My relatives are German. That's about as white as you get. But I would never try to come into a corporate environment speaking the way I do with my family, or dressing the way I do at home. I wouldn't come in with a crown of braids or the Heidi handlebars my mother used to put on me as a child and expect to be taken seriously. Maybe it's true that the codes of business have been pinned to a WASP ideal, but I always saw it as establishing a neutral generality so that there could be no differences keeping people apart the way that there is with ethnic dress and casual (private) preferences. I dress up in an outfit that I don't see as my own when I go to work, I see it as putting on a costume for a role. And while I may tell anecdotes about the colorful ways Germans celebrate holidays I don't bring them in with me to work (that would be messy). When I get home I take the costume off and dress in my real clothes, the clothes that are my personality and my style.

No matter how much I am sorely tempted to speak ill of people I don't like in the colloquialisms of Bavaria I don't do it because that would be unprofessional. I don't think that makes anyone oppressed, the loss of individuality at the door is the price of admission.

White people don't hang out at home with suits on, speaking corporate-speak to their children. Do you think that we do?

"I find it compellingly racist and inherently white-privileged based to imagine that "corporate" fashion could be anything but the definitive white and elite norm.

It concerns me that two readers stated that their corporate persona is incongruous with their true identities. Seems that alone should send red flags up your conscience matrix and tilt your reasoning alone." - know1uknow

Hey I can play this game too.....Your accusation is assuming two things that are pretty offensive right off the bat: that all whites are elite, and that all whites act like WASPs at home. While I agree that psychology has determined that a generic description like white is considered the dominant ethnicity in America and that assimilated whites benefit from it, I completely disagree that this means all whites consider corporate culture "theirs".

I'm certain that this isn't true for a lot of white people as "white" people come from a variety of different backgrounds, culturally and socioeconomically. Your dad may have dressed that way and spoke that way at home, but mine didn't.

White is not a homogeneous culture.

And why is "white" automatically elite? What about working class, or poor whites? Are they suddenly privileged? Do you think they wear suits at home and speak corporate-ese? I've got a stack of journal articles on my desk right now that strongly suggest otherwise. And what about historically oppressed ethnic groups like the Irish?

Also note, non-white Asians aren't mentioned anywhere by anyone. How do you think they feel about the WASP uniform?

Blacks and Latinos may think this is a conspiracy against them, as negative stereotypes truly are, but I don't think it is that simple. Its directed at all non-WASPs. Its about class and cultural superiority, not racial superiority. White people are often "covering" too.

Don't be so quick to call people racist.

I'm so tired of hearing people call women "females". You know what we call females? Female animals. In psychology, in biology, if you're calling something a female you're either making clear it isn't human or you're dehumanizing it with clinical-speak or because you're afraid of offending the GLBT crowd by reducing womanhood to biological fact.

It's just a little gripe, but whenever I hear someone refer to me or someone else as a "female" as if this is a term of respect I get mildly offended. It makes me feel like I'm in a box of hamsters or a zoo (we keep the females over here.....).

The nutcracker, the obsession with her hair..... The minute she responded to any of that crap, "dignified it with a response" the cliche goes... she would have been reduced to the caricature of the shrill feminazi. She would have lost credibility and been reduced to the level of her attackers.

By rising above all of this, consistently moving forward, and reviving advocacy of the best causes she has made all of her supporters proud.

Now if we could just forget that bankruptcy bill thing.....

YAY Wellesley! Women who WILL (become secretary of state)!