marnie from Girls and also like all their moms).
To quote Carter again, "to look like a preppy, to feel like a preppy, does
not mean one becomes a preppy, since the essence of being a preppy is being second generation middle class. A decision about the kind of education you are to receive which is taken in early adolescence, is a decision that is taken for you."
My upbringing includes a family of Soviet immigrants and Montreal's francophone public school system. People from expensive private schools in Massachusetts had completely different socialization from mine. Not better or worse or more or less privileged, but just completely different.
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