I disagree. At least in appearance, both of these men are more culturally American than Eric. I will explain. 🧵

I disagree. At least in appearance, both of these men are more culturally American than Eric. I will explain. 🧵

Eric Daugherty@EricLDaugh · Oct 26, 2025

Shia Muslim Mehdi Hasan called me a Nazi for saying Zohran Mamdani should be deported. Mehdi Hasan is antithetical to America and should be deported too. Never apologize for wanting to preserve your culture. This is my nation. NOT yours.

In the 19th century, gentlemen wore black frock coats or tailcoats with a white shirt and dark waistcoat. As the frock coat gave way to the suit, the white linen shirt — a mark of respectability and propriety — remained.

For much of the 20th century, this was the standard uniform of the American male that sat at any social station above blue collar. And even then, blue collar people often wore these clothes to churches and weddings.

Of course, there were exceptions. Brooks Brothers, the premier US clothier of the time, sold oxford button-down shirts in a range of Easter egg colors. Miles Davis famously wore a pale green one on the cover of his 1958 album Milestones. But you'll notice: all colors are light.

However, since the US is a diverse nation of immigrants from different lands, not everyone hewed to these cultural rules. For instance, Henry Hill was an American mobster whose family came from two places. His father came from Ireland; his mother from Sicily, Italy.

You prob know about him because the film Goodfellas is about his life. In one scene, Hill (played by Ray Liotta) wears a black dress shirt under a brown leather jacket. There's a reason for this: people from this social class often wore black dress shirts, even with suits

It's for this reason why Michael Anton — a Trump administration official who was on a menswear forum I once participated on — noted that black dress shirts "have always been considered both in bad taste and the mark of the lower, and even criminal, classes."

I agree with Anton that they were historically considered in bad taste, but only in the sociological sense that French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu once wrote about. They were in "bad taste" because "good taste" was set by the ruling class, who were White Anglo Saxon Protestants.

Since these people exerted cultural pressure downward through notions of "good taste" and "propriety," those socialized to "polite society" followed. That's why Bruce Boyer once noted that black dress shirts used to suggest you either owned or frequented seedy nightclubs.

Here we see Zohran Mamdani and Mehdhi Hasan wear white dress shirts with tailored jackets. It's unclear if Hasan is wearing a suit or a sport coat (the material could be either). If he's wearing a suit, I think he'd look better with a tie. But still ... light colored shirts. 👍

And here we see Eric Daugherty, whose family came from Ireland, wear a black dress shirt. If we take the narrow view of US identity, this would make Eric culturally foreign. If we are to accept a more inclusive view of US identity, then I suppose he's American.