I call bullshit on the whole thing! Academics acting out academia

I was a member of an audience that attended a lecture and panel discussion around the term vernac in all its various linguistic forms. I was amped to hear what the academic fraternity had to say about the term vernac set in 2014's South Africa. I was looking forward to some highly inflamed linguistic debates and a few; " Im sorry but I have to disagree with you" rebuttals.

I pictured tweed jackets flying and wine bottles catching white meat. Just pure academic epic_ness served alongside a delicious cheese board with crackers.

But no such luck I'm afraid.

I guess the veteran academics with paid dues seem to still be playing with a boring deck of 90's black and white race cards. The whole thing was an exercise in regurgitation with a touch of political correctness: talking about vernacular as a black predisposition and a product of colonial othering. The veterans were basically touching base with a conversation they had about 20 years ago when I was 3 years old.

And the only thing I could think of to explain this replay session lies within this academic tradition that relies on old white male theorist for definitions and models that have no bearing in contemporary culture. Its like 'trynna' squeeze garish,  victorian antique furniture inside the gautrain.

Why are we still indebted to dead white male intellectuals for legitimacy though?; its so frustrating. Instead of the veterans navigating the term vernacular on their own terms we were told what so and so and such and such proclaimed with his quill pen,  and I think the Oxford dictionery also scored a mention somewhere in there.

But anyway as I was playing diligent audience member: notebook and pen in hand. I came to a unsettling realization that kind of threw me off my note taking game. I was like uh you know what, actually academia is a big performance art piece. Academics are just, perfomace artists reciting from theoretical script. And the name of the play is called NAME DROPPING:  i.e. how many european theorist + steve biko can an academic drop in conversation to sound like they know shit about shit.

So I called bullshit on the whole thing!  Because it dawned on me that like all human beings academics are just figuring it out as they go. The only way to gain or claim legitimacy within the academic fraternity is to learn the name dropping script. The snobbery of those dead white males has some how reproduced itself among the academic elite in my time and to gain entry into this clique outliers have to read this white script and name drop it like its hot!   But I have to say I appreciate the audacity of academics to claim knowledge on something...to research and claim articulation rights on a given subject in histories timeline takes nerve and should be recognised as noble and courageous act much like a teenage girl who decides to keep it . I reckon that therein lies the glory of being an academic.

Im not deterred by my revelation instead I'm more interested in academia and more hopeful as I lie in wait for flying tweed jackets and skull breaking wine bottles.