Do You Know Any Reverse Snobs?

gonala.com’s seersucker fabric image

Reverse snobbery.

Can you think of an example?

How about seersucker?  Yes, I’m referring to the fabric.

According to Wikipedia, the summertime fabric, seersucker, long associated with the South, is an example of a reverse snob.  The seersucker definition on the site includes this description:

“The fabric was originally worn by the poor in the U.S. until preppy undergraduate students began wearing it in the 1920s in an air of reverse snobbery.  Damon Runyon wrote that his new habit for wearing seersucker was ‘causing much confusion among my friends. They cannot decide whether I am broke or just setting a new vogue.’”

Besides seersucker, do you know of any individuals who you would consider to be reverse snobs?

According to dictionary.com, a reverse snob is “a person overly proud of being one of or sympathetic to the common people, and who denigrates or shuns those of superior ability, education, social standing, etc.”

How about three-time U.S. President William Jennings Bryan?  According to Wikipedia, Bryan was called “The Great Commoner,” because he held faith in the wisdom of common people.

I know of one man who can be called a reverse snob.  Who is that person?

I’m talking about a man who served as a defense attorney for nearly 30 years, gladly representing many of the common people in eastern N.C.

I’m talking about a man who reminded me when I first met high-ranking executives at companies like IBM and Microsoft 20 years ago, “remember, they put on their pants in the morning the same way that you do – one leg at a time.”

I’m talking about a man who, as a N.C. district court judge, fairly upheld the laws of the state of N.C. while supporting the rights of women, children and victims.

On this Father’s Day 2013, I’m referring to someone who is a true Southern gentlemen and a personal hero of mine — my father, Tyson Yates Dobson, Jr.

Ironically, I’ve never seen my Daddy wearing seersucker, though I think he has an old seersucker suit somewhere in his closet.  I am 100 percent sure, however, that reverse snobbery is in his wardrobe.