# Why don't people like the south? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 18, 2017, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-people-like-the-south/802010 "2017-11-18T18:48:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2017, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-people-like-the-south/802010/181 "2017-11-24T03:05:52Z")
Take away the heat and mosquitoes, and many places in the South would be one of the finest places to live in. I also like the garrulous friendliness in some regions. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2017, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-people-like-the-south/802010/182 "2017-11-24T03:06:39Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > 0h you northerners don’t get out of the slavery and racist talk that easy. Ask the Irish, the Italians, and Jews. They were routinely disavowed and mistreated in the northern states. My Daddys people were Welsh indentured servants. He descended from a pair of brothers who were charged with paying off their disabled fathers debt in Wales. So its not all innocence in Yankee land. Or the Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and Latino immigrants in the West. But the ugliness of all that still doesn’t equal black slavery. Nothing does, in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2017, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-people-like-the-south/802010/183 "2017-11-24T03:07:52Z")
So much for that northern politness, they will shoot you down on the street in any number of Northern cities. Any large town or rural backwater has its own set of idiosycraties. Remember we are all one UNITED States of America. When we fought the Revolutionary War we were all rebellious. The civil war was 150 years ago. Plenty of time for old animosities to be done with. America has to get the racism issue, and violence against women and gun issues righted, then we can move foward. Social issues are at the top of my worry list. I feel we may be stymied until we clear up the issue in the White House. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2017, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-people-like-the-south/802010/184 "2017-11-24T03:08:42Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > How else do you pronounce Ms. besides mizz? Wikipedia gives 2 alternative, but I’ve only heard the first one in “the north” (west). that was a sort of literary joke, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2017, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-people-like-the-south/802010/185 "2017-11-24T03:08:45Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Or the Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and Latino immigrants in the West. But the ugliness of all that still doesn’t equal black slavery. Nothing does, in the US. It’s usually silly to compare suffering in this manner, but I’ll do it anyway - IMO the treatment of Native Americans rivals slavery in monstrosity. ---
**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:** [November 24, 2017, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-people-like-the-south/802010/186 "2017-11-24T03:42:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Southern cooking is something that the South legitimately should be proud of. It’s the best cuisine on the continent. But do you ever see a statue of a bowl of grits outside of a courthouse? Yeah, the stuff memorialized outside the courthouse is pretty shitty. Fortunately that’s not where most Southerners spend their time thinking about Southern culture. > [@](#): > > As for Southern politeness, if you scratch the surface, you’ll usually find that it’s just a euphemism for rudeness, racism, or both. When you’ve developed a culture where “bless your heart” is a vile attack, what you have is not “politeness”. That, I’m afraid, is a pretty superficial understanding of a cultural difference. Southerners tend toward an indirect communication style more similar to an Arabic or Japanese approach, contrasted to something like a Northern US/Israeli/French approach, which is more direct. It has nothing to do with which culture prefers treating people well, so any talk about politeness on either side is a bit of a canard. ---
**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 24, 2017, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-people-like-the-south/802010/187 "2017-11-24T03:57:35Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > New Jersey ratified the 13th amendment [January 23, 1866, after first rejecting it.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Ratification_by_the_states) > I am relieved to learn that it is not damning to be a slave state, but upon how many slaves were held. 🙂 > Delaware was the other Northern slave state I was thinking off, ratified the 13th in 1901. But what was your point? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2017, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-people-like-the-south/802010/188 "2017-11-24T04:22:51Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > It’s usually silly to compare suffering in this manner, but I’ll do it anyway - IMO the treatment of Native Americans rivals slavery in monstrosity. Natives and Europeans killed each other, the latter just had more technology. Aside from a few things like Nat Turner, the slaves always got the short stick. > [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Yeah, the stuff memorialized outside the courthouse is pretty shitty. Fortunately that’s not where most Southerners spend their time thinking about Southern culture. > > That, I’m afraid, is a pretty superficial understanding of a cultural difference. Southerners tend toward an indirect communication style more similar to an Arabic or Japanese approach, contrasted to something like a Northern US/Israeli/French approach, which is more direct. It has nothing to do with which culture prefers treating people well, so any talk about politeness on either side is a bit of a canard. The North and France have nothing on Israel as far as directness goes, though. Nobody in Mass would avoid euphemism if they could. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2017, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-people-like-the-south/802010/189 "2017-11-24T04:31:08Z")
Indigenous peoples were absolutely put upon by Europeans with muskets and horses an armor. And numbers. Natives had no chance when the tide turned in favor of the White man. But that is another century. We are talking about differences in the north and south of the same nation, now, in 2017. We can still fix this, it will take work. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2017, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-people-like-the-south/802010/190 "2017-11-24T13:20:47Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Natives and Europeans killed each other, the latter just had more technology. Aside from a few things like Nat Turner, the slaves always got the short stick. > The North and France have nothing on Israel as far as directness goes, though. Nobody in Mass would avoid euphemism if they could. It’s not about what Europeans did to Native Americans, it’s about what the nation of the USA did - forced relocation, massacres, ethnic cleansing, etc. But it’s a sidetrack, and not really part of the topic of the thread. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2017, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-people-like-the-south/802010/191 "2017-11-24T22:39:12Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Yes, older generation. Charlotte NC but they were from Richmond VA. The people my age didn’t talk that way but it was still bizarre. Like I was in a Faulkner novel or something. well, I never spent much time in that part of the south, so, can’t say much about the folks there. I’d encourage you to try again, maybe a different area. The South isn’t any more a monolithic region or subculture than the north or west. Lots of variation from area to area even within states, to say nothing of differences between each state. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-people-like-the-south/802010.md?page=9)