Here's a link to my short rant on how the use of the word "vibrant" to describe neighborhoods is bourgeois white people talk for "ethnic neighborhoods that most people like us disdain, but we think are cool." It was sparked by an editorial in my own newspaper describing as "vibrant" a part of town where blacks, whites, gays and Hispanics all live together. Apparently, when people of different ethnic backgrounds or sexual orientations exist in close residential proximity to each other, they begin to vibrate.
UPDATE:. Whaddaya know, I just checked the Stuff White People Like website to see if "vibrant" turned up, and it does, in the comments under the Gentrification entry. Excerpt:
White people like to live in these neighborhoods because they get credibility and respect from other white people for living in a more "authentic" neighborhood where they are exposed to "true culture" every day. So whenever their friends mention their home in the suburbs or richer urban area, these people can say "oh, it's so boring out there, so fake. In our neighborhood, things are just more real." This superiority is important as white people jockey for position in their circle of friends.
Precisely. White people who use the word "vibrant" to describe a piece of real estate on which ethnic or tattooed people live really want to make a statement about their own broad-mindedness or social progressivism (versus the supposed fear and closed-mindedness of suburban white people). This is why I'm so fascinated by the word. It's an elite white-people social marker, a sign that one-upsmanship is being attempted.
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Maybe people describe their neighborhoods as "vibrant" because there are a lot of things to do there, because neighbors might know each other, because there is exposure to different cultures and beliefs which some people find stimulating. What's wrong with that? I live in a neighborhood like that, and it makes me happy to walk down the street, see all kinds of people out walking and shopping (rather than driving miles to the closest mall), joke with the folks at the little coffee shop I prefer to frequent. I've lived out in the suburbs, and felt bored and stifled, with the biggest controversies being whose parking their car in the driveway instead of hidden in the garage, or who's lawn is 1/4 inch longer than the standard.
The neighborhood I live in has two supermarkets within a five-minute walk, terrific restaurants in virtually every price range, six or seven pubs, two comedy clubs (including the Second City complex), a movie theater, and a lot, lot more.
Every weekend during the summer and early fall, there are street festivals all over town where you can see national music acts for $5 or often for free. I saw BB King in early June...free. I'm seeing Alejandro Escovedo on Friday...free. I took my daughter to see her favorite band (Shearwater) at an all-ages show in an old mansion last week...$12 each.
That's what vibrant means.
If you LIKE being bored, don't let me stop you. But trying to turn it into some racist/bigoted diatribe over the use of a common English word is just, um, SILLY.
Awwww, Rod... You know, some of us really, honestly do like living in neighborhoods with a varied ethnic and demographic mix. You really shouldn't assume that we're engaged in a massive campaign to make you feel guilty.
If you really wish to reside far, far away from creepy queers and those of, um, dusky hue... that's your call, mon ami. But really, now -- do you truly think that people intentionally choose to live in diverse neighborhoods as a sort of cultural one-upsmanship? Kind of an extreme approach to scoring PC points, I'd say...
Steve Sailer's blog, Sunday, June 29...Rod, he was ripping it a day ahead of you...of course, you were on vacation.
Here's an editorial from the Dallas Morning News that I swear I'm not making up:
Editorial: So much vibrancy to build on
The trick is getting diverse groups to building [sic] a community together...
Ouch.
Sailer also hit this back in 2005: http://isteve.blogspot.com/2005/05/vibrant-cant
Have you noticed that whenever some writer uses the words "vibrant" or "vibrancy" he is almost guaranteed to be yanking your chain? It's just like how for so many years the phrase "in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate" always preceded utter bilge.
"The trick is getting diverse groups to building [sic] a community together..."
Not a trick -- maybe a challenge, one that many people embrace and are successful at doing. That's what makes the communities "vibrant". Also, these are neighborhoods that people from the suburbs go to shop and dine and hear music, because, you know, they're nice places to do those things.
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