Happy New Year’s Eve to everyone.
If you’re like me, it’s that time of year for RDU round trip Ubers, time to deal with the fatal notification “It’s busy, fares are much higher than usual “, then to the ridiculous prices of drinks on board Breeze Airways. . You might be consumed with the idea of finals or writing a script about how to deal with the incessant conspiracy theories your great uncle spouted at Thanksgiving that will inevitably be recycled come December. (Family vacations in the wake of a highly polarized election are not for the weak, my friends.) May I draw your attention to a much less imminent investigation? What do you wear to the airport?
Many of you favor Duke products, and that’s only natural. It’s generally quite comfortable (sweaty) and people have been wearing college stuff since its invention. Even before that, they probably carried some form of merchandise, perhaps a cute lapel pin or something analogously fashionable for the 1800s. So it’s no big deal if you do, except that you risk d be accused of pernicious propagation of classism.
There aren’t many outright accusations surrounding this issue, except as a comment: the hyper-specific topic of Duke merchandise at the airport appears to appear on the Duke server of the social media app Fizz at occasional and infallible intervals. A quick search uncovers posts such as a meme stating “I’M BETTER THAN YOU AND YOU KNOW IT”, captioned “I’m wearing my Duke products to the airport” and the question “Who will wear Duke products to the airport” airport for flex” adorned with 1.9k positive votes. It’s unclear whether these posts are mocking people who wear Duke products or are more self-satirical. What is certain is that in the minds of many, wearing Duke products to the airport is a conscious choice.
The apparent motivation is to perform a subtly classic flex, showing others that you are not in the Triangle for some reason; you are a Duke student and part of a special group with a special place in North Carolina. While this is not pure classism, it may be a desire for intellectual superiority over other young travelers who may attend lower-ranked schools. Or maybe it’s just because Duke products are comfortable to travel with. Still, I’m not entirely convinced it’s that simple, nor are the 1.9k students who voted for this Fizz post. There is some agreement that there is a positive correlation between wearing Duke products and bending.
I decided to buy real reviews (i.e. not Fizz). A sophomore believed that students wore Duke merchandise to the airport because it was a statement that they associated themselves with Duke over other “lesser” universities in the area. For her, it’s a way to show that they are in Durham specifically for Duke. It is a method of proving that you are “better” than others; it’s a question of status.
Another second-year student argued that it wasn’t that deep. She said she would wear Duke products to the airport simply because most of her sweatshirts are Duke products. She also mentioned that carrying cargo helps identify other Duke students with whom Uber will share her return to campus — even though she only did it once.
It’s not like you have to be a Duke student to wear Duke products. However, wearing it in a public place like the airport can be the most visible way to communicate your status, without showing your student ID to travelers. A main source of plausible deniability is that you might just be a Duke fan, as many people, especially in the Triangle, like Duke teams without associating with the university itself.
Tangentially, I spoke with a professor who had a similar discussion with his class and indicated that they agreed that anyone could technically wear Duke products, which is not the case for Harvard products. He didn’t explain why they made this distinction, but it’s clear it concerns Duke Sports. It is completely rational to be a Duke (basketball) fan from any location or station in the country; it’s a legendary program. It’s not the same for Harvard teams. (Sorry if you’re a Harvard sports fan, but I just don’t believe you.)
Duke products exist in a strange, semi-contradictory gray area. Most of us agree that anyone with an ounce of Duke fandom can wear it, but we simultaneously believe that by wearing it we are communicating our status as a member of this privileged student class. In a sense, we are playing the role of an extraordinary person on a very public stage and hoping that our observers will believe our act. We try to differentiate ourselves from charlatans and impostors who are only there for our basketball team and to whom this special status is inaccessible. It may be a subtle tendency toward classism, and if not strictly economic classism, at least social or intellectual classism. However, the bottom line is that this classism must appear authentic. We hope that others will believe that we earned the role of a Duke student and didn’t just buy it. The merchandise is a powerful uniform if worn convincingly.
There’s nothing wrong with admitting that we enjoy the increased status that being a student at Duke gives us. In our greatest innocence, we express our pride in belonging to a meaningful community and receiving a transformative education. However, we must be wary of the hostile classism that can infiltrate this pride. The fight against socioeconomic inequality begins when we question what small choices – like wearing Duke products – mean to us and think about the deeper motivations at play. We don’t need to become neurotic about about such myopic things, but, hey, you’ll need something to think about to distract you from the conversation when your cousin is complaining about all the women turning to celibacy in the wake of Trump’s victory.
Cara Eaton is a sophomore at Trinity.
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