Everybody is unduly critical of Southerners. The stereotype is that we’re inbred ignorant hillbillies.
That’s ok with me, it’s getting crowded enough around here already!
Funny how so many presidents come from the South though…
Southern - Yes, without a shadow of a doubt. Just see the SC thread Zsofia is talking about.
Of course, the fact that they are all moving down here makes most of it ring hollow.
Not from the South, and no, not that I’ve noticed.
A good point was raised earlier, though: your location isn’t enough to determine whether you perceive bias. It matters what threads you read.
I don’t read threads about the Confederate Flag, or “should I move to South Carolina,” or that kind of thing. In the threads I read the anti-Christian sentiment is much more palpable and pervasive.
From a further north perspective…
…no, not particularly, not anymore than they are critical of republicans, or conservatives, or Christianity, or…hey…waitaminit, maybe there is something to this after all…
I am from SC and GA.
I don’t think that this message board is particularly hostile toward the south or southerners. A few posters might be, but in general no.
It’s not uncommon for people to be a little thin skinned about their region and southerners are no different. I have posted critical things about the Midwest, which illicit a bunch of wailing from Midwesterners.
I am not thin skinned!
My only criticism of the South is pretty well captured in this post:
The South is rising, and has been for years. NASCAR is expanding west and north, and their every race is televised. On a cross-country trip a few years ago, there were places where I could only get country music on the radio. Three of the last five presidents were southerners (four if you count Bush the Elder as a texan), and several of the candidates who ran for the nominations this year. South Carolina has one of the key early primaries. The Blue Collar Comedy Tour has spawned three movies, a TV series, and a satellite radio channel. I met someone in Germany who had been to the U.S. once, to Atlanta, and he told me liked how “typically american” it was.
The demise of one flour company notwithstanding, the South is getting stronger and more influential. So, please, don’t take over the country and then tell me that no one respects you.
Not Southern. No.
To be more explicit, SDMB posters as a group are not any more critical of the South than US society is in general.
My family is pretty thoroughly Southern, and while I spent only a small portion of my formative years in the South, I think of myself as Southern by choice.
Does the South get unfairly dumped on here in this board? For the most part, I’d say no. A lot of Southern culture is based on rural values that have been objects of ridicule by more sophisticated urbanites for as long as there have been cities. It’s just human nature.
28 years in Georgia.
Not ‘unduly’ critical. Although I’ll stand right up and defend the place against criticism, it’s easy to look around and wonder why.
Of course, I don’t want to live up north, either.
Dixiephrenia (2nd definition).
Maybe. I tend not to notice these things. If you’re slagging off an entire region of the country, whether it be the South, Midwest, New England… you’re an idiot.
Non-Southerner but a England-raised Texan who’s spent time in the South.
Nice one. I’ll certainly state that the south isn’t just one big racist backwoods oddly educated amalgam, but then the person next to me opens their mouth and I wonder…
Yes. Completely agree. And I’m from the South AND Florida (yes, the Southern part of Florida–not the South/Latina part of Florida)!
Not Southern, but I do think a few of you are too sensitive. NJ has been the butt of jokes forever, even by Cecil. We don’t take offense. Hell, I even embraced it in my user name.
Where NJ/NY or Cleveland, Pittsburgh or Buffalo laugh with the jokes, it seems like a few southerners, including the Op take offense. I like you Sampiro, but I think this is true.
I might correct some misconceptions about New Jersey, but I don’t go into long arguments about the state.
I also can’t figure out some of the Southern still seem to take personal offense over the civil war.
Does what I wrote make sense at all or am I still missing some big part of the picture?
Jim
Sorry for the slight thread hijack, but I think that this might be an interesting sociological data point. From the perspective of a Spaniard who has seen quite a bit of the world and has visited the US many times… If my opinion can be of any value, I’d say that, from a foreign perspective, many perceptions of what “the United States” are are coloured through the filter of Southern culture.
I have visited the four corners of the continental U.S. (almost literally: Boston, Seattle, San Diego and Florida), and I have been to the North-East, the Midwest, Utah, Texas and (several times) to rural Georgia. Plus many other places I am not going to mention now. I do not claim to know the diverse US cultures in depth, but I have seen quite a bit of them.
In my opinion (and this is just my personal opinion), when someone abroad thinks of what an American “is”, the image that comes into their mind is closest to what an American would characterize as a Southerner. Re: The post by Robot Arm earlier:
I guess that if Southerners feel irked because they perceive that they are somehow put down by the rest of their country, they might take comfort in knowing that they are possibly THE image of the U.S. for the rest of the world.
(Of course, that means that then they will be put under the generic “Yankee” category, which over here applies to the whole of the U.S. Sorry 'bout that!)
Just my 2 eurocent!
Not Southern. No opinion about the Dope, but I will point out that whenever there’s a Southerner on Law & Order, that person turns out to be the killer.
Poking fun is no problem. References to “Neck-CAR” instead of “NASCAR”, or to gunracks on the backs of pick-up trucks or whatever … that’s all good, IMHO.
What rankles worst – and this is not common on the SDMB, mind you – are the blanket accusations of overt racism. That’s the elephant in the room here. Call us backwards – eh, whatever. But call us all racists? That’s out of bounds.
I’m only offended when I notice things said about my group in a negative light, and feel perfectly free to ignore slurs made on other groups to which I don’t belong. 
So, being a Southerner, of course this place is unduly critical of us. I’m surprised the question even has to be asked. 
Well, yeah. Glance at any demographic map and you’ll see the highest concentration of black Americans live in the South: then, not in order, New York, LA, Detroit, Chicago. Saying all Southerners must be white racists is just nonsensical.