# To all the ignorant people out there - stop making the South out to be some unique villain. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 2, 2015, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024 "2015-07-02T04:59:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/21 "2015-07-02T06:20:58Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > As a Southerner by upbringing and a long heritage, I have found it astounding how quickly the rest of the country has turned against the South once again based on the acts of a lone individual. Naah, wrong from the start - it’s the act of the individual _coupled with_ the insistence of Southerners that the whole Southern Heritage/Rebel Flag schtick is in no way related to racist acts. Which is so transparent I can see the Klan and the 6os anti-civil rights pushback right through it. The South is being vilified because some Southerners are in very vocal denial. Your post is my cite. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/22 "2015-07-02T06:22:19Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > I was talking about the Civil War division lines, not a line based on an old feud. Mason and Dixon were surveyors, not feuding family members. It’s hardly just some old line - it serves as the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/23 "2015-07-02T06:25:19Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Speaking as someone coming from 400 years of Southern lineage, I think it could best be called ‘not a smooth move’. I’m curious where in the South your family was 400 years ago. Jamestown was founded in 1607 but there wasn’t much else until some settlements in Georgia in the 1670’s and the Carolinas a couple of decades later. I can trace my heritage in the South back close to 300 years but I have to say 400 years is rare. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/24 "2015-07-02T06:31:06Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Sorry, I’m feeling a little nit-picky. All of the states joined the Union, Maryland and Kentucky didn’t join the attempt to secede, with an asterisk for Kentucky. Both Maryland and Kentucky were question marks regarding allegiance. Maryland was hardly a Union gimmee, and Kentucky was jeutral at the outset of the war. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/25 "2015-07-02T06:45:27Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I really don’t know what you mean by “upbringing and long heritage”. Did you ever live in the South? Yes, my paternal family that I got my last name from arrived at Jamestown in 1615 (well before the Mayflower). They made a very long and slow loop from Virginia towards the South and west over the next 246 years until the Civil War started. My great-x grandfather was drafted and injured. He decided that there was no way he was walking all the way back to Mississippi from Northwestern Louisiana with his foot half-shot off. He stayed there and married a field nurse that took care of him. I have an original picture of him on my kitchen wall. His son went on to found my family’s general store in 1902 in rural Louisiana that lasted until the 1980’s. That is the type of thing I take some family pride in. It really is just a sense of heritage just like Italian-Americans like to talk about the good things about Italy even if their family lived there under Mussolini. I grew up in the same small town in rural Louisiana and I still consider myself 100% Southern even though I left to attend Dartmouth in New Hampshire, got trapped by life circumstances and have lived in the Boston area for 20 years. That is one of the things that I disagree strongly with native New Englanders on. The South may have some racial problems but it is fairly well integrated in day to day life. New England and Boston in particular are not. It is the most segregated place that I have ever experienced. People love to talk about racial equality but it is mainly just intellectual and NIMBY. Few people live it. That is the reason that I don’t like to hear the unjust complaints. It sounds like hollow hypocrisy to me and I have lots of experience with other areas of the country. They are no better and often worse. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/26 "2015-07-02T06:52:33Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Both Maryland and Kentucky were question marks regarding allegiance. Maryland was hardly a Union gimmee, and Kentucky was jeutral at the outset of the war. No argument. Maryland was coerced, Kentucky didn’t make a decision but was considered a member of the Confederacy by the rest of the Confederate states. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/27 "2015-07-02T06:53:24Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Yes, my paternal family that I got my last name from arrived at Jamestown in 1615 (well before the Mayflower). They made a very long and slow loop from Virginia towards the South and west over the next 246 years until the Civil War started. My great-x grandfather was drafted and injured. He decided that there was no way he was walking all the way back to Mississippi from Northwestern Louisiana with his foot half-shot off. He stayed there and married a field nurse that took care of him. I have an original picture of him on my kitchen wall. His son went on to found my family’s general store in 1902 in rural Louisiana that lasted until the 1980’s. That is the type of thing I take some family pride in. It really is just a sense of heritage just like Italian-Americans like to talk about the good things about Italy even if their family lived there under Mussolini. So what? Everyone has ancestors that did important things. What does that have to do with the fact that if your name is Thomas you are twice as likely to get called in for a Job interview than if your name is Tyrone? Would you like that stats for that? So there are some really racist people in Boston. So what??? How does that make the people in a town in South Alabama, population 11,421 any less racist? Rural southern Alabama is pretty racist. Do we need stats? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/28 "2015-07-02T06:55:32Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > I’m curious where in the South your family was 400 years ago. Jamestown was founded in 1607 but there wasn’t much else until some settlements in Georgia in the 1670’s and the Carolinas a couple of decades later. I can trace my heritage in the South back close to 300 years but I have to say 400 years is rare. It was Jamestown. My last name is Pace. My ancestors there were Richard Pace the 1st and Isabelle Smythe, It is well documented on Wikipedia and other sites and always has been. All of my genealogy is if you want to see it. I went to the site of their plantation last year just across the James River from the colony itself and met with a historian that wanted to see our family records and show us some sites related to our family. It was extremely cool. That is another way the South gets the shaft. Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in the current day U.S. but forget about all of that. The South lost the Civil War so the major publishing houses based in the Northeast (Boston and New York primarily) had to come up with another founder myth. The Plymouth Colony was what they had to work with so they ran with it. That is the reason that schoolkids today learn all about the Mayflower and ‘the first Thanksgiving’ even though they are both bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/29 "2015-07-02T06:55:47Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > The South may have some racial problems but it is fairly well integrated in day to day life. New England and Boston in particular are not. It is the most segregated place that I have ever experienced. People love to talk about racial equality but it is mainly just intellectual and NIMBY. Few people live it. > > That is the reason that I don’t like to hear the unjust complaints. It sounds like hollow hypocrisy to me and I have lots of experience with other areas of the country. They are no better and often worse. Haley Barbour, is that you? Southerns always say this fucking bullshit. It’s just not true: > **[This Study Said the South Is More Racist Than the North](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/south-more-racist-north/)** > > But that didn't seem to matter on Tuesday, when the Supreme Court struck down a key part of the Voting Rights Act. So, not only are people disposed to be more racist in the south, there is much greater institutional and policy-based racism, along with the Confederate battle flag to boot. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/30 "2015-07-02T06:59:57Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > My last name is Pace. My ancestors there were Richard Pace the 1st and Isabelle Smythe, It is well documented on Wikipedia and other sites and always has been. All of my genealogy is if you want to see it. My last name is Adams. My ancestor was named Lucy. She was from Africa. From a long long long long time ago. It is very well documented on Wikipedia. All of my genealogy is, if you want to see it. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/31 "2015-07-02T07:00:09Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > The South may have some racial problems but it is fairly well integrated in day to day life. New England and Boston in particular are not. It is the most segregated place that I have ever experienced. You’ll have to explain that. I do not see either region as being more well integrated than the other. New England hypocrisy doesn’t make the south a better place. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/32 "2015-07-02T07:05:21Z")
> [@Robert163](#): > > So what? > > Everyone has ancestors that did important things. What does that have to do with the fact that if your name is Thomas you are twice as likely to get called in for a Job interview than if your name is Tyrone? Would you like that stats for that? So there are some really racist people in Boston. So what??? How does that make the people in a town in South Alabama, population 11,421 any less racist? Rural southern Alabama is pretty racist. Do we need stats? Take this personally because I mean it. I think you are among the dumbest and most disingenuous people to ever grace this board and that is saying a lot. None of your points make any sense in any post I have had the displeasure to stumble across. I would ask you to elaborate more but I won’t do that because I don’t ask schizophrenic people holding a nonsensical sign in the middle of a crowd to elaborate on the finer points of their thought-processes. Yes, there are racist people in Boston, New York, Chicago, Detroit AND rural southern Alabama. There are also very good people in all of those places. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/33 "2015-07-02T07:07:31Z")
I’m a Californian. I don’t hate you because you’re from the south. I hate you because you’re from the east. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/34 "2015-07-02T07:13:28Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Take this personally because I mean it. I think you are among the dumbest and most disingenuous people to ever grace this board and that is saying a lot. None of your points make any sense in any post I have had the displeasure to stumble across. I would ask you to elaborate more but I won’t do that because I don’t ask schizophrenic people holding a nonsensical sign in the middle of a crowd to elaborate on the finer points of their thought-processes. > > Yes, there are racist people in Boston, New York, Chicago, Detroit AND rural southern Alabama. There are also very good people in all of those places. So what you’re saying is Rural Southern Alabama is not a stinking racist cesspool… because … there are some racist people in Detroit too!!! ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/35 "2015-07-02T07:24:32Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I’m a Californian. I don’t hate you because you’re from the south. > > I hate you because you’re from the east. I can live with that and may even agree with you at times. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/36 "2015-07-02T07:29:56Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Now people have turned their attention to the rebel battle flag even for casual references for things like the General Lee on the Dukes of Hazzard. Casual reference ? The car is called the _General fucking Lee_ _!_ Its horn blasts Dixie, for cryin’ out loud ! > [@](#): > > The Southern states are where most of the black people live - by choice. It is their historical home and they are an integral part of the history of the region. Not really, though. I mean, of course today black people live there by choice - it’s where they have their roots, where their momma lives and so on. But the reason for that is slavery, and freed black men staying where they’d been enslaved because they didn’t have any financial means to move elsewhere, on account of slavework not paying much. They weren’t exactly welcomed elsewhere either, but still. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/37 "2015-07-02T07:36:35Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Casual reference ? The car is called the _General fucking Lee_ _!_ Its horn blasts Dixie, for cryin’ out loud ! Yes but with a bit of audio editing/muting and bit of CGI for the top of the car… all of a sudden you have a great show!!! I mean seriously, that show boils down to two factors: Rosco and Boss Hogg. They are sooooo funny. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/38 "2015-07-02T08:05:48Z")
Shaggy, you’re the guy who had a genuine black Mammy growing up, and still don’t see the problem with that. Your ability to detect racism is not very high. We have another thread on the Confederate flag. If you think you can bring up arguments that haven’t been brought up in that thread, go right ahead. But I’ll point out stuff about how the North was also racist has already been covered and found pretty much irrelevant. And Robert has a fucking point–your heritage means jack shit in determining whether the South _currently_ has a big racist problem. And while I used to be naive and think it wasn’t there, I’ve encounter enough racism to say that it sure as hell does. When my hometown had a fucking flag party for a white supremacist in Georgia, I realized we have problems. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/39 "2015-07-02T08:18:35Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Did you graduate from 7th grade? Of course they were. Nope. Wrong. Incorrect. Pure and utter bullshit. What they were, besides being Southern states, were states that remained in the Union and {gasp} did not commit treason. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2015, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024/40 "2015-07-02T08:22:26Z")
Bible Belt = ‘Nuff said. (Or is that Sho’ 'nuff said?) Sorry, religion and slavery both make me equally sick, so no trips to Texas, the unsightly Oklahoma and no trips to Qatar either. Tennessee was scary enough. 😃 I’d be ecstatic if Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina made their own country. Hey, their textbooks would make them REAL competitive. And as for Florida, we just sell it to Cuba for 1,000 bucks. That’s a profit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-all-the-ignorant-people-out-there-stop-making-the-south-out-to-be-some-unique-villain/724024.md?page=3)