Hmmm. Odd thing is, I, a person of many races was very suprised and even shocked at how overwhelmingly polite everyone was, when I took a road trip throught Texas and Louisana. Odd.
Although I do think the south is fine, it’s some southeners which are problems to me. I know a few who proudly display confederate flags on their living room walls, and joke about the “south will rise again!” drivel, and think that Robert E. Lee was the most wonderful christian man of all time.
These people do not realise my race(s), but when called out simply said- I won’t apologise for being a proud southerner. Name me another region of the US full of proud ____. I’ve never heard of proud northerner, or proud westerner. Although I have heard proud American.
Well, I can’t imagine anyone will read this after 5 pages, but I’ve spent a lot of time in Texas (unfortunately, nowhere else in the South), grew up in Northern California, and the most racist place I’ve ever been was Western Michigan (Grand Rapids area).
I couldn’t believe the racist comments coming out of 80-year-old grandmas and the like. I’d never heard ANYONE use the n-word in polite company until I spent a week there. I couldn’t believe my ears.
I would just like to note, for the record, that I met as many people with interesting views on … well, me, minorities, etc. at GMU as I have so far here in The South. Perhaps that is because I manage to somehow steer clear of them, or the fact that most of my non-online socialization is done at college, or because I tend to gravitate toward people I already know. I have yet to see someone openly witnessing on campus as was a regular occurrence at GMU. There are no minority student organizations here mainly because there are few minority students period. There is one religious group that advertises its meetings in a fairly innocent, nonexclusive manner. I have yet to hear (or rather, I don’t recall hearing) anything unmentionable at Wal-Mart or Goody’s or what have you.
I have no doubt that there are parts of the southern half of this country that are as the OP described. I would be very careful about ascribing to any region that sort of behavior or set of beliefs (especially if I had not been there yet) until I had experienced enough to know it was everyone, rather than one or two people who were very loud and obnoxious. And I say this in part because I had done that very thing; I came down here expecting to find spitoons on campus and slack jawed yokels talking about how the country’s morals have gone to hell because we’re not none of us god-fearing christians anymore (except for the speaker, of course). I have yet to find a standing spitoon, a loose jaw (except in the sense of gossip, which is a fact of life everywhere but a cemetary) or someone who says the country is off-kilter because of a lack of religion (and more than a few who blame religious rigidity with a few national problems).
If you are interested in how the culture of the South came to be; I suggest “The Mind of the South” by J.W. Cash.
If you want to point out the problems (As you see them) in Southern culture; well that’s ok as we have heard most of it before and if you don’t get loud and offensive, most Southerners will most likely listen politely.