“The concept of ‘acting white’ and worries that African Americans are not pushing their children enough to focus on education have been long-standing concerns of Obama’s — he has mentioned them in several recent speeches — and issues that many prominent members of the community, mostly notably comedian Bill Cosby, have focused on in recent years,” via The Washington Post

Senator Barack Obama is right. “Acting white” anti-intellectualism isn’t the exclusive domain of African Americans. Growing up in Hawaii, there is a vibrant acting white anti-intellectual culture, except in Hawaii it is called “acting haole.” Either way, it keeps kids from “talking haole.” Speaking and writing — communicating — in standard English with a broad vocabulary and the ability to convey complex thoughts and concepts is de rigeur in order to become well-employed, successful, and upwardly-mobile in this and every other culture.

I have a set of books that my dad used to teach himself to lose his North Jersey accent. He took it upon himself to enunciate ever word, to explore language, to pronounce his t’s and r’s, and to make sure his spoken word was as neutral, as cohesive, and as comprehensible as humanly possible. My dad was tall, handsome, and white and even he knew that is was the cut of a man’s suit and the intelligence of his conversation and tone (including his regional dialect and accent, or lack thereof) that made the man. That being white wasn’t enough. That being tall and handsome wasn’t — isn’t — enough. He knew that he needed to act white and not act Jersey.

None of this is a race issue. None of this is a cultural issue. This is a class issue. Yes, there is, indeed, a class war, no matter what the main stream media is trying to sell. That said, the people who suffer are of course African American, Southern, poor, working-class, and under-employed.

Elita America has discovered something very powerful: we cannot judge on race, age, gender, or sexual preference, or family-of-origin, but we are still allow to make harsh judgment based on one’s inability to communicate, to be well-spoken, or to be competent on the job. One can still eschew based on education, based on training, and based on merit.

So, as long as minority-Americans and Southerners and the poor continue to show their roots through their mother tongue and their inability to speak in a businesslike manner, then there will never ever be a reason to ever reject someone based on volatile criteria such as blackness, femaleness, gayness, hispanicness, or whatnot — you can always just reject all of these same folks under the guise of “unqualified” or “inability to communicate” or “not representational of the company,” or some other euphemism for “you don’t speak or communicate in an appropriate manner.” Or, more accurately, “you sound ignorant.”

In Hawaii, Asian kids are called “bananas“ because they’re “white on the inside.”

I grew up bilingual: I was fluent both in Pidgin English and Haole, proper English. Most kids consider a point-of-pride not to — or be able to — speak English; of course, this was amazingly empowering on the schoolyard, but this doesn’t map to the boardroom.

Rejecting “whiteness” is the most self-destructive choice any boy or girl can make: we live in a bilingual America. Most whites I know in DC speak differently at work than they did growing up. Most have lost their southernness, I have lost all of my Hawaiian lilts and ticks.

Culturally eschewing East Coast whiteness and carrying anti-intellectualism as a badge of pride that not only corrupted my school yard but also my Island, my State, and my country. It isn’t just African Americans who are constantly being threatened by a plague of self-empowerment through anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism, and anti-East Coast enlightenment, it is America.

When America completely rejects intellectualism, learning, enlightenment, scholarship, fairness, justice, and rationalism — tearing down the master’s house — what will be left? What will be built up in its place?

What good will come of a country filled with (reverse-)racism, separatism, ignorance, mysticism, anti-intellectualism, sexism, bigotry, pride, fear, religiosity, and gross nationalism? We as a nation, we as a country, and we as a people will surely be corrupted from a cancer and that cancer will not be from without, it will be from within.

People ask me what I think about “full disclosure” and “blogger ethics.” My answer always is, there is no obligation for any blogger to follow the ethical standards of journalists or public officials. Bloggers are bloggers because of the true freedom of speech. Freedom of speech doesn’t demand truth. But, if bloggers want to keep the trust they’ve been given by their readers, then they had better be open, honest, authentic, and transparent.

That said, the trust relationship bloggers have built and enjoy with their readers is quite a powerful feedback. That relationship is the market force that keeps bloggers honest, not ethical standards or requirements. Ultimately, I demand rigorous reader discernment — caveat lector, let the reader beware — and do not suffer morons gladly.

Here are some previous articles that I have written about the topic:

Blogger Ethics Coverage:

The New York Times Code of Ethics is Mandatory for Journalists Not Bloggers

Caveat Emptor et Lector Repost

Bloggers Can Ignore Basic Journalism Ethics

Bloggers do not Aspire to be Journalists

Pay Per Post Coverage:

Vanity Advertising on PayPerPost is Addicting

Edelman Ethics Coverage:

In Defense of Edelman over Bribery Charges

Not a Bribe with Disclosure and Transparency

BL Ochman Gets the Vista Edelman AMD Bribery Scandal

I Think I May Have Jinxed Edelman PR

Andy Sernovitz of WOMMA Blames the Victims in Edelman Controversy

What I Would Have Done if I Were Edelman Me2Revolution

Paul Mooney on and the New York Times’ Silence about the Edelman Bribe

Microsoft Did Not Bribe Bloggers Reports Microsoft

Journalism Gods Agree with Me on The Bribe

“SKILLS AND INTERESTS: I know how to type fast and well, I know how uses Microsoft Word, how to use Powder Point, I know two languages English and Spanish, I like to read magazines, articles and book. I like to dance and listen to music.” Via Anon.

“WorkFriendly is a proxy that will reformat any web-page to look like a Word document, so that your snoopy boss and cow-orkers won’t catch you reading non-work-related sites.” It is actually very very cool and amazingly convincing. Via Boing Boing

There was an excellent column, again by Lucy Kellaway, in the FT this morning, Raunch culture is raising the temperature in the workplace.

“Successful women used to dress up as ersatz men. Those days are gone and some choose to show ample cleavage in the office. However, the new dress code is not clear,” writes Lucy Kellaway.

Long story short, where does professionalism in the workplace begin and end? When it comes to wardrobe, what is edgy, what is sexy, what is couture, and what is tacky, and what is the empowering breaking of old stereotypes of professional businesswomen as “dressing like men.”?

To Ms, Kellaway,

“replacing [the old stereotype] with the new one of woman as tacky footballer’s wife is no improvement.”

What do you, my gentle readers, think?

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Today is my last day as Technology Strategist at New Media Strategies. On Monday, I will be joining the interactive team at Edelman.

I am going to miss NMS like mad but look forward to all the exciting new opportunities at Edelman.

“Researchers have found that prolonged concentration on a difficult task actually switches off a person’s self awareness.” Via Metafilter and New Scientist

We American workers work some serious hours but we are well “behind South Korea, Japan and Australia.” Not China, luckily. Via ABC News

I created the Applied Blogging Workshop as a support blog, a syllabus site, and a library to support my blogging classes at the Writer’s Center. The blog might be for my students, but the slogan is, “Teaching Blogging to my Class, my Students and to You,” so I am trying to package it as a general “how to blog and why to blog” resource. I hope you enjoy ABW.

I just checked and I currently already have six students for my April 11th blogging and blog-writing strategy course, Blogs, Blogging and the Blogosphere, so there are only nine space left. Via Applied Blogging Workshop.

Check out the course outline for my previous class, Starting a Blog.

Our focus will not be technical (how to set up a blog) so much as strategic and tactical (how to effectively leverage your blog to influence world opinion).

Marketing strategies, word-of-mouth marketing strategies, search engine strategies, and simple and effective (read powerful) tactics you can use the very next day to turn your passions, your business, your art, your interests, and your words into an influencial part of the first global conversation.

Blogs, and their effect on the blogosphere, are the first online medium that can “jump the tracks” from being just insulated “online discussion” to actually influencing not just the blogosphere but the mediasphere as well: main stream media, public affairs, politics, the academy, your community, and the real world, not just the “online world.”

Worldwide PR firms, marketing firms, law firms, lobbying firms, multinational corporations, associations, consulting firms, local governments, and federal governments are taking to blogs and the blogosphere in droves because they realize the power and true influence online conversations can and do have.

And since blogging has just about a zero barrier to entry (it can be absolutely free, short of your sweat equity), you need to start reading, writing, and influencing the conversation being had on blogs and in the blogosphere.

Be sure to sign up for Blogs, Blogging and the Blogosphere today and I look forward to training you up on April 11th between 7PM and 9:30PM. See you there.

Yes, I do work. I, in fact, have a Very Responsible and Important job.

On the days my workload is especially heavy, I really don’t blog. This is an example of such a day — an especially busy day. Good, hard, rewarding, and passionate work, all, but still hard and time-consuming!

When Dan featured me in Do What You Love: Hero 1 – Chris Abraham, I was both blissed and grateful.

Were it not for Pete Snyder, David Sherman, and New Media Strategies, I might still be searching. Really.

I discovered Apartment Keepers, my cleaning service, on Craigslist over a year ago and have been sane ever since.

As a Washington, DC, maid service, its fire and release.

I get the gang into my pad four-times-a-month, which is mostly weekly. They’re affordable, with my apartment working out to about $44.75-a-week.

They do a very good job and when I come home on Wednesday evening, my bed is made, the place is immaculate, and smells lightly of heaven.

One day while I was waiting for the Covad guy to come by and install my DSL I met the Apartment Keepers president, Daniel A. Simon. His Apartment Keepers is growing like stinkweeds.

He told me that the real missing piece in Washington is that young whippersnappers with loads of cash but no time end up wasting the time they do have with cleaning their pads and not using them as a place for recouperation and rest.

I am a mess and this indeeds keeps me sane. Although sometimes I do have a little bit of trouble mainting the place week-to-week, my Wednesday nights are indeed all about the R&R.

OCD packrats need not apply.

Oh, and the coolest thing is Daniel is all about the technology and it is possible to take care of the entire service sign up, all the follow-up, and everything short of getting them your house key, online.

We high-tech, a-type, over-earners and under players hate making phone calls and would just love to fire and release.

In the Apartment Keepers model, the housekeeping is a subscription service.

And I have to offer up this testimonial with glee. I just love it and it is indeed a permanent line-item in my budget.

MySpace is in the news.

Why? Because kids are short-sighted morons who do exactly what I will tell you not to do in by upcoming blogging workshops: leave your diary in your nightstand, offline.

Come visit my MySpace space: http://www.myspace.com/chrisabraham and my MySpace blog, http://blog.myspace.com/chrisabraham.

I joined forever ago but I have really done nothing with it and have no plans to reveal my innermost innermost, except for fun and out of a sense of mischeviousness.

Although I got a late start, I enjoyed visiting The Writer’s Center Open House last Saturday from 12-3 as an instructor.

Since I am a new instructor, I got to wear the official name tag.

People walked up and asked me questions. The name tag is awesome because you know how shy I am. A conversation starter.

There was wine and a table full of snacks. Also lots of writing course instructors, all of whom I don’t know and didn’t have the opportunity to meet; although, when I perused the list of instructors, I was very impressed…

I am really looking forward to my series of one-day workshops on blogging and the blogosphere:

Schedule of Classes for Blogging Workshops

A Blog of Your Own: How to Write Your World
Start Date: 2/28/2006
Meeting Day: Tuesday
Time: 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Instructor: CHRISTOPHER J ABRAHAM
Level: Intermediate
Venue: Arlington Arts Center
Description: Okay, you have a blog and consider yourself a blogger. The next step is how to build your prestige, your readership, and your reputation. This class will demystify process of taking your humble personal blog and developing it into a respected voice, an influential opinion leader, and a popular resource. Being brilliant, funny, insightful, and inspired is just the beginning, learn how to help your hungry audience find you.…more

Blogs, Blogging, and the Blogosphere: Influence World Culture from the Comfort of Your Writing Room
Start Date: 4/11/2006
Meeting Day: Tuesday
Time: 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM
Instructor: CHRISTOPHER J ABRAHAM
Level: All Levels
Venue: Arlington Arts Center
Description: Blogs are no longer just online personal diaries. Blogs and bloggers have become powerful influences in world culture. Blogs have uniquely been able to jump the rails into traditional media and bloggers are now routinely being quoted in the news and on television. This one-day class will explain why blogs have changed the balance of media power and how you can cheaply, easily, and powerfully take advantage of it. There has never been a time when it is so easy and possible to become part of a global conversation.…more

Starting a Blog of One’s Own
Start Date: 2/21/2006
Meeting Day: Tuesday
Time: 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Instructor: CHRISTOPHER J ABRAHAM
Level: Beginner
Venue: Arlington Arts Center
Description: Writing for online consumption is much different from writing for the page. Learn how to write for the Internet and the blogosphere in this one-day class focused on the unique and powerful way the blogosphere communicated and how you can best leverage your own personal passion, your own personal artistic voice, and your unique perception of the world into an online organ that very well could change the world.…more

Writing for online consumption is much different from writing for the page. Learn how to write for the Internet and the blogosphere in this one-day class focused on the unique and powerful way the blogosphere communicated and how you can best leverage your own personal passion, your own personal artistic voice, and your unique perception of the world into an online organ that very well could change the world.…more

Starting a Blog of One’s Own
Start Date: 2/21/2006
Meeting Day: Tuesday
Time: 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Instructor: CHRISTOPHER J ABRAHAM
Level: Beginner
Venue: Arlington Arts Center
Description: Writing for online consumption is much different from writing for the page. Learn how to write for the Internet and the blogosphere in this one-day class focused on the unique and powerful way the blogosphere communicated and how you can best leverage your own personal passion, your own personal artistic voice, and your unique perception of the world into an online organ that very well could change the world.…more

Blogs are no longer just online personal diaries. Blogs and bloggers have become powerful influences in world culture. Blogs have uniquely been able to jump the rails into traditional media and bloggers are now routinely being quoted in the news and on television. This one-day class will explain why blogs have changed the balance of media power and how you can cheaply, easily, and powerfully take advantage of it. There has never been a time when it is so easy and possible to become part of a global conversation.…more

Blogs, Blogging, and the Blogosphere: Influence World Culture from the Comfort of Your Writing Room
Start Date: 4/11/2006
Meeting Day: Tuesday
Time: 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM
Instructor: CHRISTOPHER J ABRAHAM
Level: All Levels
Venue: Arlington Arts Center
Description: Blogs are no longer just online personal diaries. Blogs and bloggers have become powerful influences in world culture. Blogs have uniquely been able to jump the rails into traditional media and bloggers are now routinely being quoted in the news and on television. This one-day class will explain why blogs have changed the balance of media power and how you can cheaply, easily, and powerfully take advantage of it. There has never been a time when it is so easy and possible to become part of a global conversation.…more

Okay, you have a blog and consider yourself a blogger. The next step is how to build your prestige, your readership, and your reputation. This class will demystify process of taking your humble personal blog and developing it into a respected voice, an influential opinion leader, and a popular resource. Being brilliant, funny, insightful, and inspired is just the beginning, learn how to help your hungry audience find you. …more

A Blog of Your Own: How to Write Your World
Start Date: 2/28/2006
Meeting Day: Tuesday
Time: 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Instructor: CHRISTOPHER J ABRAHAM
Level: Intermediate
Venue: Arlington Arts Center
Description: Okay, you have a blog and consider yourself a blogger. The next step is how to build your prestige, your readership, and your reputation. This class will demystify process of taking your humble personal blog and developing it into a respected voice, an influential opinion leader, and a popular resource. Being brilliant, funny, insightful, and inspired is just the beginning, learn how to help your hungry audience find you.…more

There are some important things to consider before you decide to use blogging — or any sort of online communication — as a way to convey your company’s brand and message. Before taking the plunge, you need an expert in blogging and online communication.

I have been participating in online virtual communities since I bought my first 300 baud modem back in 1983 and logged into my first Honolulu BBS. In the last 22-years, I have been a member of many different virtual communities, including discussion forums, USENET newsgroups, Wikis, and of course blogs.