# Newsflash: The Deep South Still Backward, Ignorant, Racist **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 11, 2008, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191 "2008-11-11T15:31:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/101 "2008-11-12T04:30:54Z")
I’m not racist. I hate everyone equally. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/102 "2008-11-12T04:35:58Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I don’t think this is true, I’ve asked something very close to that and the RCC Priest in question did not explain it that way and said it was a spiritual change and not a physical change. I don’t know what percentage of RCC Priests would answer it as you just did, but I would guess that it is a small percentage. Remember the RCC does accept evolution and even forgave Galileo. Paging **Polycarp**! My understanding is that the bread and wine changes fundamentally into flesh and blood – quite literally. Its fundament changes, but the outside stays the same. Using any chemical test, no observable change has occurred, because it is the _spirit_ of the substance that has become [del]organic[/del] err, human tissue. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/103 "2008-11-12T05:43:03Z")
> [@Merkwurdigliebe](#): > > Don’t fool yourself into think that actual Southerners are changing; they’re not. It’s just that the South is getting diluted by Northerners. I don’t know how long you’ve been gone (didn’t think it was so very long ago) but I take exception to this. Every generation is more progressive than the last - perhaps after you’ve lived a little longer you’ll realize that. (Not a slam of your age, just pointing out the fact). If Southerners hadn’t been changing all along, we’d still be going to segregated schools and electing only white officials. As to the OP - certainly Mississippi and the rest of the South have a long row to hoe. Many of our problems stem from being a poor state and having had a pitiful education system for years. I used to get pissed that folks don’t give us credit for the hard work going on here, but I don’t really give a shit anymore. We are moving in the right direction and working together we’re gonna get there. > [@](#): > > Mississippi has been one of the more innovative states in the country, having been the first state to implement a sales tax and the first state to pass a Married Women’s Property Act. Also, **Mississippi has elected more African-American officials than any other state in the United States**. Mississippi is one of only a few states to have decriminalized the possession of marijuana, so that possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana is punishable only by a fine of $100 - $250 for the first offense with no jail time. (my emphasis) Is that progressive enough for you? More AA officials than ANY other state? From [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi#Law_and_government). Trivia: > [@](#): > > Dr. James D. Hardy performed the \*\*world’s first lung transplant \*\*in 1963 at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Dr. James D. Hardy also performed the \*\*world’s first heart transplant \*\*on January 23, 1964 . > > Burnita Shelton Mathews of Hazelhurst was the \*\*first woman in the U.S. to serve as a federal judge \*\*(served in in Washington D.C.). > > Mrs. Mamie Thomas was the **first female rural mail carrier in the United Sta** tes. She delivered mail by buggy to the area southeast of Vicksburg in 1914. > > Dr. A. H. McCoy was a dentist and business leader who was the **first black man to have a federal building named after him**. The McCoy Federal Building is located in Jackson , Mississippi . > > Mississippi was the \*\*first state in the nation to have a planned system of junior colleges. \*\* > > Mississippi University for Women in Columbus was the **first state college for women in the country** , established in 1884. > > In 1839 the Mississippi Legislature passed one of the **first laws to protect the property rights of married women**. > > Mississippi was the **first state to outlaw imprisonment of debtors**. > > The **first Parent-Teacher Association (PTA)** was founded in Crystal Springs. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/104 "2008-11-12T06:24:04Z")
A bit off-course and more MPSIMS, but somewhat apropos to the discussion and not worth it’s own thread is[this article](http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/03/wallace.kennedy.obama/index.html) by Peggy Wallace Kennedy, the daughter of Alabama governors George and Lurleen Wallace. In response to a lady who told her (at her parents’ vandalized graves) that “your daddy must be spinning in his grave” over a black man in the White House, Ms. Kennedy (an Obama supporter) responds: > [@](#): > > And today, the day after the election, I am going to ride to the cemetery so that if asked, I can vouch for the fact that the world is still spinning but my father lies at peace. Though a red state, Alabama is divided down the middle by a blue band that runs the state from West to East (or vice versa), and joined this time Jefferson County (Birmingham, the biggest city in the state) as well. You can see the blue strip [on here](http://www.three-peaks.net/election_map_county_2000.gif) even in 2000. That the state went to McCain was no surprise at all, but the most pleasant surprise was that District 2 in which I live went Democratic- by the skin of our teeth- (1,700 votes of 286,000+ cast) for the first time since MLK was alive, replacing the retiring Terry “I hope the Starr Report doesn’t go on the Internet cause it would violate Alabama’s pornography laws” Everett with Montgomery mayor Bobby Bright rather than his ULTRA conservative Christian Right Republican opponent Jay Love. Love was actually legally entitled to a recount but declined. So, where we were 5 Republicans and 2 Democrats in our representation we are now 4 Reps to 3 Dems. We _are_ gaining (and in Love’s defeat we avoided a Daily Show star). One of our Democratic Reps is Artur Davis, the first Representative outside of Illinois to endorse Obama as president. Not surprising perhaps when one considers that Davis was friends with Obama at Harvard. His name receives a lot of whispers as a possible Cabinet appointee. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/105 "2008-11-12T08:23:43Z")
From the Times article: > [@](#): > > By leaving the mainstream so decisively, the Deep South and Appalachia will no longer be able to dictate that winning Democrats have Southern accents or adhere to conservative policies on issues like welfare and tax policy, experts say. The last Democrat President with an accent was Kennedy. > [@](#): > > **MichaelQReilly** Well, this is the Pit, I was deliberately over the top and offensive. Look I know there are a lot of decent people in the south and that there are neanderthalic racists everywhere. What I have a continuing issue with is the clannish, insular, ostentasiously religious, holier than thou, anti-anyone different than me, good old boy culture that has had way too much influence over the South for pretty much its whole history. Sounds like you have a bad case of peanuts envy. > [@](#): > > **Merkwurdigliebe** : Yet the average Southerner’s answer to such problems would be… There are no average Southerners except for maybe **Sampiro** and **Colbert** > [@](#): > > **MichaelQReilly** : Well, I also went on to point out that those instances are quite different than the pervasive, institutionalized, and ongoing schemes seen in many places in the South, but then again you could have seen that had you read my response. Oh. You mean like the two hundred years of instituionalized slavery in New York. I live in a liberal environment in Tennessee. Metro Nashville-Davidson Country voted for Obama. We have approximately the same population as Denver. **MichaelQReilly** and **Merkwurdigliebel** , what have you personally done to improve race relations and make life better for people of color? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/106 "2008-11-12T11:29:45Z")
> [@Merkwurdigliebe](#): > > Don’t fool yourself into think that actual Southerners are changing; they’re not. It’s just that the South is getting diluted by Northerners. Doubtless it was our racism that attracted them. ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/107 "2008-11-12T12:06:14Z")
> [@maladroit](#): > > lots of bigots in the cities and small towns around here too (Flint, MI) > there’s a creditable rumor that there’s a strong kkk presence a bit west of here in the farm lands (don’t remember who told me or when but I had no trouble believing them fwiw) it’s more of a historical connection than a current one, if you’re talking about Howell. [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/23/national/23klan.html?\_r=1&oref=slogin](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/23/national/23klan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin) If you’d been there recently you would know that they had to move the klan out to make room for more outlet stores. ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/108 "2008-11-12T15:10:37Z")
> [@Merkwurdigliebe](#): > > Don’t fool yourself into think that actual Southerners are changing; they’re not. It’s just that the South is getting diluted by Northerners. That’s a pretty damn offensive statement. I personally know about a dozen native white Southerners who are actively engaged in anti-racist work, either on a professional or volunteer level. I hang out with a crowd that trends very liberal and very Southern. Are race relations in the South exactly where they ought to be? Hell, no. But they’re not exactly where they ought to be in any part of the country. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/109 "2008-11-12T15:12:31Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I’m just glad he didn’t link to Willie Herenton of Memphis. He’s like Fabulous Creature without the doomsday machines: pure, unblinking, ostrich-raping evil. Don’t forget [Frank!!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Melton) That is a serious nut, there. > [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](#): > > If anyone has a credible reason why the Republican vote surged in this area and in no other part of America, well go ahead. Because they like the Republican platform? Want to date Sarah Palin? 😛 > [@](#): > > Nevertheless, the map is disturbing. I think I’m missing your point here. What is disturbing about it? (Not snark, I’m actually trying to figure this out). Surely you don’t mean that a Republican vote automatically equals a racist vote? Can’t people vote Republican and not be racist? Some of my best friends are Republicans. 😉 Another thing about this kind of thread. What about the black folks? When you say Mississippians are racist and backwards you are labeling the almost-half-the-population who are black. Are they ignorant and backwards too? Guilt by association perhaps? That’s a pet peeve of mine. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/110 "2008-11-12T15:14:09Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > The last Democrat President with an accent was Kennedy. What, was Clinton just pretending to be a Democratic President? ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/111 "2008-11-12T15:19:33Z")
Well, we can do you racist and backward without the ignorant, and we can do you racist and ignorant without the backward, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can’t give you backward and ignorant without the racist. Racist is compulsory. They’re all racist, you see. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/112 "2008-11-12T15:20:45Z")
As a native Georgian on both sides of my family, I find I have very little problem with the OP’s statement. There are a lot of decent people in Georgia, but there are a hell of a lot more of the other kind. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/113 "2008-11-12T15:24:16Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > There are a lot of decent people in Georgia, but there are a hell of a lot more of the other kind. Naked? ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/114 "2008-11-12T15:24:53Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > Because they like the Republican platform? Want to date Sarah Palin? 😛 > > I think I’m missing your point here. What is disturbing about it? (Not snark, I’m actually trying to figure this out). Surely you don’t mean that a Republican vote automatically equals a racist vote? Can’t people vote Republican and not be racist? Some of my best friends are Republicans. 😉 For about the tenth time, why was it _only_ the South and Appalachia that voted the way they did? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/115 "2008-11-12T15:27:03Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > I have read that the KKK is strongest in those bastions of the Confederacy, Ohio and Pennsylvania. My experience growing up in the Midwest leads me to conclude this is probably true. I think the racism of the Midwest is often underestimated. Sometimes I wonder if the vilification of the South for being racist is misplaced. I haven’t spent much time in the South, but they’d have to be pretty racist to top a state like Michigan or Ohio. The village I grew up in was notorious for its racism. In the 70s they burned a black family out of their home. Only as recently as last year someone burned a cross on the lawn of a family in Muncie, Indiana. When I came to the East Coast, I asked a new friend, ‘‘Do you guys have a lot of racism here?’’ I only asked because I noticed people from all different cultures talking to one another and interacting as if it was no big thing. That kind of inclusiveness was common at my liberal University of Michigan, but certainly not in the little towns I grew up in over the years. My friend seemed taken aback. ‘‘I don’t know how I could know that, since you wouldn’t notice racism unless you were a minority.’’ Um, yeah, you would. It’s pretty explicit where I came from. I’m not deluded about the realities of racial and ethnic inequality here on the coast, particularly in the urban areas. All I’m saying is suburban New Jersey seems a whole hell of a lot different than suburban Michigan. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/116 "2008-11-12T15:36:27Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > I’m not deluded about the realities of racial and ethnic inequality here on the coast, particularly in the urban areas. All I’m saying is suburban New Jersey seems a whole hell of a lot different than suburban Michigan. I agree with this and I grew up in suburban New Jersey and still live in it. I’m wondering though, have you seen what I was talking about yet with the way these same enlightened folk talk about Middle-Easterners and Indians? It is not terrible, but people that truly have nearly no prejudice towards Blacks, Jews, Hispanics and far Eastern Asians seem casual in racist talk to Middle-Eastern and Indian immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/117 "2008-11-12T15:40:55Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I agree with this and I grew up in suburban New Jersey and still live in it. I’m wondering though, have you seen what I was talking about yet with the way these same enlightened folk talk about Middle-Easterners and Indians? > > It is not terrible, but people that truly have nearly no prejudice towards Blacks, Jews, Hispanics and far Eastern Asians seem casual in racist talk to Middle-Eastern and Indian immigrants. I haven’t seen that yet. There’s a train stop about 20 minutes from here called Metropark and it seems like there are a LOT of Indians in that community who commute. I wonder if that might have a tempering effect on the anti-Indian attitude in this particular area of New Jersey. ETA: I see Metropark is the name of the stop in Woodbridge Township, not actually a town in and of itself. [QUOTE=wiki] As of the 2000 census, 9.19% of Woodbridge Township’s residents identified themselves as being of Indian American ancestry, which was the tenth highest of any municipality in the United States and the fifth highest in New Jersey — behind Edison (17.75%), Plainsboro Township (16.97%), Piscataway Township (12.49%) and South Brunswick Township (10.48%) — of all places with 1,000 or more residents identifying their ancestry.[9] [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/118 "2008-11-12T15:48:04Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > For about the tenth time, why was it _only_ the South and Appalachia that voted the way they did? Sorry to have missed the previous ten times. My first thought is: do we really expect the entire country to vote the same way? Why is it surprising that some places vote one way or the other? I must still be missing something. Are you saying that each county should have had a similar percentage to what the overall country had? So then the question is “why, in some areas of the country, do white voters overwhelmingly vote Republican”. Yes? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/119 "2008-11-12T15:48:37Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > What, was Clinton just pretending to be a Democratic President? Well, let’s see now…Clinton, Carter, Johnson…nope, none of those guys had accents as far as I can tell. That Kennedy, though, I could hardly understand what he was saying. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191/120 "2008-11-12T15:52:24Z")
Now for my next dumb question: is this data (specifically thinking of **mhendo** ’s post) from exit polls or what? I’m not doubting it, it seems reasonable to me. Just curious. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsflash-the-deep-south-still-backward-ignorant-racist/472191.md?page=7)