# US: Southerner's attituds to Northerners. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 8, 2012, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089 "2012-10-08T14:00:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/41 "2012-10-09T00:06:31Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > In the north Ma’am is a most commonly a term for women of advanced age, which is why younger women find it grating. Yes, Ma’am, I understand that, but you never met my Mama. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/42 "2012-10-09T00:10:29Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > Then I learned that if I wanted to actually pass a college history class I had best understand that the Civil War was all about slavery; every person south of the Mason Dixon Line was wrong; and the South lost so get over it. :rolleyes: Winners write history. Not to hijack the thread, but I just listened to the Civil War lectures of David Blight from Yale (they’re free on iTunes U). They were great until he became positively unhinged over Southerners denying that slavery was the one and only cause of the war and how that dastardly Andrew Johnson wanted to reunite the nation instead of hanging every last filthy treasonous Confederate. Turns out he wrote a whole book on the subject, one I don’t care to read. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/43 "2012-10-09T01:13:46Z")
And the First Arkansas Cavalry, CSA, fought the First Arkansas Cavalry, USA in Fayetteville, Arkansas. And Maryland and Delaware were slave states. But I digress. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/44 "2012-10-09T03:05:41Z")
Well, here’s a popular company mining the “we’re not over it” vein- [http://dixieoutfitters.com/p/mission](http://dixieoutfitters.com/p/mission) ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/45 "2012-10-09T03:33:29Z")
> [@palacheck](#): > > There’s also the fact that the Texas of 1980 is considerably different than the Texas of 2012. For one thing the population has more than doubled. One thing that nobody’s pointed out is that in the early-mid 1980’s, there was a HUGE wave of migration of upper Midwest rust-belters and New Yorkers/New Jerseyites to Texas, because at the time, the big economic downturn hadn’t hit Texas yet. So combine huge numbers of (what seemed to us to be) rude, obnoxious Northerners showing up, combined with a economic crash that caught us later than the rest of the country, and there was indeed some animosity toward “Yankees” as I recall them being called. I recall a childhood acquaintance was from Rochester, NY and relative to all the other born & bred Texans, he and his family seemed like they were from another planet in terms of social graces and things like that. His parents were widely considered rude, blunt and crass, and in retrospect, I don’t really think they were, but they were just typical upstate New Yorkers, and everyone else was more steeped in politeness than they were. ---
**Author:** ![opossum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2bfe46/32.png) [@opossum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/opossum)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/46 "2012-10-09T04:21:26Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > My view is if you’re a dick Southerners will let you know. If you’re a dick and a Northerner then your Northern heritage will be blamed for your dickishness. I think this probably explains the OP’s teacher’s experience in Texas. That, or they were genuinely trying to be helpful, if he was complaining a lot. As in, if it bothers you so much that everything’s closed on Sunday and it’s hot and people like to chat before doing business and the food’s all different and there are people around that you disagree with politically and there are people who have guns and hunt and people ask you about church, then there are plenty of colleges up North where none of those things ever happen and you might really be happier attending one of those. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/47 "2012-10-09T05:09:05Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I’ve never seen a guy with a tshirt that says, “The North Won, So STFU.” I want one of _those_. With the wording, include a [35-star flag](http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:US_flag_35_stars.svg&page=1) (the number of stars on V-CSA Day) to underscore the point. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/48 "2012-10-09T05:50:01Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > . . . Then I learned that if I wanted to actually pass a college history class I had best understand that the Civil War was all about slavery . . . When it was actually about the free coining of silver… ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/49 "2012-10-09T09:10:10Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > This sums up the lingering North vs South thing in a nutshell. > > I grew up in the South but when I went up North for college I was surprised how pathetically little my classmates knew about the Civil War era. > > I shocked my classmates by noting most Southerners didn’t own slaves; that the secession vote failed in TN the first time it was brought up; that there was a Union Army recruiting station in Knoxville, TN; that the first publication dedicated to abolition of slavery was printed in the South… > > Then I learned that if I wanted to actually pass a college history class I had best understand that the Civil War was all about slavery; every person south of the Mason Dixon Line was wrong; and the South lost so get over it. :rolleyes: Winners write history. To be fair, I was trying to make a point. Which I did. And I do know a fair amount about the political situation surrounding the Civil War. I’m just not a military historian, whereas the people I was with could tell you every battle and who commanded both sides. I’m similarly ignorant of the nitty gritty of most wars including WWI and WWII; I’m more into social history than military history. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/50 "2012-10-09T09:43:40Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > I encountered a little casual antisemitism, but nothing for being a yankee. Someone on this board once wrote, “Many southerners think that they are prejudiced against Jews. Actually, it’s New York accents that they hate.” ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/51 "2012-10-09T10:16:29Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > When it was actually about the free coining of silver… Yeah, the notion that slavery was not at the heart of the civil war is one of the more sinister lies about history. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/52 "2012-10-09T10:51:42Z")
Northern girls say “You may.” Southern girls say “Y’all may.” Rudest people IMHO are French-Canadians. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/53 "2012-10-09T13:48:02Z")
Here in DC I’ve met a few northerners who were spoiling for a fight about the civil war. They apparently can’t be happy until every single person in the south apologizes to them personally for slavery. One guy I worked with wouldn’t even enter the south if he could avoid it. He seemed to really believe that shotgun wielding hicks would recognize him as being from Michigan, of all places, and drag him into the woods for a little Deliverance type action. He had set himself up to be insulted by any attitude from a southern person. My rural relatives will mention “Yankees” from time to time in a derogatory way but I think they really mean people from large cities. For example, “Atlanta is full of Yankees.” ---
**Author:** ![MegaBee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@MegaBee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MegaBee)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/54 "2012-10-09T15:26:59Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > All I know is that even way up here in the great white tundra of Northern New England, I’ve seen guys walking around rebel flag belt buckles, hats and tshirts proudly claiming that the “South will rise again!” > > I’ve never seen a guy with a tshirt that says, “The North Won, So STFU.” I’m interested in this product. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2012, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/55 "2012-10-09T18:00:16Z")
Friend’s father (southern born and raised, shine makin’, pig cookin’ good ol’ boy): Y’all know the difference 'tween a Yankee and a DAMN Yankee? Me (Pennsy born and raised, what’s a pig pickin’?) : Um, no. FF: A Yankee is a northerner who comes down for a visit. A DAMN Yankee stays! I don’t travel a great amount but I’ve run into friendly people everywhere. I attribute rudeness to the individual, not the region. BTW, I found people in NYC to be very friendly and helpful to obvious tourists such as myself. ---
**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:** [October 10, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/56 "2012-10-10T19:02:23Z")
The only thing I noticed was subtle: kids who moved to my school from elsewhere in the Upper South or from deeper South would tend to fit in well enough to get fairly high up the clique ladder, but people from the north, despite being perfectly nice people, would never break in. But I guess that could just be how ingrained the different cultures were. The one thing I noticed is that absolutely none of them were at all rude, which is why I have a hard time with people telling me that people up North just seem ruder than those down South. Then again, this is Arkansas, and the Northern half besides. It’s not anywhere near deep South. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/57 "2012-10-10T19:18:01Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > All I know is that even way up here in the great white tundra of Northern New England, I’ve seen guys walking around rebel flag belt buckles, hats and tshirts proudly claiming that the “South will rise again!” I haven’t seen this, but awhile back there was an awful lot of the slogan “The South’s Gonna Do It [del]Again[/del] Agin”, leading me to wonder what “It” was (secession? slavery?) and whether “It” was such a good idea. > [@bup](#): > > Still, to this border-state raised person, the most xenophobic people I’ve come across are in Boston. Never been to Maine, I see. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/58 "2012-10-11T20:35:17Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > I shocked my classmates by noting most Southerners didn’t own slaves; that the secession vote failed in TN the first time it was brought up; that there was a Union Army recruiting station in Knoxville, TN; that the first publication dedicated to abolition of slavery was printed in the South… > > Then I learned that if I wanted to actually pass a college history class I had best understand that the Civil War was all about slavery; every person south of the Mason Dixon Line was wrong; and the South lost so get over it. :rolleyes: Winners write history. Plenty of spin on both sides, there. Of course secession was over slavery, and the folks at the time weren’t shy about admitting it. Recent historical evidence derived from letters written from soldiers to their families shows that the preservation of slavery was central to grunts’ efforts in the war. And although abolitionists existed in the South at the time, they were overwhelmingly black :). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/59 "2012-10-11T20:42:08Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Of course secession was over slavery, and the folks at the time weren’t shy about admitting it. And about who was going to get Titan IIs stuck in their back yard for the Russians to shoot at. This thread was going so well…🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089/60 "2012-10-11T20:54:19Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > All I know is that even way up here in the great white tundra of Northern New England, I’ve seen guys walking around rebel flag belt buckles, hats and tshirts proudly claiming that the “South will rise again!” > > I’ve never seen a guy with a tshirt that says, “The North Won, So STFU.” “We Messed With Texas, And They Surrendered.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-southerners-attituds-to-northerners/637089.md?page=4)